Rivian CEO explains why his cars will never use Apple CarPlay

Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe is adamant that the EV maker isn’t interested in Apple CarPlay.

No standard CarPlay, and definitely no CarPlay Ultra.

The reason is logical, but a bit risky.

And there’s something else that Rivian is determined to try with its cars.

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Why Rivian doesn’t want to resort to Apple CarPlay

On the latest episode of The Verge‘s Decoder podcast, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe explained why the EV maker continues to say ‘thanks, but no thanks’ to Apple’s CarPlay – both the standard version and the more advanced CarPlay Ultra.

CarPlay Ultra has been received with mixed ‘feelings’ so far.

There are a few brands that are on board, but several automakers are refusing to let Apple take over their cars’ systems.

And that’s pretty much the reason why Scaringe is rejecting both Ultra and also the regular version.

In his view, it isn’t a good idea to make customers ‘switch between Rivian’s own software and CarPlay’.

Instead, the American automaker wants to integrate existing technologies, features and apps – from Spotify to Apple Music and so on – into Rivian’s own systems and displays.

“We’re really convicted on this,” he said.

It’s a risky strategy, but he knows and accepts it.

“Some of those decisions not everyone’s going to agree with [and] that’s okay,” he said.

The other thing this EV maker is pioneering

Ideally, Rivian would want to use voice command for everything.

RJ Scaringe said on more than one occasion that voice control is the ultimate goal, although he admits this is much easier said than done.

One more thing the CEO is fully aware of is that customers aren’t ready for this.

Customers are clearly saying they want more physical buttons, not fewer, and presumably a voice-controlled car wouldn’t have any.

So, at least for now, that’s just an idea.