Story: Introducing Rivian Assistant & Rivian Unified Intelligence. Unlock hands-free utility with Connect+

[mkhuffman]

oh perfect - thanks - I should RTMF . Will give this a try later today. wonder soon wife finds me missing at home because I am sitting in the car talking endlessly to a smart female - that's trouble

Yes, there is a setting so it keeps listening. I may turn it off.

Last night I had it do something and then it mistook a conversation with my wife as a conversation with it. I told it to "stop listening" and it kept listening anyway.

If you hit the rotary button on the left side of the steering wheel it will stop listening, which is a good way to get it to stop when you are really done.

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[captainjp]

I am also extremely disappointed this is a Connect+ function. >$100k truck with useless existing voice control, and their solution is a paid one? I've never owned a vehicle where voice control was an extra. I've driven cars a few years old with amazing voice functionality.

You can argue in favor with the $/day, but this is a principle issue. You can argue with the cost/day for anything and make it seem insignificant. My satisfaction rating just plummeted.

Switch it off and use Alexa. Problem solved

 

[Dark-Fx]

Somehow RA and I got onto the subject of sexuality in ancient Rome, and it was surprisingly knowledgeable...

 

[godfodder0901]

Somehow RA and I got onto the subject of sexuality in ancient Rome, and it was surprisingly knowledgeable...

et tu, Caligula?

 

[freshpow]

Playing around with the VA for about 10 min and here are some findings:

Voice control will not fold the mirrors, it can't control the windows, can't toggle the hazard lights, can't activate windshield wipers, can't do anything with the headlights or turn signals, can't save dash cam footage, can't restore seat position, can't change charge limit or amperage, can't toggle hotspot, can't turn on camp mode, and you can't lock/unlock the doors.
In addition, the voice assistant can't give you consumption data, can't open the center console, can't fold the seats, can't lock storage bin, and gives completely inaccurate information about nearest chargers (looks like it's using the major city I'm in as a reference instead of my current GPS location).

Mind you, it does understand what I want which is actually pretty surprising. But incredibly frustrating that I can't use voice commands as a safety feature so as to not interact with the touchscreen and divert attention from the road. What gives?

You must be real fun at parties. It's pretty amazing all of the things it CAN do, and it will only get better over time.

 

[jrmbadger]

I am also extremely disappointed this is a Connect+ function. >$100k truck with useless existing voice control, and their solution is a paid one? I've never owned a vehicle where voice control was an extra. I've driven cars a few years old with amazing voice functionality.

You can argue in favor with the $/day, but this is a principle issue. You can argue with the cost/day for anything and make it seem insignificant. My satisfaction rating just plummeted.

This isn't just voice control. There is a Large Language Model running in the back-end. (Gemini I think) that Rivian has to pay for - thus the paywall behind Connect+ because Rivian wants to recoup some of those costs.

 

[Supratachophobia]

You must be real fun at parties. It's pretty amazing all of the things it CAN do, and it will only get better over time.

I am, actually.

Once again, the bare minimum software features have been known for almost a decade because Tesla did the heavy lifting on what consumers wanted. And @VSG put it simply that voice control parity should be analogous to what's available on the touch screen. So I'm not buying the excuse that:

1. We didn't know what features to develop. Oh, and btw, if we were lacking resources, maybe scrap Halloween mode?

2. A bunch of the voice features are *understood* but refuse to be executed. So that's just a waste since obviously they did an amazing job at the comprehension part of the LLM.

I'm just continually amazed that people are critical of a desire to make technology actually work for the consumer. Like, actually make our lives better by less distraction, and better feedback/answers/interaction.

 

[Mos Eisley]

I am, actually.

Once again, the bare minimum software features have been known for almost a decade because Tesla did the heavy lifting on what consumers wanted. And @VSG put it simply that voice control parity should be analogous to what's available on the touch screen. So I'm not buying the excuse that:

1. We didn't know what features to develop. Oh, and btw, if we were lacking resources, maybe scrap Halloween mode?

2. A bunch of the voice features are *understood* but refuse to be executed. So that's just a waste since obviously they did an amazing job at the comprehension part of the LLM.

I'm just continually amazed that people are critical of a desire to make technology actually work for the consumer. Like, actually make our lives better by less distraction, and better feedback/answers/interaction.

Aside from those things restricted by safety, what makes you think that every possible electro-mechanical function is hardwired to voice controls that didn't exist when the car was built?

 

[Donald Stanfield]

So far, I've only asked it to do one thing, but it can't make playlists. I'm not sure what I'd use this for. Maybe responding to text messages, but I can change modes and whatever myself.

 

[VSG]

Aside from those things restricted by safety, what makes you think that every possible electro-mechanical function is hardwired to voice controls that didn't exist when the car was built?

Fair question, but it has an obvious answer.

If you can perform an action via the UI or the app, that action is already software controlled and the Assistant already has the ability to affect it. That's pretty much everything in the car. But the current Assistant doesn't even come close to that - see the examples above, which are all things that CAN be controlled by software but aren't implemented.

It's not so clear with physical buttons, but Rivian is notorious for not having many physical buttons. Rivians were designed from the ground up to be software-defined vehicles. We have already seen several times how Rivian can re-define the meaning and operation of some of the physical buttons through OTA updates - for example intermittent wiper settings were added and some of the driver's assist controls were moved around. We already know the seat positions can be changed by software, windows can be operated, air vents moved, cruise control enabled, etc. Even braking and accelerating can be controlled through the software. There may be one or two things you can't operate from software (the horn maybe?) but the vast majority of things CAN be operated by software, and thus by voice control.

 

[VSG]

It's pretty amazing all of the things it CAN do, and it will only get better over time

This is true.
And it's also true that the shortcomings of Rivian's Alexa integration were supposed to be addressed by the new Rivian Assistant, which is why Rivian stopped even the small amount of work they were doing on the Alexa integration.

So we got a lot of neat new stuff, but that didn't fix the old problems. It's even more obvious now that the real problem for the past several years wasn't Alexa, it was Rivian's integration with Alexa and now the problem is still with the integration, this time with the Assistant.

 

[Mos Eisley]

Fair question, but it has an obvious answer.

If you can perform an action via the UI or the app, that action is already software controlled and the Assistant already has the ability to affect it.

But we don't know that to be true, do we? Who's to say that the assistant isn't running in a different part of the wiring harness? Sending comm's sure, but not necessarily wired to triggering, say, a motor.

I'm always amazed at how, two years later, they can send a software update that improves something like... window defrost... so dunno. Based of trying voice commands in a few other recent cars though, I'm sure all their hands are tied by what federal vehicle regs allow.

 

[Dark-Fx]

So far, I've only asked it to do one thing, but it can't make playlists. I'm not sure what I'd use this for. Maybe responding to text messages, but I can change modes and whatever myself.

It can pull information from a lot of places. I could see this being helpful on road trips to find somewhere to eat, just as an example.

 

[RandomMcRandomFace]

Today I asked it when the local MLB team was playing and the whether there was any info about possible rain delays given the weather (I asked all at once); it found the game time, apparently searched the web and reported that the start time was under evaluation, but the teams were doing everything they could to play since the visiting team isn’t playing in town again. I thought that was a pretty good, practical use and it seemed to nail it.

 

[DD4ST]

I expect RA to gain vehicle functionality over time. My guess this was rolled out early without all the envisioned bells and whistles in the interest of sweetening the pot for Connect+ and selling more R2’s.

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