2025.22 Update - Official Release Notes (Now With Google Maps Navigation)

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

The voice has progressively gotten worse. There is street called Wooleytown by our house and it calls it Wooleytussin. Like WTF? Route 9 is rootu 9. This crap was working on my Garmin in 2002.

Eh. All platforms have streets they pronounce incorrectly. Technology is imperfect. Good thing we all know how to read. Right?

Sponsored

 

[azbill]

I had a typo in that post, meant to say "Rivian App", and was comparing it to the Google Maps app on phone, which doesn't incorporate charging stops.

Google Maps can do charging stops if you have an electric vehicle set up in your Google account. But to do that you have to have the account also set up in the vehicle, so it knows the battery and efficiency info for that particular vehicle. The vehicle becomes one of your "devices" in your account and is then linked to your phone. Similar to how your Amazon Alexa account has the Rivian as a "device".

 

[Erik+]

Eh. All platforms have streets they don't pronounce incorrectly. Technology is imperfect. Good thing we all know how to read. Right?

International travels with voice prompts for navigation in English are particularly hilarious, especially Scandinavia.

 

[VandalSibs]

Google Maps can do charging stops if you have an electric vehicle set up in your Google account. But to do that you have to have the account also set up in the vehicle, so it knows the battery and efficiency info for that particular vehicle. The vehicle becomes one of your "devices" in your account and is then linked to your phone. Similar to how your Amazon Alexa account has the Rivian as a "device".

Requires the vehicle to have that level of integration though, I'm guessing. Or one does what Rivian did and use their own app.

Good to know that info though, thanks!

 

[Feetdry]

Great update but it can't find it's way back to my house yet. Wants me to go to the neighbo'rs drive and then hop a fence to my garage.

 

[mkhuffman]

Getting the update now for my Gen 1 R1T. Thank you, thank you, thank you Rivian.

NEXT PARTNERSHIP: GET RID OF ALEXA. CHANGE OUT TO GEMINI.

Gemini would be pretty cool, although I'm not sure their orchestrator is up to third party actions yet. I would love to have arbitrary AI chat in the car (I use Copilot voice over bluetooth often and it's great for brainstorming/troubleshooting/light research). But I'd hate to lose reliable basics like "navigate to..." (not that those are all that reliable on Alexa these days).

The Alexa integration is the one piece of the software stack that seems the least-loved and most brittle right now, to be honest - hopefully it's not too set in stone contractually, because all signs point to a pretty strong Google Automotive partnership which would make Gemini feel like an eventual no-brainer.

 

[riv-evah]

Gemini would be pretty cool, although I'm not sure their orchestrator is up to third party actions yet. I would love to have arbitrary AI chat in the car (I use Copilot voice over bluetooth often and it's great for brainstorming/troubleshooting/light research). But I'd hate to lose reliable basics like "navigate to..." (not that those are all that reliable on Alexa these days).

The Alexa integration is the one piece of the software stack that seems the least-loved and most brittle right now, to be honest - hopefully it's not too set in stone contractually, because all signs point to a pretty strong Google Automotive partnership which would make Gemini feel like an eventual no-brainer.

Hi everyone,

First post from a two-week-long 2025 R1S Dual Max owner here, a week of which was back at the service center. Granted, I don't have much Rivian experience yet, but I've got 30+ years IT experience (including as a developer). I've also got with another vehicle with Android Automotive OS (AAOS) built-in...

I'd like to share some thoughts and hopefully add a bit of clarity to some of the nomenclature at play here.

Right now, my AAOS-based (Android Automotive, which is different from Android Auto!) 2023 Volvo XC90 has Google Assistant. That means if I press the voice button or if I say "Hey Google" (if I had that on), I can communicate with the familiar Google voice, ask for navigation, and have it do simple things like answer a question or play something in Spotify.

Gemini is supposedly coming to Volvos, replacing Assistant – that's the real AI leap. It'll be more conversational, understand context better, and be more functional. For instance, you could tell it to draft an email about X and send it to a person using Gmail. (a bit scary to be doing that while driving IMO!) There's the full Gemini, like what you can use at https://gemini.google.com/, but when people are talking about Gemini in cars, I feel like it's typically referring more to advanced voice conversation and deeper integration with Google services.

Now, for Rivian: The latest update brings Google Maps imagery and data. Rivian is using Google's Automotive SDK for the maps, meaning they get the robust routing, real-time traffic, and points-of-interest data we expect from Google Maps, but within Rivian's own UI . This should be a big improvement over their previous mapping solution, but I haven't used it enough to chime in on the success of that promise yet.

However, as you observed @kylealden, this doesn't bring Google Assistant, Google's voice for reading turn by turn directions, nor does it give us the Google keyboard for voice typing like in cars with full AAOS. We're still relying on the Alexa voice input and output for general voice commands and vehicle controls. This is where the distinction is crucial: Google Maps data integration (which is what Rivian got) is separate from Google's voice assistant or full Android Automotive OS.

Kyle, you hit the nail on the head regarding Alexa being the "least-loved and most brittle." My experience aligns with yours, while it handles basic car functions well, its conversational capabilities and general knowledge are often frustratingly limited compared to Google's offerings.

I suppose It remains to be seen if Rivian will eventually embrace a Google voice solution like Gemini, or if a hinted at in-house AI assistant (See https://www.edmunds.com/car-news/rivian-ai-voice-assistant-confirmed.html and https://www.autoblog.com/news/rivians-ai-voice-assistant-coming-in-2025) will mature to provide a similar level of natural interaction and broad functionality.

For now, the Google Maps upgrade should be a great step for navigation, but the voice assistant landscape in Rivian remains distinct from a full Google-powered experience.

That's my 2 cents... I hope this helps.

 

[SteveInBend]

If Rivian adds Gemini to the infotainment system, they'd better allow owners to opt out. I disabled Gemini on wherever I found it and I don't want it in my vehicle, either.

 

[LR4toR1S]

Fantastic! Hoping this comes to Gen 1 vehicles.

Does this mean if my brake regeneration turns off due to high state of charge when towing, that maps won't keep getting shut off to tell me to use the brake assist wheel....every 30 seconds.? Towing and the onboard map system is a mess.

 

[Sundar]

Great update but it can't find it's way back to my house yet. Wants me to go to the neighbo'rs drive and then hop a fence to my garage.

it’s an adventure vehicle. Drive through the fence!

 

[Marchin_MTB]

Installed yesterday. No problems to report.

 

[DuncIT]

(un)Happy to report that the bluetooth profile is still broken for the Moto Razr Ultra 25, on the `25 R1T.... I still have to manually give the phone permissions, and sync, each time I get in the car - otherwise the phone will not be hooked up to bluetooth. This lovely 'feature' arrived with the last update.

Yes, I've deleted and re-paired the phone a dozen times. Yes, it's the car as the phone has not received an update in the period from the last update till now.

Dunc

 

[DavidM]

Suboptimal is the more appropriate word. Now if the navigation directed one into a lake à la The Office, it’s reasonable to say the experience was horrible.

No. It’s horrible. That was the correct word. I will just continue to use my phone for navigation which is safer than trying to follow a Rivian map that zooms so far in that you can no longer see where you need to be going.

 

[rex55]

How do you enable battery percentage on arrival? I updated to the latest version and it still shows miles. Gen 2 Max here

 

[Darkneo]

How do you enable battery percentage on arrival? I updated to the latest version and it still shows miles. Gen 2 Max here

Settings > Vehicle > Units
Enable to show both

Sponsored