While CarPlay is widely available in most cars these days, Rivian is one of the main holdouts (along with Tesla and now GM). In a new interview this week, On the Decoder PodcastRivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe has explained why the company doesn’t support CarPlay, while also praising its generally great relationship with the Apple team.
Will Rivian ever support CarPlay?
Regarding the lack of CarPlay in Rivian’s vehicle, Scaringe explained that the company’s focus is on “creating a pure product experience.” One thing Scaringe specifically pointed out was the user experience when someone uses CarPlay, but then needs to open the trunk and exit CarPlay to do so:
“We’ve taken the view that the digital experience in the car wants to feel consistent and cohesive across every touchpoint. To do that, the idea of letting customers jump in and out of an app that we don’t control and doesn’t have deep capabilities to tap into other parts of the car experience is untenable. For example, if you’re in CarPlay and you want to open the trunk, you have to leave the app and go to another interface.
“It doesn’t align with the way we think about creating a truly pure product experience.”
While Rivian doesn’t support CarPlay, Scaringe adds that the company is focused on adding “desirable features within CarPlay on a demand basis.” That includes Apple Music, which Rivian officially announced support for (with Spatial Audio) last month:
“In order to provide the features that are in demand in CarPlay, we started doing that, but on a demand basis. So, we’re launching Apple Music in the car. We have a great relationship with the Apple team. It’s in partnership with Dolby Atmos.”
But at the same time, Scaringe seems aware of the complaints Rivian drivers have about its first-party software implementation — especially when it comes to mapping. He says the company is working to address those complaints.
“I think the biggest complaint today about not having CarPlay is the improvements we need to make in mapping, which is coming. But again, even in mapping, we want to be able to do route mapping separately, base mapping separately, point of interest separately, and overlay that with charging routing, which is really important and very specific to the car itself and very specific to the networks and the ratings on those networks, which we bought a route planning company to support that. We just think it’s an important piece of real estate, the digital ecosystem, and it was something we wanted to keep.
We realize it will take some time to fully embrace every feature in CarPlay. We hope customers see it. I think it often gets more hype than it deserves.
“The other thing that will come after mapping is better integration with text messaging. We know that needs to come. It’s something that the teams are actively working on.”
According to Scaringe, Rivian’s use of CarPlay would be like Apple using off-the-shelf Windows software instead of developing macOS and iOS. So while Rivian and Apple “have a great relationship,” don’t expect CarPlay to ever come to Rivian cars:
“We have a great relationship with Apple. I think their products are the best ever. If I put myself in Apple’s shoes, imagine Apple is developing a Mac, and there’s someone who has a software application, let’s call it Windows.
They said, “We have a ready-to-use platform that everyone knows how to use.” Would they have put this platform in their cars? Would they have developed their own iOS?
“We know how that went. And while I love their products a lot, there’s a reason that’s very much in line with Apple’s principles that we want to control the ecosystem.”
You can listen to the full interview on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
9to5Mac Opinion
While I’m on the “every automaker should support CarPlay” side, I have to admit that Scaringe seems more aware of what features people want than other CarPlay naysayers. The way Scaringe talks at least suggests that Rivian’s lack of CarPlay support isn’t just a subscription play.
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