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RJ Scaringe Defends Rivian’s Decision to Skip CarPlay
Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe joined The Verge’s Decoder podcast this week, and once again, the question came up that so many owners keep asking: where’s Apple CarPlay?
RJ didn’t dodge it. He told guest host Joanna Stern that Rivian has no plans to support CarPlay or the new CarPlay Ultra, explaining that the company wants to deliver a “seamless digital experience” built entirely around Rivian’s own software. In his words, Rivian doesn’t want customers “jumping between two systems.” Instead, they’re focusing on native app support, things like Apple Music (when it works), Google Maps, Spotify, and even YouTube, integrated directly into the UI.
He added that Rivian is investing heavily in AI features over the next 18 months, including a voice-to-text messaging system that will live natively within the vehicle. “We’re really convicted on this,” he said.
As someone who actually loves CarPlay, I’ll be honest, I wish Rivian would at least offer it as an option. I understand the logic behind keeping everything consistent and beautifully designed (and Rivian’s interface is one of the best in any EV), but there’s something uniquely familiar and functional about CarPlay that just works. For many drivers, it’s not about looks, it’s about comfort, continuity, and the ecosystem we’ve built around our iPhones.
RJ even acknowledged that skipping CarPlay might cost Rivian some buyers. “We accept that,” he said. And while I respect that confidence, it’s a tough pill to swallow for those of us who’ve grown used to the simplicity and reliability of CarPlay.
I don’t have an Apple phone, so I am never going to have CarPlay. I, for one, am happy that they are not dedicating resources to developing, maintaining and continually QA’ing CarPlay.
Same
Then substitute our CarPlay for android auto, another option that will not be supported.
I was really disappointed about not having CarPlay initially… Hasn’t been as bad as I thought it would be. I feel like if they deliver on all the things they promised, and to this point have still not delivered, then I wouldn’t mind. But going two years without some of the basic features that are in CarPlay leave RJ‘s argument a little bit empty. Kinda a put up or shut up moment.
> resources to developing, maintaining and continually QA’ing CarPlay
That’s not how CarPlay or Android Auto work. The display is a simply screen mirroring and the phone has the software. It’s not at all on Rivian to develop, maintain, or continually QA anything.
Thats good and all I understand his reasoning, but if that is the route they are taking they should be dedicating resources to trying to achieve feature parity(thinking about text messaging etc).
I don’t care if they support CarPlay or AndroidAuto, but I do care that they are using the excuse of time and resources to not provide an equivalent set of features that people expect. People do expect to have integration with their music system of choice (not just the ones Rivian has chosen to partner with), they expect to be able to get access to common text to speech and speech to text messaging and they generally expect that their is a platform for adding additional functionality (i.e. apps) to the car platform that the vendor chose not to support.
THAT is what is important at this stage..choose whatever car OS you want, but your choice shouldn’t limit the use cases that users want.
Would I like to have CarPlay in my G1 Rivian R1S? Absolutely. Do I have any confidence that Rivian would be able to implement it competently? Based on their current Apple Music implementation, none at all.
I pay a yearly fee for access to AppleMusic and Driver+. AppleMusic hasn’t worked in two months (and Rivian has no timeline to fix it) and Driver+ updates appear to be effectively dead since I have a G1. If this is how Rivian is building customer loyalty they need a reality check. I’d seriously consider an R2 but not with the way they are headed.
And their focus on “investing heavily in AI features over the next 18 months” is insanely stupid. AI has many uses and I use it on a daily basis but I don’t need AI in my car (text-to-speech seemed to work pretty well before we had all the current AI craze). I don’t use the current AI assistant and I don’t see any reason to use the new one. I don’t need Rivian and Google having access to every thing I say. Rivian has some great products but they are heading down the wrong path.
That’s the beauty of CarPlay and Android Auto and why they’ve become so ubiquitous — there’s basically nothing for the manufacturer to implement. All of the software is on device and the vehicle display is just screen mirroring software from the phone. Nobody is asking for CarPlay Ultra.
With almost 80k on my R1T I have very mixed feelings about Rivian. I like my truck, but it’s not what I was promised when I originally ordered it and then waited two years to get it. I’ve finally decided it’s just an old car and decided to make it my own. So I’ve got a Comma to workaround the Driver + promises that are never going to be addressed for us gen 1 owners. I’ve installed an EV Play to get CarPlay, and couldn’t be happier. 90% of my life is in my phone, so that’s much more important that a “seemless Rivian experiance”. My music plays when the truck doesn’t have cell service (I live in a rural area, so that’s still a thing). Even with all the problems of Siri, I can tell it to navigate to my next appointment and it looks up the address and Maps displays the route. It reads my messages and I can respond while I’m driving. All things that Rivian can’t, or can’t reliably do now, and probably will never do for us Gen 1 owners. Oh, and since the truck is just being the screen, every time I get a new phone or iOS update, the hardware and software is updated.