Doug Field, the engineer who led Tesla's Model 3 program and later ran Ford's EV and software operations, has been named president of Mind Robotics, the industrial robotics company founded by Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe. Field will oversee day-to-day product, engineering, and operations, while Scaringe stays involved with the company. The appointment was announced onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt and confirmed by Mind Robotics.
Mind Robotics has raised more than $1 billion from investors including Accel, Andreessen Horowitz, Eclipse, Kleiner Perkins, and the venture arms of Volkswagen and Salesforce. The startup has not publicly shown a product, but says it is building foundation models and purpose-built robot hardware for manufacturing. Its key advantage, all three sources agree, is access to Rivian's high-volume factory in Normal, Illinois, where robots can be trained and deployed with Rivian as the first customer.
The sources differ on one point: Electrek says Mind Robotics has not said whether its hardware is humanoid, and The Verge notes the company hasn't confirmed a design. TechCrunch, however, reports that Scaringe says Mind Robotics will not attempt to mimic human biomechanics, unlike Tesla's Optimus program. The Verge also corrects an earlier description, emphasizing that Mind Robotics is a partner of Rivian rather than a spinoff.
Field's record is viewed differently across the coverage. Electrek calls the hire smart but notes his post-Tesla career has been mixed, including Ford's large EV losses and the canceled Apple car project. TechCrunch and The Verge focus more on his experience scaling the Model 3 and leading major hardware programs. All agree the move signals Mind Robotics is preparing to move from fundraising into serious engineering and deployment work.