Official Rivian Email: A Look Ahead to 2023. Rivian Membership cancelled and unbundled into subscription services

[av8or]

I was definitely under the impression that the subscription was free for the first year of ownership. I hope the email thats coming on the 16th is more clear.

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[mkg3]

... my 13 year old Highlander navigation works without connectivity. should be able to work on GPS and installed maps alone. and this makes the lack of AA and Carplay that much more glaring. why should i pay for LTE on my R1 when i have it on my phone?...

The only thing was that you had to update the map periodically.

I used to keep Thomas Bros book map in the car before... I guess I'm showing my age

I did not buy the nav option on my Outback because of CarPlay. I just use the built in nav in my Tesla (I don't pay for subscription). Now has Apple Music, and always synced with my calendar and Siri so I have no need for CarPlay in Tesla.

For RAN, based on my understanding, all I was interested is the charging on the roadtrip. It sounded like (originally) that one can sign up by the month - don't know if that's the case still... As for the nav, I don't use it all that much and I can rely on my iPhone if needed.

There was initial talk about RAN being $50/mo so I'd written it off already. The news today has no impact from my perspective. If anything, perhaps its better so one can pick and chose, if desired.

 

[Taco Corp]

I'd definitely pay a one time fee or maybe annually to have CarPlay then the rest of it wouldn't matter. Outside of that I don't see any value in the LTE service providing me something that I can't do with a phone or dedicated media device that I leave in the car.

 

[DJG]

The email absolutely does not say that. It just says services will be unbundled.

At most they could do what EA does and charge a nominal membership to get better pricing, but other than that it will be the same as every other charging network. It's pretty simple.

 

[DJG]

I was definitely under the impression that the subscription was free for the first year of ownership. I hope the email thats coming on the 16th is more clear.

How would it be more clear than this one?? Those services will no longer be covered by Rivian starting on the dates provided. There is zero ambiguity in that statement. The old deal is scrapped, this is the new deal, that's it.

 

[nc10]

You will need the LTE service to get live traffic, satellite view on maps, wifi hotspot and music streaming (video if/when that is added). That's the same as it is in any other car. I paid several hundred dollars per year for these things with Audi.

Seems different to me. Most recent vehicles let you use Carplay and AA to do all this for no additional cost. When asked in the past, Rivian was telling us they would do something better (not often said, but implied.... so they justify a charge for it). To date, the Rivian's "live traffic, satellite view on maps, wifi hotspot and music streaming" isn't up to competitor's standards, let alone state of the art. I think Rivian's "claim" that beta testing is complete and its success justifies charging for membership features isn't correct.

 

[mkg3]

How would it be more clear than this one?? Those services will no longer be covered by Rivian starting on the dates provided. There is zero ambiguity in that statement. The old deal is scrapped, this is the new deal, that's it.

In order to get new subscribers, I'll bet that there is a free "trial period" - say 30~90 days.

That part is not covered in the letter.

 

[Marchin_MTB]

They could start by asking non-Rivians to pay for their charging ... It annoys me a bit that Rivian is giving away hundreds of dollars of free charging to non-Rivian owners, and giving away hundreds of dollars of free charging to Rivian owners who happen to live near a RAN station. But LE owners like me get nothing.

So I would suggest first start charging non-Rivians for use of the RAN, second, limit all Rivian owners to a certain number of free charges or a certain dollar value of free charges, that way we all end up with the same benefit regardless of when we get our vehicle or where we live.

Is RAN even available to non-Rivian vehicles?

 

[OverZealous]

The thing that really bothers me is all this uncertainty when you potentially have a vehicle coming.

I don't care about RAN being free—I'm something like 1000 miles from the closest one. I never planned on paying for access to RAN, but if they were available as-needed on routes, I'd probably defer to them.

I do care a whole lot about what current functionality I depend on that will get stripped from my current truck—and possible R1S later this year—as soon as LTE is no longer included.

They should not have sent out this letter until they had a detailed explanation of what functionality is tied to each paid service, even without final pricing.

That giant 15" screen is going to look pretty stupid if you can't even use the built-in maps, and remote access is included with every Tesla even without paying for premium connectivity.

We'll likely cancel our other order if we have to pay hundreds per year just to retain basic functionality.

 

[zefram47]

They could start by asking non-Rivians to pay for their charging ... It annoys me a bit that Rivian is giving away hundreds of dollars of free charging to non-Rivian owners, and giving away hundreds of dollars of free charging to Rivian owners who happen to live near a RAN station. But LE owners like me get nothing.

So I would suggest first start charging non-Rivians for use of the RAN, second, limit all Rivian owners to a certain number of free charges or a certain dollar value of free charges, that way we all end up with the same benefit regardless of when we get our vehicle or where we live.

Non-Rivians can't charge at all on RAN at the moment. They can only use the Level 2 Waypoint network right now.

 

[eemri]

I'm surprised they didn't just wait 11 more days - until January 16th - to send this out so they could include details.

 

[zefram47]

Yeah, shit happens and life isn't fair. ~$150 isn't worth the energy needed to complain about it. $150 is an afterthought for an individual customer, but is meaningful when multiplied by tens of thousands of vehicles for Rivian. It's a waste of money to give it away for free.

Glad to hear you're independently wealthy. But who TF do you think you are!? Apparently you're the only one who gets to bitch.

 

[EVTrukHog]

Ya I really think they need to add more apps, games, streaming videos that kind of stuff before they start charging for the LTE.

+1 on this!

They say that they will explore other new services to offer for a price in the future, but no details yet. These would be new things that don't exist today, and no one is forced or obligated to buy them. These could be the things they've alluded to in the past, such as new drive modes, enhanced autonomous capabilities (far down the line if/when they are developed), and potentially things like the Enhanced Dual Motor software unlock after the fact, etc.

I agree with this statement and choose to interpret the Rivian message as there will be value-added features/apps in the future that we can choose to subscribe to... don't think there are any current features or apps with enough wide-spread value to warrant a subscription.

I'm staying optimistic that this is precursor to launch of new apps - albeit if we have to pay for them!

 

[EVTrukHog]

I'm surprised they didn't just wait 11 more days - until January 16th - to send this out so they could include details.

Typical Rivian strategy of softening the beaches with early ambiguous announcements - then modifying the details based on the reaction of the customer base.

 

[DJG]

Seems different to me. Most recent vehicles let you use Carplay and AA to do all this for no additional cost. When asked in the past, Rivian was telling us they would do something better (not often said, but implied.... so they justify a charge for it). To date, the Rivian's "live traffic, satellite view on maps, wifi hotspot and music streaming" isn't up to competitor's standards, let alone state of the art. I think Rivian's "claim" that beta testing is complete and its success justifies charging for membership features isn't correct.

They didn't say that everyone would unanimously agree it was better, they said they believed their own approach was a better one and they'll stick to it until forced to do otherwise. It's up for the market to decide for themselves. If you don't think it's worth paying for LTE to stream music or get live traffic, etc. you are within your rights to not pay for it. Simple. If that makes the vehicle no longer worth owning. Sell it. Simple. The LTE connectivity is just going to mostly be a cost passthrough of what it costs from AT&T, it's not a profit center for Rivian and they probably care little what people choose. Perhaps they make a dollar/month out of it, but it's really just about offering the option so that owners can get the most out of the vehicle.

In other vehicles with CP/AA, they still offer connectivity and plenty of people pay for it, because it offers something they feel is worth the price. I paid something like $400/year for connectivity in my Audi, for example. I liked the live traffic for the virtual cockpit, among other things. Others didn't I'm sure.

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