At least he positions it properly. With the GM situation they were very explicitly courting “trusted partners” with whom to share driver data.
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Rivian CEO Explains Why Apple CarPlay Won't Come to Its Vehicles
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His argument is not sound. Far from it. What prevents Rivian from providing a great, integrated user experience and still provide access to to CarPlay? Absolutely nothing. If Rivian's or Tesla's integrated experience is great, users will never tap the "CarPlay" button on a Rivian or Tesla car. Rivian and Tesla (and of late GM) are eliminating user choice. How can that be a good thing for the customer?
Wrong again. Volvo will charge only for Volvo Connect (the equivalent of GM OnStar). None of the other built-in features incur charges. Yes, the trial period for Sirius is over, and it's costing $5/month.
If Apple and Google were able to convince automakers to fully integrate CP or AA into the vehicle's onboard systems, so we could turn our wipers on, lock/unlock doors, start the car, turn heat and AC on/off and control fan speeds, raise and lower windows and change drive modes, now that would be the best case scenario. Not seeing that happen anytime soon.
This is it ^^
If the first party offering is so great .... offer CarPlay/AA also and see what folks choose
Let me fix that for you. Our shoes only work with Adidas and Nike socks and you pay monthly for them regardless if you already own/subscribe to them. If you like other socks you can wear them but we are going to make it inconvenient and it may break local laws while driving a vehicle. We might let you pay us to wear Hurley socks in the next few years if they pay us enough to “support” them.
Oh you only wear the shoes for an hour twice a week? That’s cool pay us anyways you are a great customer with less cost to us. Oh by the way the socks track everywhere you go and we sell that data for even more money!
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Just for my curiosity: if carplay were an addon, how much would you accept to pay to get it in your dreams car?
He's not on point to compare it to Apple's ecosystem. Apple allows third-party apps to run on its ecosystem. CarPlay is an app for a Rivian ecosystem. Just as in Apple's ecosystem, Rivian customers should have the option of using CarPlay or not. If Scaringe manages to produce better navigation, music, etc. then his customers won't even tap on that CarPlay app.
Isn't it kind of irrelevant how great the Rivian interface is? Why can't Rivian let users decide when to use CarPlay? Rivian will never be able to address every customer's use case with its stack.
Fair I guess, but that means I’m never even considering a Rivian or any car that goes for this approach (not that I’d buy a truck in the first place)
But I think it’s really stupid to act like a small little window with diet iOS in your car’s infotainment is “losing control of the experience”
It really makes you look like you’re scared that your own navigation, music and messaging UI is not up to par
Also as somebody else in this thread pointed out it’s wild to compare yourself to Apple when the app ecosystem is a huge contributor to the success of the iPhone
Im pretty sure the iOS market share would be close to to 0 if the App Store never happened
But I think it’s really stupid to act like a small little window with diet iOS in your car’s infotainment is “losing control of the experience”
It really makes you look like you’re scared that your own navigation, music and messaging UI is not up to par
Also as somebody else in this thread pointed out it’s wild to compare yourself to Apple when the app ecosystem is a huge contributor to the success of the iPhone
Im pretty sure the iOS market share would be close to to 0 if the App Store never happened
Yeah, it's quite a stretch -- especially since folks (newsflash Rivian!) tend to like/love AA/Carplay as it's an extension of their phone that they love.
I'm also a Tesla owner and while I find their UI decent for the most part I have found numerous issues with their navigation maps and much prefer to rely on Waze on my iPhone for most daily driving. Among other issues with Tesla's nav maps:
- It doesn't recognize a valid left turn less than a mile from my home, and wants me to take two long sides of a triangle instead.
- There's a new road / neighborhood near me that it's already mapped out roads for. The only problem is there's only one dead-end road that's paved and accessible. Tesla seems to think the road continues through a private farm on the far end, and also shows a road that's a chained/gated fire road with no public access.
- There's another road a few miles from me that the navigation system routinely refused to think I could drive. Until about a month ago it would always try to detour me around it for no good reason.
- Last year when my wife and I were in South Carolina there was an interstate highway that the car refused to believe was there despite actively driving on it. The navigation icon kept jumping from side road to side road for about 5 miles before eventually jumping back onto the highway
About the only time I will rely on the Tesla navigation system is when I'm doing longer drives and need it to route me to Superchargers.
Alternative headline:
Look, I get the argument that their CEO is making. I really do. But as for me as a buyer … CarPlay is integral to my driving experience now because it brings over everything I need from my phone without issue. Hell, if I still owned a car without CarPlay, I wouldn’t be using the made-in-house infotainment system, either: I’d have my phone mounted someplace where I could use it for easy navigation and playback controls.
The time to fight back against CarPlay (and the Android equivalent) was years ago when Apple and Google first came up with them. The automakers cannot unring that bell. As long as you have automakers drawing this line in the sand that they will not adopt these systems, they will lose a certain percentage of sales that otherwise would have been incredibly easy for them to make.
And yes, it is entirely possible for them to “try” to make a ”good-enough” infotainment system, but for some reason most of them can’t even get the basics right. And the incentives are misaligned on top of that: they are interested not just in controlling the (crappy) experience, but in extracting as much additional value from the car buyer as they can. So yeah, it’s a firm “Nope, no car play no buy” from me.
Rivian CEO Explains Why Many Apple Users Will Not Consider Buying From Rivian
… Oh.
Look, I get the argument that their CEO is making. I really do. But as for me as a buyer … CarPlay is integral to my driving experience now because it brings over everything I need from my phone without issue. Hell, if I still owned a car without CarPlay, I wouldn’t be using the made-in-house infotainment system, either: I’d have my phone mounted someplace where I could use it for easy navigation and playback controls.
The time to fight back against CarPlay (and the Android equivalent) was years ago when Apple and Google first came up with them. The automakers cannot unring that bell. As long as you have automakers drawing this line in the sand that they will not adopt these systems, they will lose a certain percentage of sales that otherwise would have been incredibly easy for them to make.
And yes, it is entirely possible for them to “try” to make a ”good-enough” infotainment system, but for some reason most of them can’t even get the basics right. And the incentives are misaligned on top of that: they are interested not just in controlling the (crappy) experience, but in extracting as much additional value from the car buyer as they can. So yeah, it’s a firm “Nope, no car play no buy” from me.
He can say all that but I would prefer CarPlay. If he seriously won't budge on this, I might just look into the new redesigned Prius instead. At least that has CarPlay
My favorite anecdote in this space is the Chevy Blazer EV that doesn't have CarPlay for "reasons"
But the Honda Prologue EV, which is simply a rebadged Blazer, does...
🤣
Nice own goal there GM/Chevy
But the Honda Prologue EV, which is simply a rebadged Blazer, does...
🤣
Nice own goal there GM/Chevy
Uh, sir, the Macintosh predates Windows. There was no Windows to emulate. Similarly, iOS was the first of its kind so there was no other mobile OS to emulate.
You're missing his point. He's saying that Apple wouldn't use someone else's software for the interface of their devices, they would build it themselves. Just like Rivian is electing to do.
If Bluetooth is a non-starter, I guess you won't be picking up any car with wireless Car Play, right?
It’s also because they bought A Better Route Planner, which is of course fantastic for road trips.
Completely agree. And to expound on the latter: I travel a lot and 'hop into' rental cars quite often. Most of them have nav systems - but they all work different and I simply don't want to spend the time (or have it) to lean each. CarPlay is such god-send. I can immediately navigate, listen to my music, message, take phone calls, etc.
The CEOs of Rivian and Tesla may have an argument if CarPlay tried to take over basic functions of the car. But that's not the case. If their integrated maps, music, etc are better than CarPlay, people wouldn't even tap on the CarPlay icon in their cars! So why not give your customers choice?
Another poster rightfully said "Rivian is, as a startup, already at a disadvantage - so why are they limiting their potential customer base by restricting choice?" The only logical reason is greed - if Rivian (and Tesla) let CarPlay into their cars, they foreclose potential future revenue from subscriptions.
I’ve worked in the car app and in car industry, our market research told us having car play is a must for something like 60+% of new car buyers.