Doug Field Becomes President of Mind Robotics

What changed

On 13 October 2026, at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco, Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe said Doug Field is now president of Mind Robotics. Kirsten Korosec and Sean O'Kane reported the hire. Field has built electric vehicles at Ford and Tesla, led Apple's canceled Project Titan car program, and was employee number one at Segway. He left Ford in April 2026 after five years, in a broader leadership reshuffle.

Scaringe stays involved. Field takes the day to day running of product, engineering, and operations. Mind Robotics is building a full stack for industrial manufacturing: purpose built robots that run on foundation models, aimed at automating factory tasks at scale. Scaringe said the company will not try to copy the full biomechanics of a human, which sets it apart from the humanoid programs at Tesla and elsewhere.

The company has taken in more than $1 billion from Accel, Andreessen Horowitz, Eclipse, Kleiner Perkins, and the venture arms of Volkswagen and Salesforce. TechCrunch, citing regulatory filings, said Rivian held 32.1 percent of Mind Robotics as of June 2026. A later line in the same report says Rivian owned about a third of Mind Robotics, and about a third of Scaringe's separate micromobility company Also, as of 30 June 2026. Rivian is Mind Robotics' first customer. The startup is using Rivian's own plant as a live, high volume factory for training and deployment.

Field's statement, as published by TechCrunch, said: "Integrating AI and robotics is one of the most important, and difficult, engineering challenges of our time. Mind has assembled an exceptional team and has a unique advantage: the ability to deploy and learn inside a real, high volume factory from day one." Scaringe said he had called Field to ask whom he should hire, and the conversation turned into the job. The cover portrait is Field, credited to Ford via TechCrunch.

Why it matters

A billion dollar industrial robotics bet now has an operator who has already taken a vehicle through production hell, rather than only a founder who is also running Rivian. The product choice matters as much as the name. Mind Robotics is not selling a general humanoid. It is selling factory robots trained where the first customer's parts already move. That is a narrower problem than a home robot, and it is the problem car plants actually pay for.

Buyers should still treat the stack as early. Disrupt was a hiring announcement, not a throughput number, a safety certification, or a ship date for a named robot model.

Who is affected

Factory engineers at Rivian are the first people who will see whether the models survive a real line. Volkswagen's venture arm is on the cap table, so other auto groups will read this as a competitor and as a possible supplier path. Humanoid vendors are not the same product, but they are bidding for the same plant budgets.

The machines in the photographs are not Mind Robotics hardware. They are industrial arms already doing repetitive factory work, which is the category Field just took over.

Photo: Grenzebach Group / Wikimedia Commons. A friction stir welding arm for aerospace, ship, and auto work. Not a Mind Robotics machine.

Photo: Henrysz / Wikimedia Commons. A robot arm at the C.F. Martin guitar factory. Not a Mind Robotics machine.

What to do next

If you buy factory automation, ask Mind Robotics for the task list Rivian has actually handed it, and for who owns safety when the robot and the car line share a cell. Do not budget against a humanoid quote until you know you need legs. If you are an investor in a humanoid company, this is a well funded non humanoid alternative with a captive factory, not a demo reel.

What to watch

The first public description of a robot model, a task, and a rate inside Rivian's plant. Also whether Rivian's ownership stays near a third after any further round, and whether Field hires a manufacturing team from Ford or Tesla. TechCrunch noted that its story was updated to clarify that Rivian backs a company Scaringe created, rather than a division inside Rivian.

Sources

• Primary — TechCrunch, Rivian's startup Mind Robotics hires former Ford EV chief Doug Field (13 October 2026). Establishes the presidency, the investors, the 32.1 percent June 2026 stake, the non humanoid product choice, Rivian as first customer and training factory, and Field's statement.