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Jose Castillo Founder and Editor
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Jose Castillo is the founder and editor of RivianTrackr, an independent publication he started to cover Rivian from an owner's point of view. He has followed the company since early in its consumer history and has owned and leased several Rivians over the years, including multiple R1T and R1S vehicles. Today he drives an R1S and an R2 in Florida and uses Universal Hands-Free for his daily driving.

Most of his coverage comes from firsthand access rather than press releases. He was at the R2 First Drive in Park City for hands-on time with the production R2 and RivianOS 2.0, and he reported from SXSW when Rivian revealed the full R2 lineup. He has spoken directly with Rivian leaders like Wassym Bensaid and James Philbin about where the company is taking its software and autonomy work.

Before RivianTrackr, Jose worked at Apple as a software developer, which is part of why he follows Rivian's software and autonomy side as closely as he does. He has also helped more than 400 people order their own Rivians through the site. The whole thing stays independent, written by an owner for other owners.

Rivian Waze Integration

Rivian Waze Alerts: Useful, but Only During Navigation

Rivian's 2026.31 update brought Google Maps and Waze police and speed camera reports into native navigation, but they only appear during active guidance. It's a useful first step that raises a bigger question about how Rivian should roll out features like this.

Rivian Autonomy+ Co-Steer

Rivian Has Nothing to Share on Autonomy Right Now

I asked Rivian for an update on Universal Hands-Free 2.0 this week and got a one line answer. With Q3 ending September 30, the real question is whether 2.0 is still its own release or already part of Point to Point.