Rivian adds Apple Music, but won't consider CarPlay
Rivian CEO says it's awesome having Apple Music in its cars, but the firm wants drivers to use its systems instead of switching in and out of CarPlay.
Rivian R1T
It's been said that Apple should buy Rivian, and it's certainly been said that General Motors made a mistake ditching CarPlay. But in a new interview, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe says he "thinks the world" of Apple products but won't add CarPlay -- and that Apple wouldn't do it in his position either.
"We have a great relationship with Apple," Scaringe told The Verge, "[but] imagine Apple was developing a Mac, and there was someone that had a software application -- let's maybe call it Windows -- and they said, 'We have a turnkey platform that everybody knows how to use,' would they have put that in their car?"
"Would they have developed their own iOS? We know how that played out," he continued. "So, as much as I love their products, there's a reason that ironically is very consistent with Apple ethos for us to want to control the ecosystem."
Scaringe's argument is that users have to switch out of CarPlay to control car functions. "For example, if you're in CarPlay and want to open the front trunk," he said, "you have to leave the application and go to another interface."
That ignores what Apple has been claiming for the future of CarPlay, despite Scaringe specifically being asked about that forthcoming version of Apple's software.
Instead, Scaringe answers only about the current state of CarPlay and argues that what customers actually want is for Rivian to match what Apple has. "I think the biggest complaint today around the lack of CarPlay is the improvements we need to make in mapping, whic are coming," he said.
"We recognize that it'll take us time to fully capture every feature that's in CarPlay, and hopefully, customers are seeing that," he added. "I think [CarPlay] often gets more noise than it deserves."
Rivian has, though, been adding Apple Music to its cars in 2024, and including Dolby Atmos. "It's a big step up improvement in the audio performance of the vehicle," said Scaringe, "it's awesome to have Apple Music in the car."
Apple did not mention CarPlay in its WWDC 2024 keynote. However, it has added some features to it for iOS 18.
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Comments
But at least on my Jaguar, access to the native apps is just a click away inside Carplay.
When I rent a car I don't have to figure out how to use their clunky infotainment system, I simply plug in my iPhone and I get a system I recognize with addresses via typing or Siri that aren't being saved into the car, all of which adds safety and security for the driver.
Android Auto works the same way for most people, but I think Android has partnered with at least one automobile makers to supply the infotainment system, too.
If he thinks they can equal that, I don't know what he's smoking.
Every company and service has an iOS app. Making one for a few Rivians isn't on anyone's roadmap. You'll maybe get Apple Music, Spotify and one crappy podcast app and that's it. The maps aren't that great, but calendar events are integrated, Find My is integrated, and any app can just provide a destination with the share button. Even if you get everyone to port their apps. Are you logging in each driver to all those services? What about renting a car? Does the car need its own data plan?
Even if you "fully capture" everything in CarPlay … It's just so incredibly messy compared to just plugging in your phone that already has everything.
And to what end? Will you sell even one extra car by not having CarPlay as an option?
You know what? About that Mac/Windows example? Macs were really successful when they also started booting Windows. It didn't hurt OS X and it didn't hurt Mac sales. Probably even more people made the jump to OS X because they knew Windows was still an option on the hardware. Apple also believed they could do better than Windows, that's why they didn't mind supporting it.
At least it comes with SiriusXM. I think only the last couple years of the Tesla Model S had an option for SiriusXM. Everyone else had to connect their smartphone to the built-in audio system and stream it via cellular, which defeats a huge benefit for having SiriusXM in a vehicle.
Neither does Car Play.
All it has is Maps, for navigation, which I use... sometimes. If I play music, it's either iTunes or Youtube Music. And those don't really require anything on the screen.
Apple wants OEMs to adapt Carplay as an easy way to slap an interface on their cars instead of developing expensive interfaces in-house. Instead, the OEMs mostly do a half-ass job and no one notices how bad they are because most don't care.
Car Play came out of the dead Apple EV. And it probably won't get very far either.
2) It's not a feature that I use, but I'm under the impression that EV charging was added several years ago, with real time Ev charging station availability was added last year with iOS 17.
You can have maps directly on the Bolt with a subscription. CarPlay is "free" - You can use Apple Maps or third party apps like A Better Route Planner for charge and route planning.
Also - I think a lot of people aren't catching what Tesla and Rivian are really saying. They don't have many physical controls or controls separate from the main screen…
First off, software-controlled climate controls suck - give me knobs and levers. But if you insist on software, using CarPlay’s, or letting me switch between CarPlay and the system software, is a better use case because it doesn’t stick me into a Rivian silo where I can’t use my recent POIs from my searches, texts, emails, etc.
Some carmakers, GM most notably, have recently abandoned (or never supported) both CarPlay and Android Auto in favor of their own systems, but we'll see how that goes. They are looking to do two things: get you to subscribe to their convenience features and collect your data to sell to the highest bidder. GM has already been caught collecting data on how individual drivers operate their cars--speeds, stopping distances, g forces when turning, etc, then selling that data to insurance companies, which then surprise those drivers with MUCH higher insurance premiums. Yeah, it's a lovely system! Personally, if a car doesn't have CarPlay, I won't even consider it for purchase. That's a total dealbreaker.
When you say CarPlay doesn't have mapping abilities, what do you mean? Apple Maps, Google Maps and Waze all run in CarPlay, with real-time traffic info from users determining the routing that you're given. In areas without traffic problems, it will simply route you via the most direct route, with some user ability to control the route via settings. You must be using an ancient version of iOS because Apple killed iTunes back in 2019.