Rivian Pilots Digital Key Program for Loaner Vehicles at Select Service Centers

If you’ve ever taken your Rivian in for service and had to leave it for a few days, chances are you’ve been handed a key card for a loaner or worse, an Enterprise rental. The key card works fine, but once you’re used to phone-as-key and preconditioning your cabin from the couch, going back to tapping a card feels like a downgrade.

That’s changing. Rivian is now piloting a digital key program for loaner vehicles at select service centers across the U.S., and friend of the site Ian got to experience it firsthand when he recently brought his R1 in for service.

The way it works is simple. Once you sign your loaner agreement, Rivian sends you an email inviting you to be added as a driver on the loaner vehicle. Accept the invite and the loaner pops up in your Rivian mobile app just like your own vehicle would. You get full phone key access, remote lock and unlock, preconditioning, all of it. You still get a key card as a backup, but the digital key becomes your primary way to interact with the loaner. When you return the vehicle, it gets removed from your app automatically.

It’s a small but really welcome change that makes the whole loaner experience feel a lot closer to driving your own Rivian instead of borrowing someone else’s.

The pilot is currently running at select locations and hopefully it rolls out to all U.S. and Canadian service centers later this year. And if we’re putting wishes out there, cloud profiles that sync your seat position, mirrors, and driver preferences to any Rivian you step into would make this experience even better. But that’s a topic for another day.