SBSoovadeep Bakshi

Hi, I'm Soovadeep.

I teach machines to move on their own.

I'm a Sr. Staff Engineer at Rivian, where I build the scene understanding, motion planning, and control behind hands-free driving. My work ships on every Rivian vehicle platform. Before that I did a PhD at UT Austin on planning for fleets of autonomous mobile robots.

See my work Read the papers
Portrait of Soovadeep Bakshi, smiling, in a black-and-white photo
Building hands-free driving at Rivian
miles of road where hands-free driving works
3.5M+
peer-reviewed papers
20+
papers reviewed for IEEE & ASME
100+

What I work on

All projects →
  1. 01

    Hands-free driving at Rivian

    Scene understanding, motion planning, and trajectory optimization for Universal Hands-Free and Automated Lane Change, and now post-training and guardrails for Rivian's large driving model.

    View project →
    • planning
    • trajectory opt.
    • ML guardrails
  2. 02

    Planning for robot fleets

    Fast, priority-aware scheduling and energy-optimal trajectories for teams of autonomous mobile robots in factories and warehouses.

    View projects →
    • scheduling
    • AMR fleets
    • energy
  3. 03

    Control, learning, and beyond

    Data-driven predictive control, data attribution for controllers, roll-to-roll manufacturing, and biomedical systems.

    Browse by field →
    • DeePC
    • data attribution
    • R2R

The path so far

See the full CV →

Building

  1. 2020 — now
    RivianSr. Staff Engineer, Motion Planning (ML/AI), Autonomy
  2. 2019
    Lyft Level 5Motion Controls Intern
  3. 2017, 2018
    RivianPowertrain and Self-Driving Controls Intern

Learning

  1. 2021 — 2024
    Georgia TechMS, Computer Science (online, alongside work; my brother and I did it together, for fun)
  2. 2015 — 2020
    UT AustinPhD/MS, Mechanical Engineering (Dynamic Systems and Control)
  3. 2011 — 2015
    IIT BombayB.Tech., Mechanical Engineering

Recent papers

A few recent ones. The thread runs from fleet planning through data-driven control to making controllers explainable, and lately to auditing language models.

Browse all by field →
  1. Same Person, Different Advice: Auditing LLM Financial Advice with Repeated Risk-Tolerance ResponsesarXiv · 2026
  2. Similar Models, Broken Odds: Where Luce's Axiom Fails in Chatbot ArenaarXiv · 2026
  3. Stochastic Trajectory Influence Functions for LQRIEEE CDC · 2026
  4. Auction-Based Task Allocation with Energy-Conscientious Trajectory Optimization for AMR FleetsIEEE SMC · 2026
  5. Influence Functions for Data Attribution in System Identification and LQR ControlASME Letters DSC · 2026

Off the clock

Books, football, and eating our way through new places.

I met my wife, Apurba, through a book review, so reading gets top billing. We travel for history and food, and I'll happily lose an evening to a board game or a chess stream.

Browse my bookshelf More about me
Football
Arsenal, every week. Come on you Gunners.
Books
Rated out of 10, usually 10 to 15. Only one has ever earned a 16.
Travel
Spain, France, Switzerland, Italy, Thailand, Singapore, Mexico, India.
Games
Wingspan, Terraforming Mars, Codenames, Coup. Chess peak: 1200.