RJ should really reconsider. The apple music integration is a complete clusterF that doesn't work 90% of the time in my gen 2 r1s. Not mention lack of text support of ANY kind and over buggyness of the whole UI
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Rivian CEO Doubles Down on Decision to Not Offer Apple CarPlay
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I travel a lot and always rent a car with CarPlay.
My spouse has a Tesla. The mapping on the Tesla is indeed nice ... but it SUCKS that Tesla does not offer CarPlay.
Any car company that does not offer CarPlay SUCKS.
My spouse has a Tesla. The mapping on the Tesla is indeed nice ... but it SUCKS that Tesla does not offer CarPlay.
Any car company that does not offer CarPlay SUCKS.
You are dead wrong.
My spouse has a Tesla, and I have a BMW that has CarPlay AND the BMW software. The Tesla map is nice, but there is a hell of a lot more to integration with my iPhone and our Tesla than hands free calling, that kind of integration is so 20 years ago (oh look, we have Bluetooth integration between your car and your phone, you can make/receive calls in the car, isn't that fabulous ... give me a break)
I don't want to hear some crap about so called vertical integration. I want the kind of integration we get with CarPlay and no car manufacturer and I mean NOBODY can duplicate that ... Apple won't allow it, Apple will never allow that kind of integration.
High-end car companies like BMW, Mercedes, etc., have had 20 years to so-called "vertically integrate" and they have NEVER come close to duplicating anything like CarPlay.
Here is just one item you did not consider with your support of car companies and their crap software design. I can start a map route on my iPhone while in my office, have the route continue on CarPlay in the car, then continue the route when I park the car and might have to walk multiple blocks navigating streets & alleys ... like in NYC. Not to mention iMessage, Music, WhatsApp, Microsoft Teams and other integrations with CarPlay.
There is no way in hell a car company can or ever will duplicate that type of integration ... NEVER ... so stop deluding yourself that the car companies are going to suddenly become innovative software companies.
It's not just about maps though. It's about Maps, Waze, Messages, WhatsApp, Music, Podcasts, Calendar, HomeKit, Siri, and other Apple apps that are automatically integrated into CarPlay.
I've had CarPlay in every vehicle since 2017. I can't imagine going back. Using an iPhone attached to the dashboard feels so 2010.
I turned away a car Enterprise tried to give me because all it had was BT. (older Jeep Renegade) - they eventually got me a 2026 Jeep Wrangler with CarPlay.
but then the Wrangler sucked lol
Not that I would ever have purchased a Rivian anyway, but the lack of Apple CarPlay makes it an absolutely never, no way proposition.
I have two older performance convertibles and even in the heat of summer, I find myself choosing to drive my Subaru instead--because it has Apple CarPlay and the older, fancier cars do not. And for those who do not know, Subaru does not make convertibles, so this means that I'm choosing not to run with the top down because Apple CarPlay is that important to my enjoyment of the automotive experience. I'm sure I'm not the only one.
I have two older performance convertibles and even in the heat of summer, I find myself choosing to drive my Subaru instead--because it has Apple CarPlay and the older, fancier cars do not. And for those who do not know, Subaru does not make convertibles, so this means that I'm choosing not to run with the top down because Apple CarPlay is that important to my enjoyment of the automotive experience. I'm sure I'm not the only one.
Shocker, another car manufacturer that thinks where EVERYONE else has failed, they will succeed. No car company has ever made a good UI, and they’ve had about 100 years to work on it. But you know what? I think Rivian cracked it LOL! The hubris you have to have, to think that. If i’m making cars, letting Apple have the dash is a no brainer. It makes lots of people happy, and assuming there are Android equivalents, it doesn’t make very many people unhappy. Rivian needs to worry less about building its own AI and more about making their vehicles affordable. Companies like Hyundai and Kia are choosing to offer CarPlay Ultra, while bigger players like Toyota are not. This is going to be a pivot point for these lower priced auto makers. If you are in the market for a Toyota or Hyundai type vehicle, its going to be much more affordable to go Hyundai, and you are getting CP Ultra thrown in!
No, a lot of the downvotes are because some of us don’t give a damn about how good the OEM software is. There are things in CarPlay that Rivian will not and cannot provide. Their software can be fantastic but if it is missing something that customers need then it fails that customer. There is no justification for Rivian to not allow CarPlay for the customers who want it. At this point it seems like an ego thing for them where they cannot conceive that someone might want an alternative.
No, I don’t care about CarPlay Ultra one bit. CarPlay Classic is fine with me. Whether Apple missed the boat on the full car integration is totally irrelevant.
Apple Maps is ‘getting better’…in my use it hasn’t been better than Waze when using CarPlay. As for Tesla…it took a few days, but the lack CarPlay wasn’t as bad as I imagined it would be. Full self driving (and whatever the version of it will be that Rivian ends up developing) is a decent trade off for the lack of CarPlay. Any other car, CarPlay would be a necessity.
I had a Tesla, one of the reasons I sold it, was that the vertical integration was limited and the software choice was very limited and poor, yeah you could watch Netflix during charging 🤷♂️. Also another great feature of Apple CarPlay (or AA for the matter). I get in one of our 3 cars and they all have the “same functionality” absolutely f-ing great. Lots of apps, even business ones I cannot get in any other way except my iPhone …
“We went out of businss because we thought we could do tech and software better than Apple," he said, looking back on his fateful decision not to offer CarPlay. "That's okay."
I test drove a Rivian, then signed on a Lucid that same day. It was more than the lack of CarPlay, but that didn’t help. Rivian will always be niche.
It's not unusual for the Apple faithful to be uninformed about the complexity of an auto manufacturer's existing telematics system.
Add in Apples penchant for control and suddenly things become quite complicated. One can't always have what one wants.
Add in Apples penchant for control and suddenly things become quite complicated. One can't always have what one wants.
Euh... last time I checked the customer was still king. He who pays decides and stuff. But hey, people who have a 100K to spend (on a car) usually are not the people I hang with so it really isn't a problem in my book.
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The problem is the software being outdated very soon. And the brand gone. Maybe.
They don't have to outright sell data to profit from their tight control of the platform.
- Google Search Deal ($$$)
- App Store Commissions
- Ads on the App Store
- Subscriptions like Apple Music, iCloud
- Apple Pay Fees
This is the type of revenue that carmakers also would like to tap.
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Then you'll have to wait for the Apple Car. Maybe it will materialize at some point.