Exclusive: Rivian spinoff Mind Robotics hires former Ford EV chief Doug Field

Rivian spinoff Mind Robotics has hired Doug Field, a former Ford EV chief and veteran of Tesla and Apple’s cancelled Project Titan, as president of the industrial AI and robotics venture. Field’s move, announced on stage at Disrupt 2026, is intended to help scale early operations one year after Mind Robotics was founded. RJ Scaringe will remain involved, but Field will handle day-to-day product, engineering, and operations. Mind Robotics has raised more than $1 billion backed by Accel, Andreessen Horowitz, Eclipse, Kleiner Perkins, and venture arms of Volkswagen and Salesforce. The company plans “full stack” industrial manufacturing robots running on foundation models. Rivian is its first customer, providing a “live, high-volume” factory environment for training and deployment.