Rivian posted a short Ghostbusters teaser on X this afternoon, and it’s pretty clear this year’s Halloween update is getting a licensed theme that should land on both R1 and R2 on October 9th according to the clip.
The clip is only 12 seconds long and doesn’t give much away beyond a Ghostbusters logo on the side of a white Rivian, which fits with Rivian’s caption, “There’s something strange coming to your neighborhood. Stay tuned.”
That matches what Rivian did in 2024, when it licensed Knight Rider and Back to the Future for its first Car Costumes. Last year it went with its own Spooky Swamp theme. In September Wassym said “Halloween will be epic this year… and early,” which I covered when the early Halloween update was first hinted at, and a Ghostbusters costume definitely clears the epic bar.
The 2024 costumes came with themed driver displays and sound effects, and they only ran while the vehicle was in Park. I’d expect the same setup here, and I’m really hoping Rivian got the rights to the theme song too.
This is also the first Halloween for R2 owners. R2 doesn’t have an RGB lightbar, so the flashier exterior effects will probably stay with Gen 2 R1.
There also appears to be a clue/riddle at the end of the Release Notes for R2 2026.36 linked to the Rivian Stories post today:
Thank you for joining our fifth year of fear,
The haunting is ready to shift into gear,
Find the new app with a ghost and a slash,
And turn your drive into a Halloween bash,
Trick-or-treat mode answers once and for all,
The spookiest question: “Who ya gonna call?”
Will you be doing a video on the R1 soon?
If only Hi-C would reintroduce the Ecto Cooler for me to sip on while driving