Mind Robotics Hires Doug Field as President, Scaringe Says at Disrupt

Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe used his Disrupt 2026 appearance in San Francisco on October 13 to reveal that Doug Field, the engineer who led the Tesla Model 3 programme and later ran Ford’s EV business, is now president of Mind Robotics. Mind is the industrial robotics startup Scaringe spun out of Rivian in 2025, and it has raised more than $1 billion without yet showing a product. The hire marks a shift for the company from raising money to putting robots on factory floors.

What was announced at Disrupt 2026?

Scaringe shared the news from the Disrupt Stage on the opening day of the conference, which ran from October 13 to 15 at Moscone West. According to TechCrunch, he said he had been looking for someone of Field’s calibre to help run the company and originally called Field to ask him to recommend a candidate, before Field himself took the role.

Scaringe told the audience the two found “really deep alignment” in how they work and build teams. Field will oversee day-to-day product, engineering and operations. Scaringe remains involved as founder and chair while continuing to lead Rivian.

In a statement reported by Electrek and Automotive World, Scaringe described Field as a leader with a record of turning new technology into successful products. Field said combining AI and robotics is “one of the most important—and difficult—engineering challenges of our time.”

For a wider look at the opening day’s programme, see our Disrupt 2026 Day 1 recap.

Who is Doug Field?

Field is one of the best-known hardware engineering leaders in the car industry. His career includes:

• Tesla: senior vice president of engineering, where he guided the Model 3 through its launch and production ramp.
• Apple: leader of the company’s car effort, known as Project Titan, which Apple cancelled in 2024 after he had left.
• Ford: nearly five years as chief EV, digital and design officer. His team developed Ford’s Universal EV Platform, which is meant to underpin a roughly $30,000 midsize pickup due in 2027.
• Segway: he was the company’s first employee.

Field left Ford in April 2026, when Ford folded his EV group into its manufacturing division. Electrek noted that his record is mixed: Apple’s car never shipped, and Ford’s Model e unit lost more than $5 billion in 2024.

What does Mind Robotics build?

Mind Robotics is building a full technology stack for industrial manufacturing: foundation models paired with purpose-built robot hardware that can handle dexterous factory tasks at scale. The company has not shown a robot publicly or released production targets.

Scaringe has said Mind will not try to copy all of human biomechanics. That sets it apart from humanoid efforts such as Tesla’s Optimus, which has missed several production and reveal targets. Automotive World reported that Scaringe sees humanoids as unnecessarily complex for most factory jobs.

Rivian is Mind’s first customer. Its plant in Normal, Illinois, where Rivian is ramping up production of the R2, gives the startup what TechCrunch called a live, high-volume manufacturing environment for training models and deploying robots.

How much has Mind Robotics raised?

Mind has raised more than $1 billion in less than a year:

Round	Amount	Lead investors	Timing
Seed	$115 million	Eclipse	Late 2025
Series A	$500 million	Accel and Andreessen Horowitz	March 2026
Later round	$400 million	Kleiner Perkins	May 2026

Electrek, citing Reuters, reported that the May round valued Mind at about $3.4 billion. The venture arms of Volkswagen and Salesforce are also investors. Regulatory filings show Rivian owned 32.1% of Mind as of June 2026.

Why it matters

Robotics for manufacturing has become one of the hottest areas for venture money, but few companies have proven their robots can run reliably through full production shifts. Hiring an executive who has scaled complex hardware at Tesla and Ford signals that Mind wants to move from research to real deployments.

The deal also highlights a question for Rivian shareholders. Rivian supplies the factory, the training data and the first contract, but owns only about a third of Mind, so much of any upside may go to outside investors. Scaringe runs a similar structure with Also, a micromobility spinoff led day to day by former Specialized executive Chris Yu.

What happens next?

Mind has not said when it will reveal its first robot or how many units it plans to deploy at Rivian’s Normal plant. With Field now in charge of engineering and operations, the next milestones to watch are a public product reveal and evidence that the robots are doing useful work on Rivian’s R2 lines.