AWAAK! (Apple Watch as a key)

[MountainBikeDude]

I would argue the Garmin is more "on brand" than the apple watch, but RJ sports the ultra, so us Garminions are steerage class ?

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[NineElectrics]

read what i put up above. apple car key should be part of a broader standard.

That’s great, but that doesn’t mean that all solutions will have an equally good user experience. Apple will have their own implementation integrated with Wallet and Messages. Rivian could try to reimplement it through their app.

 

[teddyang]

That’s great, but that doesn’t mean that all solutions will have an equally good user experience. Apple will have their own implementation integrated with Wallet and Messages. Rivian could try to reimplement it through their app.

maybe just wait to see what they do before you jump to criticize? we the public have no clue how it's going to be implemented. the "curated experience" so far only was in regards to apple car play which is a completely different thing.

 

[Ralph]

That’s great, but that doesn’t mean that all solutions will have an equally good user experience. Apple will have their own implementation integrated with Wallet and Messages. Rivian could try to reimplement it through their app.

As Apple is a charter member of the Car Connectivity Consortium, It *might* not be out of the realm of possibility that Apple doesn't, see the development of a standard as a negative thing? At least at this point.

If that is the case, I would argue that is a positive thing for all consumers.

 

[NineElectrics]

As Apple is a charter member of the Car Connectivity Consortium, It *might* not be out of the realm of possibility that Apple doesn't, see the development of a standard as a negative thing? At least at this point.

If that is the case, I would argue that is a positive thing for all consumers.

Agreed, the standard is not a negative overall. It's going to be fantastic for introp. You want your car to work with all phones and your phone to work with all cars.

However, a standard doesn't necessarily equal a great user experience. Look at media players for Linux--the media formats are published standards but the user experience is terrible, because good software still takes a lot of work.

Rivian has a choice: they could put their "phone as keys" into Apple Wallet on the iPhone and use Apple's pre-built key experience, or they could force users to use the Rivian app. for keys and manage it all themselves. An open standard will tempt Rivian to do the latter. Even if the lowest level inteop. is a standard, other integrations (like with "Where Did I Park", Messages, Wallet, email, etc) are platform specific and won't be. And there's a lot of polish that needs to go into those parts, too, I think. Better Rivian just uses what everyone else will use, IMHO.

 

[rhumbliner]

They should do Garmin instead. Garmin watches are like Apple Watches but good.

I think you’re making an emotional argument. While Apple has over 22% of the worldwide smart watch market, Garmin has 8% and is falling (Smart Watch Market). It’d be much smarter for Rivian to focus on the larger customer base.

 

[Hed007]

I think you’re making an emotional argument. While Apple has over 22% of the worldwide smart watch market, Garmin has 8% and is falling (Smart Watch Market). It’d be much smarter for Rivian to focus on the larger customer base.

I would venture to guess that the % of Apple Watches is even higher among Rivian owners compared to other smart watches. IMO the Apple Watch has more functionality than the Garmin, especially for us out of shape soccer dads!

 

[Hankenstein]

I think you’re making an emotional argument. While Apple has over 22% of the worldwide smart watch market, Garmin has 8% and is falling (Smart Watch Market). It’d be much smarter for Rivian to focus on the larger customer base.

Isn't the global android market share something like 70%? Wouldn't it be smarter for Rivian to work on a solution that fits both?

 

[usofrob]

I think supporting this standard is the way to go, and let Garmin/Apple/etc support it on their devices. I would expect the required hardware to implement this is pretty simple and any current smart watch could support it. The concern is just how the enable the features. The protocol may not be backwards compatible, which would mean new HW. It's weird to see seemingly such a large effort for something that should be pretty easy. I guess I feel like it'd be really easy to give a watch access via NFC to work directly at the vehicle, but more difficult to just let any device with BT securely open the vehicle upon approach. I wonder if they're going to have some features to allow the vehicle to have multiple antennas to track direction and distance of the device. That might take a lot more time. I'm not a member, so I can't download the specs and see. But they do list out a few use cases on their website. Hopefully they get this working soonly. But, when I was working at DENSO (part of this consortium), I remember them working on phone as a key like 8 years ago. So, it's sad if they haven't finished yet.

 

[Singletracker]

I love my Apple Watch Ultra. Battery life is a complete non-issue. With cellular service, it is almost as capable as my iPhone. I routinely leave my house without the phone, something I would not have done previously. Therefore, being able to use my watch as a key would be frickin’ HUGE!!!

 

[Donald Stanfield]

I think you’re making an emotional argument. While Apple has over 22% of the worldwide smart watch market, Garmin has 8% and is falling (Smart Watch Market). It’d be much smarter for Rivian to focus on the larger customer base.

That isn't an emotional argument, it's a factual one. The Garmin watch is better than the Apple Watch. It's more useful and capable as a fitness tool, which is the only real useful purpose of a smart watch. I have had smart watches for years now, and there really isn't another function worth having one besides fitness tracking and insights and on this front Garmin is still the only real game in town.

Every other function is better done by the cellphone that I also have in my pocket, as does almost everyone else.

 

[rhumbliner]

That isn't an emotional argument, it's a factual one. The Garmin watch is better than the Apple Watch. It's more useful and capable as a fitness tool, which is the only real useful purpose of a smart watch.

Those statements are way too subjective to be even considered close to factual.

I would love it if some standard arose that would solve this problem but until that happens it simply makes sense for Rivian to appeal to the largest audience possible.

 

[j23HAP]

That isn't an emotional argument, it's a factual one. The Garmin watch is better than the Apple Watch. It's more useful and capable as a fitness tool, which is the only real useful purpose of a smart watch. I have had smart watches for years now, and there really isn't another function worth having one besides fitness tracking and insights and on this front Garmin is still the only real game in town.

Every other function is better done by the cellphone that I also have in my pocket, as does almost everyone else.

I have had Apple Watches since the original and Garmin watches for as long or longer (mostly forerunners and approach golf watches). While Garmin is superior for serious GPS and fitness, to say the only real useful purpose of a smart watch is as a fitness tool, is simply not true for me at least. I find that the most useful purpose of a smartwatch is the ability to leave my phone in my pocket or to even home & behind completely. Cellular being key. For that reason alone, Apple Watch is incredibly more useful. Notifications, Apple Pay, text reading & responses, music, fitness, etc.. all without needing a phone. Adding the ability to be a key to my R1S... that would be fantastic!

 

[Riv_Ian]

AWAAK will be very welcome.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

I have had Apple Watches since the original and Garmin watches for as long or longer (mostly forerunners and approach golf watches). While Garmin is superior for serious GPS and fitness, to say the only real useful purpose of a smart watch is as a fitness tool, is simply not true for me at least. I find that the most useful purpose of a smartwatch is the ability to leave my phone in my pocket or to even home & behind completely. Cellular being key. For that reason alone, Apple Watch is incredibly more useful. Notifications, Apple Pay, text reading & responses, music, fitness, etc.. all without needing a phone. Adding the ability to be a key to my R1S... that would be fantastic!

You’re right, all that stuff is technically a feature of that watch. Two things though, the Garmin can do some of that too and most of that simply isn’t done well enough by a watch to replace my phone. So to me it doesn’t matter if the watch includes a few features that my cellphone does better. I want a watch that does something different/ better than my phone already does.

Why add technology that’s a poor approximation of a cellphone when you already have a cell? My phone or Apple Watch doesn’t track fitness worth a shit, Garmin does

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