Car News Daily: Mercedes AI Driver, Cheaper Rivians, and an Electric Boxster Caught Charging

Good morning car fans — a busy 24 hours for automotive news. Here's the daily digest: AI drivers are coming to production cars, Rivian is going on an affordability spree, and someone spotted an electric Porsche Boxster plugging into a Tesla Supercharger. Let's dig in.

Mercedes-Benz + Wayve: AI Driver Heads to Production

The headline story of the day: Mercedes-Benz has signed a production agreement with Wayve to integrate its AI Driver technology into future production cars — targeted for rollout within roughly two years. Mercedes isn't naming models, markets, or exact timing, but a production agreement is a much bigger step than the pilot programs we've seen from other OEMs. If this lands, it could be one of the first true end-to-end AI driver-assistance systems in a volume production car.

Rivian R3 and R4: A Push Into the Mainstream

Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe confirmed that the upcoming R3 crossover will be "materially" cheaper than the R2, with a follow-up R4 model going even lower in price. No numbers yet, but it's the clearest signal so far that Rivian is serious about scaling beyond its premium R1S/R1T/R2 lineup. A cheaper Rivian changes the competitive math for the entire mid-market EV segment.

Electric Porsche Boxster Spotted at a Tesla Supercharger

Adding to the speculation: an all-electric Porsche Boxster prototype was spotted plugged into a Tesla Supercharger in California. The sighting fuels timing and charging-strategy questions as Porsche preps the electric version of its classic roadster.

The Rest of the Board

• Bentley built three one-off Continentals themed around the Sun, Earth, and Moon for a Polish collector — part of the Nicolaus Copernicus Collection (Motor1).
• BMW's boss publicly questioned Chinese car pricing in Europe, calling it "incomprehensible" and "dangerous" (Motor1).
• Subaru will unveil secret 2027 WRX and BRZ special editions at Boxerfest on September 27 — teasers hint at big wings, but no STI badge (Motor1).

Takeaway

The theme of the day is AI going mainstream and prices coming down. Mercedes bringing Wayve's AI Driver to production cars in ~2 years and Rivian pushing the R3/R4 into lower price brackets are the two moves that will actually reshape the industry. The Boxster spy sighting and Subaru's Boxerfest specials are the fun stuff in between.

What are you most excited about this week? Drop a comment.

Sources: Motor1, Electrek — all links in text.