In March, Rivian’s Chief Software Officer, Wassim Bensaid, was interviewed by the excellent Nilay Patel for Decoder. If you’re not a Decoder listener, you should be. If you’re not a subscriber to The Verge, you should be. But that’s not what I’m here to talk about.
In this interview – which I thoroughly enjoyed! – Nilay interrogated Wassim on all issues. However, the whole time I was waiting for one topic: CarPlay.
CarPlay is a way to interact with your phone through your car’s infotainment. Our last three cars, the largest of which was a 2017 model year, all have CarPlay. They feel like being in a car far away
better. The apps I really care about, and the ones I want to interact with on the road, have a dedicated CarPlay interface.
I really wouldn’t buy a car that doesn’t support CarPlay.
Throughout the episode, Nilay asks Wasim about CarPlay. The question was long, but the gist is this:
Every time I talk to a car executive I hear from my readers, “I want CarPlay because I have 5,000 apps on my phone and no car OEM will ever support them in built-in infotainment.”
This is when you say, “Okay, project your phone on the center stack. The car is driving itself. Keep doing this. Phone projection all day.” Do you think the situation is changing, or are you still fully committed to not having CarPlay in Rivian vehicles?
You can read Wasim’s full answer at the episode link, but here’s the part that stood out to me:
The challenge with screen mirroring solutions is that they take over every single pixel of the car, and that’s not the way we see ourselves interacting with our users.
Let me help you, Wasim:
There is a flavor of CarPlay – CarPlay Ultra – available does Capture every screen of the car. However CarPlay Ultra also has the ability to enter through the manufacturer’s user interface. But no one is asking about CarPlay Ultra. We’re asking for CarPlay with no adjectives.
and does carplay No Must take up the entire screen.
For example, here’s a photo of my phone connected to my wife’s Volvo XC90:
Check out those bits above And At the bottom of the CarPlay screen? he is volvo UI. CarPlay doesn’t actually know that part of the screen exists.
So, Wasim, try again.
Let’s assume – for the sake of discussion – that CarPlay Did pick up Complete
Screen. no matter what. Let’s live in Wasim’s imaginary world for just a little while.
I still have news for you: CarPlay is optional. have carplay additive.
Drivers do not need to use CarPlay!!
If Rivian’s native UI is so great, their customers… won’t use CarPlay. It’s that simple.
Nobody’s Asking for CarPlay Mandatory. We just want to keep it as one Option.
If Rivian’s infotainment/software is this great, that’s great! Then Rivian drivers will not use CarPlay.
Well, unless they want to use one of those thousands of apps Is Optimized for CarPlay, but does not There is a native version that can be installed directly on their Rivian.
Like, I don’t know, for example, overcast.
“But Casey, you see, Real The problem is that you can use CarPlay for navigation. And fancy cars like Rivians have some of the best self-driving technology on the market. In order for the driver to have the best possible experience, the car needs to know which route the driver is driving on.
A fair response! Conveniently, Apple is addressing exactly this in iOS 27.
Ultimately, the only thing I can control is myself, and I won’t buy a car that doesn’t offer CarPlay. I enjoy the Rivian so much – both from a distance and as someone who has driven both the R1T and R1S – that I In fact
Thought about joining the waiting list for R2. And I don’t even want an SUV!
But I won’t do that.
Because it does not support CarPlay. CarPlay support is table stakes for me.
Stop being stubborn, Rivian. Stop being so indolent and stubborn. CarPlay is additive, and CarPlay support opens you up to an additional group of customers. Get off your high horse and make it onto the ship.
When you do that, I’ll be there, waiting. I can’t wait to get in line for the R3X. 🤤
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