With many Rivian owners approaching the end of their Connect+ initial trial period, many have been asking if it’s worth the monthly $14.99 fee to keep it. Let’s take a look at what features Connect+ currently (as of the writing of this article) offers and what potential future offerings may be included with your Connect+ subscription.
What’s Connect+
Connect+ is Rivian’s premium subscription service, enabling cellular connectivity on Rivian vehicles. With Connect+, you unlock the ability to use native media streaming apps such as Spotify, Tidal, and Apple Music. You also get the ability to view satellite maps in your Navigation, get an unlimited hotspot in your vehicle that supports up to 8 devices via AT&T’s 4G LTE network, Amazon Alexa-connected voice assistant commands outside of your vehicle (i.e. “Alexa, please turn on the lights in my Living Room), and Priority software updates (up to a week early versus users without Connect+).
But all of this was free…
You are not wrong, all of these features were free but from the very beginning, Rivian said that they would eventually introduce a premium subscription service that would allow owners to pay for some of these features as it was not viable for Rivian to continue to pay AT&T for every single vehicle’s LTE connection.
Now, you may be saying to yourself “But Jose, no one told me about this when I purchased my vehicle” or “The service center told me this was going to be free forever”. I can understand the frustration but unfortunately, them not mentioning to you may not have been top of mind during delivery (but it sure was in the contract you signed because it was in mine from May 2022) and the service center folks don’t always know everything and made a bad assumption. Is that on Rivian? Yes, they need to train the employees to be better about telling owners correct information or acknowledging if they do not know the answer.
So now I have to pay for this stuff?
No one is forcing you to pay for anything, some of these features can be circumvented by connecting your smartphone via a mobile hotspot to your Rivian’s Wi-Fi and this unlocks probably the biggest feature people are missing which would be the ability to stream from the native media apps in the Rivian.
Is this convenient? Sure isn’t, but the fact that Rivian even offers this as an option really speaks on the team trying to give owners multiple options and not just “force” them to pay for a subscription.
And what about software updates?
Rivian has stated that going forward, Connect+ owners will be prioritized for software updates. Beginning with 2024.39, if you have Connect+ you “should” have gotten the software update within the first few days of it rolling out. Owners without Connect+ will typically have to wait a full week after Connect+ owners get the update to see it rollout to them as long as they have their vehicle connected via Wi-Fi.
Note: I say “should” because this feature is still a bit buggy and some Connect+ owners still haven’t received the update as of the writing of this article. It is a safe bet that the kinks will be worked out in coming releases.
What’s coming to Connect+ next?
Let me be clear, I have no insight as to what is coming in Rivian’s future software roadmap (as much as I would love to *insert hint for Wassym here*), but we do know for a fact that Google Cast and the native YouTube apps are coming which will be part of Connect+. Rivian has so many other fun features it would introduce to Connect+ that would make it worthwhile for those who do not currently see it that way.
The possibilities for what Rivian can do with Connect+ are endless (or at least as far as the hardware will let them go).
Why are you telling me all this?
I fully expect someone to be like “Jose, stop trying to sell me on Connect+, I don’t want to waste money on this”. My job isn’t to try to “sell you” on anything but to educate and inform you on what Rivian.
Do I think Connect+ is worth it? For sure! At $14.99 per month, having native streaming apps and unlimited hotspot is better than having to drain my iPhone battery using my phone’s hotspot. Plus, we all know the wireless charger in the Rivian is awful and wouldn’t be able to keep up, but that’s for another time.