Doug Field Joins Mind Robotics as President

Doug Field has been named president of Mind Robotics, the robotics venture spun out from Rivian last year, effective immediately. The appointment, announced on October 13, 2026, puts the former Tesla and Ford executive in charge of all aspects of the business, including product, engineering, and operations, where he will work closely with Mind founder RJ Scaringe.

Field’s leadership brings Tesla, Apple, and Ford EV expertise

Field’s background is a cross-industry tour of major technology and automotive projects. He was Senior Vice President of Engineering at Tesla, serving as chief vehicle engineer and leading engineering through the key Model 3 launch. He left Tesla in 2018 to run Apple's car effort, known as Project Titan, inside its Special Projects Group, where he also oversaw Mac hardware engineering. Field joined Ford in 2021 as its chief EV, digital and design officer, a role he held for nearly five years before departing in April. Ford later folded his EV group into its manufacturing division.

Mind Robotics advances with major funding and Rivian partnership

Mind Robotics, founded by RJ Scaringe in 2025, has secured massive financial backing rapidly. The company has raised over $1 billion in under a year, achieving a valuation of $3.4 billion. Its funding rounds include a $115 million seed round led by Eclipse, a $500 million Series A co-led by Accel and Andreessen Horowitz, and a $400 million round led by Kleiner Perkins. Other investors include Volkswagen and Salesforce.

Rivian remains deeply connected as both a major shareholder and the launch customer. As of June 30, 2026, Rivian owns about a third of Mind Robotics, which operates as a stand-alone company. Rivian will be the first customer for Mind's robots, providing a live, high-volume manufacturing environment for model training and deployment. This real-world factory setting is seen as a unique advantage for accelerating development.

RJ Scaringe called Field "a remarkable leader with a track record of delivering new technologies." He expressed excitement about building the company with him, noting Field's ability to foster great teams that tackle complex ideas and deliver expectation-resetting products.

Mind Robotics builds full-stack platform for industrial automation

The company's goal is to automate industrial and manufacturing tasks at scale. To achieve this, Mind Robotics is building a full-stack platform comprising AI foundation models, purpose-built robotics hardware, and deployment infrastructure. The aim is to create universally capable robots with the dexterity and physical reasoning needed for complex manufacturing work. The team, headquartered in Palo Alto, California, is growing rapidly with expertise in AI, robotics, and industrial manufacturing.

Rivian provides real-world factory environment for robotics development

The partnership with Rivian offers a critical testing ground. Rivian's own manufacturing operations, which delivered 19,248 vehicles in the third quarter, provide a high-volume, complex environment for training and deploying Mind's robotic systems. This accelerates real-world validation and iteration. Doug Field highlighted this setup, stating that integrating AI and robotics is "one of the most important-and difficult-engineering challenges of our time." He cited Mind's unique advantage of deploying and learning inside a real factory from day one and expressed his thrill at joining Scaringe to build technology that could redefine American manufacturing. Mind Robotics currently lists 32 open positions as it expands.