Rivian CEO says it's awesome having Apple Music in its cars, but the firm wants drivers to use its systems instead of switching in and out of CarPlay.
Rivian R1T
It's been said that Apple should buy Rivian, and it's certainly been said that General Motors made a mistake ditching CarPlay. But in a new interview, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe says he "thinks the world" of Apple products but won't add CarPlay -- and that Apple wouldn't do it in his position either.
"We have a great relationship with Apple," Scaringe told The Verge, "[but] imagine Apple was developing a Mac, and there was someone that had a software application -- let's maybe call it Windows -- and they said, 'We have a turnkey platform that everybody knows how to use,' would they have put that in their car?"
"Would they have developed their own iOS? We know how that played out," he continued. "So, as much as I love their products, there's a reason that ironically is very consistent with Apple ethos for us to want to control the ecosystem."
Scaringe's argument is that users have to switch out of CarPlay to control car functions. "For example, if you're in CarPlay and want to open the front trunk," he said, "you have to leave the application and go to another interface."
That ignores what Apple has been claiming for the future of CarPlay, despite Scaringe specifically being asked about that forthcoming version of Apple's software.
Instead, Scaringe answers only about the current state of CarPlay and argues that what customers actually want is for Rivian to match what Apple has. "I think the biggest complaint today around the lack of CarPlay is the improvements we need to make in mapping, whic are coming," he said.
"We recognize that it'll take us time to fully capture every feature that's in CarPlay, and hopefully, customers are seeing that," he added. "I think [CarPlay] often gets more noise than it deserves."
Rivian has, though, been adding Apple Music to its cars in 2024, and including Dolby Atmos. "It's a big step up improvement in the audio performance of the vehicle," said Scaringe, "it's awesome to have Apple Music in the car."
Apple did not mention CarPlay in its WWDC 2024 keynote. However, it has added some features to it for iOS 18.