Rivian’s CEO RJ Scaringe was the latest guest on the Decoder podcast, and during the interview he vehemently defended the company’s decision to not support Apple CarPlay. Here’s what he said.
Rivian CEO pushes AI as key reason why it needs to control the entire vehicle experience
CarPlay is a recurring topic on Nilay Patel’s Decoder podcast, and the latest episode centered around one of the few major automakers that doesn’t support CarPlay at all.
Here’s how Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe defended its ‘no CarPlay’ stance:
We’ve made the decision, which I’m very confident about, that in the fullness of time, customers will appreciate, which is that we wanted to have a seamless digital experience. To not have the need to jump between CarPlay, which feels obviously like CarPlay, and so it feels the same in every car, and then what we create as a Rivian environment.
So if you don’t like the lack of CarPlay now, then “in the fullness of time” Rivian is confident you “will appreciate” it.
It’s a bold statement. What did he say to back it up?
In large part, his reasoning had to do with AI. Scaringe mentioned how Rivian offers its own ecosystem of apps and integrations like YouTube, Apple Music, and Google Maps, which will prove key with the rise of AI.
You can have all those integrations. But for us to hold the glue for putting that all together, this becomes even more important as we start to integrate AI into the vehicle.
Over the next 18 months, we’re going to see a lot of new features that, by necessity, are performing tasks or making decisions to connect different applications. And so, knowledge of “what’s the vehicle state?” Knowledge of “is it in drive, or is it parked? What are the conditions outside the vehicle? What’s your driving history? What are your preferences?” Knowledge of all of that at an ecosystem level allows us to present a richer, better experience for you as a driver or occupant of the vehicle.
It’s hard to argue with a claim about something that hasn’t taken place yet.
Top comment by John Atkinson
What I want from my car screen is to have the same info as my phone but less distracting, I don't care for video playback or typing up notes. I use CarPlay to avoid having to pickup my phone, not to make my phone bigger; I'm driving I don't care for any distractions and any passenger already has a phone that they can watch stuff on. I don't want to have to sign in to a ton of platforms again, particularly if I need to reset my password, I just want the music/podcasts and map directions I setup on my phone to move over so I can store my phone away and focus on the road.
Rivian, it seems, believes that supporting CarPlay would make it impossible to offer the same AI advantages that it apparently soon will.
Before turning away the conversation from Apple, Scaringe does mention having “a great relationship with Apple.” He says, “We have a bunch of integrations that are coming soon.”
One he explicitly references is car key support, which we already knew was imminent. Messaging is another integration mentioned, but no details are given as it was mainly prompted by guest host Joanna Stern—but Scaringe affirmed it was coming.
What do you think of the Rivian CEO’s comments on its CarPlay decision? Let us know in the comments.
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