Rivian CEO says CarPlay won’t happen

despite of Apple’s claims While most consumers will only consider buying vehicles that support CarPlay, Rivian says it still has no plans to adopt the iPhone mirroring system. Speaking to the edge EIC Nilay Patel in today’s episode of DecryptRivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe likened Rivian’s adoption of CarPlay to Apple choosing to use Microsoft’s Windows operating system instead of developing its own alternatives to iOS and macOS.

“We have a great relationship with Apple,” Scaringe said. “As much as I love their products, there’s a reason that’s very much in line with Apple’s ethos that we want to control the ecosystem.” CarPlay “doesn’t fit with how we think about creating a truly pure product experience,” Scaringe added.

One example Scaringe cited was CarPlay’s inability to “tap into other parts of the vehicle experience,” requiring Rivian customers to leave the app in order to do things like open the trunk. “We’ve taken the view that the digital experience in the vehicle wants to feel cohesive and consistent across every touchpoint,” Scaringe said. Instead, the Rivian CEO says the company will eventually add the most desirable CarPlay features “on a selective basis.”

Scaringe says eliminating CarPlay will allow the company to be more selective about features like routing and charging point assignment, noting that Rivian has I got the Iternio route planning app. Last year to facilitate this.

“We realize it’s going to take us a while to fully capture every feature that’s in CarPlay, and we hope that customers see that. I think it often gets more hype than it deserves,” Scaringe said in the interview. “The other thing that comes after mapping is better integration with text messages. We know that has to come, and it’s something that the teams are actively working on.”