Poll: Should Rivian offer Apple CarPlay?

[AtlantaX]

Happy to hear your opinion about whether Rivian should have CarPlay. Mostly I just wanted to poll the membership about appetite for CarPlay. I feel like it is overwhelmingly desired by owners, but I may very well be wrong. Hence my question to you all.

For me, simple text integration just like my Tesla had, is all I need. I don’t need the added complexity of CarPlay and laying a completely redundant operating system over Rivian’s.

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[jpal]

First and most importantly, THANK YOU for engaging in a discussion about this. I think this is becoming a lost art and our society is worse off because of that. I appreciate someone helping me understand their point of view because that’s the only way to develop solutions to problems which approach satisfactory for all. We may never agree, and that’s okay. Rivian has the final say, however it plays out.

I tend to be both realistic and optimistic. There are things I realistically expect tech to do for us, like remind us about things the system manages: service is due soon, credit card on file is expiring soon, you’ll be dropping your car off for service tomorrow, etc. The optimist in me wants to go beyond that: service is due soon do you want me to submit a ticket for you?, credit card on file is expiring soon so update to prevent service interruptions and here is a QR code you can use to take you to the Rivian page to do that, you’ll be dropping your car off for service tomorrow, don’t forget to remove personal items from your vehicle which you’ll need while it’s in service and do you want me to set the service center as your destination in navigation?

If I get the things which I think are realistic then I’m happy and if I get the things which are the stretch goals of an optimist then I am delighted. With that in mind, to me the current Rivian infotainment is lacking in some areas that the overwhelming majority of consumers realistically consider bare necessities: hands-free texting and USB audio. Then there are a bunch of things that I’d place in the optimistic / stretch goal category because Rivian started building app functionality into the infotainment: Waze, Google Maps, Apple Maps, Gaia GPS, OnX, Apple Music, Teams audio, ABRP, PlugShare, etc. In these threads, there are typically people writing that they don’t care about screen projection but they just want (choose from one of the above). This seems silly to me because when you add up all of those wants the conclusion is that overall, people want screen projection. I say that because there will never be an army of external coders developing for a Rivian-specific platform when the installed base is a pittance compared to either of the two main smartphone operating systems.

I fully expect Rivian to deliver hands-free texting eventually, and I’m not sure about USB audio. Based on my own needs, the functionality of the Rivian infotainment is just good enough when everything is working properly and the UI is better than average. So I’m not jumping up and down demanding screen projection, but I know that Rivian will not be able to keep up with the stretch goal apps, and increasingly demanding consumers, unless something changes so they don‘t have to do in-house development for all the things people want today, and will want in the future.

You raise a good point about the furor BMW created, but there is a crucial difference between what they did and what Rivian can do. BMW was giving it away for free and THEN changed course to start charging for it. BMW customers saw no value in something which was already being given away for free so they didn’t want to pay the new cost. Rivian, on the other hand, could truthfully say that they are charging for screen projection because it will incur development costs they neither anticipated nor included, and if people want it added then they need to pay for development and maintenance of the code.

Of course people counter this with the idea that people won’t pay for it because other manufacturers give it away for free. However, paying more to get more is not a foreign concept to consumers when there is value associated with the additional cost. Look at the cost difference between regular tickets to a performance and VIP tickets to a performance: the basics (performance content) are the same yet some people are willing to pay more for amenities which makes the performance better for them. Back in the automotive arena, there was a decent stretch of time where premium brands were charging for Bluetooth phone audio support when less expensive brands were including it for free. Many buyers of premium cars saw value in it so they paid for it.

In the spirit of continuing to offer solutions rather than just arguing:
I don’t use Android, but if Rivian charged us a fee to install a subset of Android apps (Waze, Google Maps, Apple Maps, Gaia GPS, OnX, Apple Music, Teams audio, ABRP, PlugShare, etc.) which are appropriate for use while driving with a simplified interface, vetted as compatible with the underlying Rivian OS, and run natively for a seamless experience then that would work for me! I suspect that this would be more complex than supporting Android Auto and CarPlay and charging for the privilege but if Rivian is serious about wanting to retain control over the UX then this is a way to provide apps consumers want without needing internal development for each and every app.

I think the conversation about screen projection has evolved, yet I still haven’t heard an objection to it which cannot be addressed except for one: Rivian doesn’t want to. I think the best argument against that is that they aren’t listening to what their current and potential customers want, which can impact sales. So a lot of people are doing what they can to make sure that decision-makers at Rivian know there is demand and it is NOT going away. It’s the only lever to pull, so we shouldn’t be surprised that people are continuing to pull it.

Sorry for the novel-length post.

Adding CarPlay/AA at a fee a little down the road after adding a few more of the basic things (like text integration, some more music options, etc.) to the main UI first would kind of be a win for most everybody. It keeps most of the data with Rivian except for the most hardcore supporters, and Rivian gets compensated accordingly for those who do use CarPlay/AA (win for Rivian), it gets CarPlay/AA for those who care enough about it to pay for it (as you mention, there are probably plenty of people willing to pay for it), and it still gets a seamless UI system with pretty much all the most wanted things for those who want a good UI without CarPlay (win for people like me). I can get behind a future like that. Maybe around when the R2 is rolling out? Timing and optics would be really good to drive sales on what needs to be a volume vehicle, especially since that vehicle isn't as differentiated from its competitors as the R1 line is in a lot of ways.

There would still be people unhappy about it, but you can't please everyone.

 

[R1TS]

I still don’t understand why people say no to this.

If you don’t want to use it, then you just don’t have to use it. It does nothing to the existing UX if you don’t need it. Why the hate?

Pretty sure everyone has at least one app on their phone, tablet, or computer that is seldom or rarely used. It would be the same thing with CP on Rivian. Over time, you just ignore it and it does no harm or interference to how you use your device.

 

[HaveBlue]

I don't use a fruit phone

 

[jdkent]

More Music apps and better phone/Text integration is all we need. Your data is too valuable for Rivian to just give us Carplay or Andriod auto access. It's all about data.

It's not just music apps (Sirius, Apple Music, etc.), and text integration.... Better maps - Rivian maps are not great, Calendar integration (i.e. Car Play, and Likely Android Auto, sync directions from calendar as it knows where your going), WhatsApp, WeChat integration, as well as Zoom and Webex integration.... The list goes on.... No one should be forced to use CarPlay or Android Auto, but they should be an option, as they are far, far superior than what we have now, and those that don't think so, just don't use those capabilities, which is fine, just stick with the Rivian generic.....

 

[atebit]

…looks like the i’s have it

 

[Hereforthesnacks]

I have had a long career in tech, software, startups, and development. There is a common falacy that "we can do it better and cheaper."

<Narrator voice>
It took three times as long and double the cost.

There is also the "not invented here" syndrome which definitely infects Tesla and their narcissistic five year old in charge.

Listen to this person. They know what they’re talking about.

 

[Wokka1827]

The next generation of Apple CarPlay would be great in the Rivian in my opinion, but I do like that Rivian are sticking to their UI and can make it what they like in the long run - ultimately as long as Navigation can be made good (better), text message integration and phone calls that’s truly all I used to use it for anyway. I like that the music apps are integrated into the car vs phone as the amount of times CarPlay would mess up for me (most likely user error) but it would mean a trip without music because I can’t be bothered to stop and reset everything.

 

[kwhman]

If they won't offer CarPlay, they should at least make Waze available.

 

[Alice]

Happy to hear your opinion about whether Rivian should have CarPlay. Mostly I just wanted to poll the membership about appetite for CarPlay. I feel like it is overwhelmingly desired by owners, but I may very well be wrong. Hence my question to you all.

Bought my R1S 6 months ago and was told Rivian was developing its own version of CarPlay, and that it would be available within the year. It can't happen fast enough for me. Badly in need of having texts read to me and ability to voice-respond. *at least*

 

[ActionableDave]

Happy to hear your opinion about whether Rivian should have CarPlay. Mostly I just wanted to poll the membership about appetite for CarPlay. I feel like it is overwhelmingly desired by owners, but I may very well be wrong. Hence my question to you all.

Aaron, it would be great if this could get republished with the Android Auto option, or, less optimal but better, if it could be offered as the same response option. I realize this isn't being fielded as a scientific poll, but I think it is important to include both options to minimize confusion.

 

[Polar]

Aaron, it would be great if this could get republished with the Android Auto option, or, less optimal but better, if it could be offered as the same response option. I realize this isn't being fielded as a scientific poll, but I think it is important to include both options to minimize confusion.

Considering the riv system is built on Android Automotive… 100%

My C40 with Android Automotive based infotainment introduced CarPlay/Android Auto support months after release, so it is possible.

 

[bd5400]

It blows my mind that this isn't available on Rivians. All of my vehicles allow me to play my music on a USB stick like my own personal jukbox. Hell, my first Audi (back in 2011) did the same thing with dual SD card slots and it even allowed me to upload all of those music files to the vehicle's hard drive, which ironically was called Audi's "Jukebox"

I can't imagine why USB playback isn't available on Rivian. Makes no sense whatsoever.

Likely because the market has overwhelmingly moved away from user-managed MP3 libraries toward streaming music and Rivian doesn’t have any cars from 2011, or older, that had legacy support they could just pull forward into new models.

 

[ActionableDave]

Bought my R1S 6 months ago and was told Rivian was developing its own version of CarPlay, and that it would be available within the year. It can't happen fast enough for me. Badly in need of having texts read to me and ability to voice-respond. *at least*

I had not heard that before, where did you hear about the homegrown screen sharing? Or was it an offering of native apps on the Rivian platform?

 

[Dark-Fx]

Considering the riv system is built on Android Automotive… 100%

My C40 with Android Automotive based infotainment introduced CarPlay/Android Auto support months after release, so it is possible.

It runs Android Automotive, but we don't know how much of the stack they are re-implementing. It's probably much deeper than other companies that are using it, to get around some of the standard UX limitations and decisions that Google has drawn a line in the sand over.

Polestar has all kinds of apps available that follow Google's mandated experience here. If you're in one of the non-mapping apps, the screen essentially blanks out and locks you out of that app entirely while the vehicle is in motion. This makes sense from google's perspective of being unable to control what the app is doing at the time, but makes for a pretty horrible user experience, especially for my passenger that might be the one getting locked out under the guise of it being too distracting for the driver.

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