Rivian CEO tells people to 'buy something else' if they don't like the design of his cars

Rivian is ready to go mainstream with the Rivian R2, and CEO RJ Scaringe doubled down on the company’s ‘screen-centric’ approach.

Like the R1T and R1S, the Rivian R2 will be mostly digital, with virtually no physical dials and switches.

Scaringe says customers can ‘buy something else’ if they don’t like it.

And for the American EV maker, this is actually a stopgap measure towards an even more radical approach.

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What we can expect from the R2

Like other EV manufacturers, Rivian started out in the premium segment of the market before scaling production to include cheaper vehicles, like Tesla did with the Model S and X before the Y and 3.

The new R2 and R3, which should also be available in Europe, will be basically smaller and simpler versions of the R1S.

We can expect a lower top speed and range, but the same digital-only approach.

The company’s CEO, RJ Scaringe, made it clear that the R2, like the R1, will have touchscreens for everything, and very few physical buttons and dials.

Buy something else [if you don’t like this],” Scaringe told Autoblog after an Automotive Press Association (APA) meeting on Monday.

Also, as confirmed by Scaringe in an episode of The Verge‘s Decoder podcast, the company won’t be using Apple CarPlay or CarPlay Ultra in any of its cars, including the R2.

Digital-only until Rivian can master voice control

Sooner or later, Rivian will want to use voice control for everything.

Scaringe said on more than one occasion that voice control is the ultimate goal, although he admits this is much easier said than done due to technical reasons, but also because customers might be reluctant at first.

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

But, according to Rivian, this is like switching from flip phones to smartphones.

There’ll be some resistance at first, but it’ll eventually feel totally normal.