Lack of Android Auto / Waze is a reason to cancel

[CommodoreAmiga]

I'm with you, Amazon Music over bluetooth sounds great to me...unless you have highly trained ears, I just don't think the differences are noticeable between lossless audio, etc., unless you are a sound tech.

Sound quality is indeed worse... but even if you don't care about that, the larger issue is UI, imo. I don't want to use my phone when I want to change playlists or search for another artist/album. Even if you're okay manipulating the phone, directly, many states even have hands-free laws that make it illegal. We want "first-class citizen" apps to interact with our preferred music service.

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[DaveA]

Sound quality is indeed worse... but even if you don't care about that, the larger issue is UI, imo. I don't want to use my phone when I want to change playlists or search for another artist/album. Even if you're okay manipulating the phone, directly, many states even have hands-free laws that make it illegal. We want "first-class citizen" apps to interact with our preferred music service.

A hand is going somewhere, be it your phone or an enormous touchscreen...nothing is truly hands free it seems.

 

[DaveA]

I got it....Rivian is working to get Gear Guard Guy, Headband Harry, a.k.a SasqWatch to do everything Alexa would do...Kinda like Clippy from Microsoft Word.

 

[CommodoreAmiga]

A hand is going somewhere, be it your phone or an enormous touchscreen...nothing is truly hands free it seems.

Yep, true. But one is illegal and one generally isn't. Also, anecdotally I find that manipulating the vehicle touch screen directly is less distracting than reaching for a phone, unlocking it, finding/opening the right app, and then doing what I need to do. My phone is much smaller and not only do I have to move my eyes much further from where they would be watching the road, but I'm also trying to manipulate smaller interface elements. The vehicle screen keeps my eyes closer to the horizon and typically has larger and more prominent UI elements.

 

[yizzung]

Did you actually watch them? I watched most of them and many mentioned the absence so not sure what you're talking about.

Yes. I did. And if you want to be an a-hole, I can too. Do you know how to read? Have you actually read this thread where I already answered this question above?

Mentioning the absence of something is not the same thing as complaining about it. (They also mentioned the absence of engine noise. Hopefully someone starts a thread about how that's the new deal-breaker.)

The OP said it's time to cancel the order because of this fatal flaw. What literally NONE of these reporters said is, "Rivian's own attempt at a UI is so terrible you'd be a fool to buy one unless they reverse their stupid hubristic decision to do what nobody has ever done. Well, except Tesla."

Zero people this thread have actually used the car in any way so this whole circle jerk is a giant waste of energy anyway. I said that I'm willing to withhold judgement until I, you know, actually try the thing but clearly some people are ready to bail. I just hope they are in front of me in the queue so I can move up.

 

[Scott]

I think turning off Alexa will be the first thing I do.

I am 100% against "always on microphones" for privacy. I like the carplay usually is wired to a button in the car to press to activate it. With press to activate, I love it. So much better than taking your eyes off the road.

 

[jjswan33]

Yes. I did. And if you want to be an a-hole, I can too. Do you know how to read? Have you actually read this thread where I already answered this question above?

Mentioning the absence of something is not the same thing as complaining about it. (They also mentioned the absence of engine noise. Hopefully someone starts a thread about how that's the new deal-breaker.)

The OP said it's time to cancel the order because of this fatal flaw. What literally NONE of these reporters said is, "Rivian's own attempt at a UI is so terrible you'd be a fool to buy one unless they reverse their stupid hubristic decision to do what nobody has ever done. Well, except Tesla."

Zero people this thread have actually used the car in any way so this whole circle jerk is a giant waste of energy anyway. I said that I'm willing to withhold judgement until I, you know, actually try the thing but clearly some people are ready to bail. I just hope they are in front of me in the queue so I can move up.

Well to be clear you’re coming off ass an a-hole but that’s fine. The fact that reviewers bring it up, often as one their complaints is my point. If you want to be a stupid fan boy that can’t see anything wrong with the truck fine but you made it sound like it didn’t come up… but fact it did many times in almost every review.

 

[SoCal Rob]

Yep, true. But one is illegal and one generally isn't. Also, anecdotally I find that manipulating the vehicle touch screen directly is less distracting than reaching for a phone, unlocking it, finding/opening the right app, and then doing what I need to do. My phone is much smaller and not only do I have to move my eyes much further from where they would be watching the road, but I'm also trying to manipulate smaller interface elements. The vehicle screen keeps my eyes closer to the horizon and typically has larger and more prominent UI elements.

On my Ford the voice button on the steering wheel used for the built-in interface functioned to activate Siri when CP was active. While not hands-free, I don’t think it would be illegal to use this in any jurisdiction since your hands never leave the wheel.

On a positive note, for the CP folks using ”Hey Siri” to activate (“OK, Google” on AA?) depending upon the BlueTooth setup it can work pretty well as truly hands-free. Our 2006 Land Rover with primitive BT works well going this route.

The next best thing, from what I can tell, is to use an Apple Watch to control what an iPhone is doing. Long-press the crown to activate Siri then issue the command (Pause, Play playlist abc, next track, send a text message to abc, etc.) which isn’t truly hands free but may work better in a vehicle with noisy passengers. I’m assuming that Android will behave similarly with a compatible smart watch. It won’t give you access to the larger display as AA/CP would, but at least you don’t have to pick up your phone for basic stuff and it may be better than the initial capabilities of the Rivian system.

 

[kurtlikevonnegut]

https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/a37764475/2022-rivian-r1t-drive/

Car and Driver had an interesting take on this:

"There's also cloud-based navigation, as well as several streaming music services on tap. Rivian is confident the lack of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity won't be missed. We disagree and fully expect that to be rectified in the near future."

 

[Tatnai]

I'm with you, Amazon Music over bluetooth sounds great to me...unless you have highly trained ears, I just don't think the differences are noticeable between lossless audio, etc., unless you are a sound tech.

The difference in audio quality between Bluetooth and non Bluetooth is noticeable to my girlfriend who is definitely NOT an audiophile. It drives me bonkers. Some will care, some will not; but a lot more people can notice the difference than you are suggesting. Just a matter of whether they care or not.

 

[AdamsFan1983]

Frankly, (and I'm sure there are a number of lawyers on here who can tell me I'm right or wrong), the more car software becomes an "environment" the more legally untenable it will become for auto manufacturers to force consumers to utilize propietary software solutions.

Reasoning here is simple. I'd image the caselaw surrounding Microsoft being guilty of anti trust violations for pre-loading windows machines with internet explorer and making it unneccassarily difficult to switch to competitors software. Surely, (at some point) that will have a bearing on auto companies blacklisting independent compitetors' apps.

 

[Diddy123]

So, even if Rivian provided wireless Carplay or AA, isn't it also communicating via bluetooth with the headunit? I'm not sure how that helps the audio signal be any better. Maybe this is too technical a question for a forum.

It uses a 5ghz 'wi-fi' connection, not bluetooth. I think it's something like 10x more bandwidth than bluetooth.

 

[CommodoreAmiga]

So, even if Rivian provided wireless Carplay or AA, isn't it also communicating via bluetooth with the headunit? I'm not sure how that helps the audio signal be any better. Maybe this is too technical a question for a forum.

The audio streams over WiFi when using Wireless CarPlay -- not Bluetooth.

 

[jjswan33]

So, even if Rivian provided wireless Carplay or AA, isn't it also communicating via bluetooth with the headunit? I'm not sure how that helps the audio signal be any better. Maybe this is too technical a question for a forum.

In the aftermarket headunit in my van carplay connects via Wi-Fi.

 

[Dbeglor]

I agree that lack of the CarPlay is a huge miss and sounds intentional. Almost every review I watched/read yesterday pointed to it lacking this feature so obviously the buying public does care. Not sure it is a deal breaker for me but if the awesome audio system sounds like garbage with Apple Carplay it may be. Only can hope they wake up to the fact that buyers actually want this and add it in a software update.

It's kind of funny. Here we have a company making a revolutionary product and pushing us into the future, yet people still want to cling to the comforts of the present/past. If everyone did that, CP and AA would never exist in the first place. In my opinion, they are only bridge solutions and won't exist in ten years (Google already started teaming with OEMs to make integrated systems to replace AA).

"People don't know what they want until you show it to them. That's why I never rely on market research. Our task is to read things that are not yet on the page.”

Steve Jobs

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