Lack of Android Auto / Waze is a reason to cancel

[SoCal Rob]

You will NEVER see Tesla, Rivian or Lucid add them for that reason, I guarantee you.

Never? How about already has them? Lucid seems to understand that choice is a part of luxury and, as a luxury carmaker, they are giving buyers a choice: “Air is even compatible with Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, and countless other apps.” https://www.lucidmotors.com/air/connectivity

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[SeaGeo]

Every person will almost certainly have to compromise something on their "want" list.
For me, the EV drivetrain and overall vehicle capabilities far outweighs the preference of a pet app. YMMV.

Rivian has made their choice on what they are going to offer and made it very clear what that would be. Buy it or don't buy it. The choice is yours. If AA and Waze are truly "must have", the decision is simple, so not sure what all the fuss is about.

Same. The lack of AA is a bummer, but I've some to terms with it. Thermal management, charging capabilities, and the like are definitely where my interest and concerns are. I have next to zero worries over offloading capabilities or performance. Particularly with the suspension system.

 

[Gator42]

Your point 4 might point to the true reason. They want our data. It's not about quality of the product, but control of the data.

They want your data AND your subscription money...

 

[timesinks]

Gotta love internet arguments. But when your pet peeve is the thing being discussed, you have to jump in (even against your better judgement).

- CarPlay is free to license. I believe AA is too.
- For the tin foil hat crowd who thinks this is at Amazon's insistence, I highly doubt Amazon has nearly as much control over Rivian's decisions as that crowd likes to imply
- CarPlay works fine in a window. It scales up great onto bigger screens these days too.

Speaking from experience, every vehicle I've ever had with CarPlay, I have been happy to tuck my phone away in the console. Every vehicle without CarPlay, I have always had the phone mounted to a vent or the window or...

Yes, bluetooth audio works for listening to content from your phone. No, that does not satisfy the primary point of CarPlay. CarPlay lets me switch between Apple Music, the podcast app, the Libby app my local library uses for audio books, and every other source of content on my phone. It lets me do this easily with big buttons on the screen. Without CarPlay, I will absolutely be mounting my phone so that I can control content from all of these sources (not a Spotify subscriber, don't want to become one, and even if they eventually implement Apple Music, there's still all the other apps on my phone that are sources of content when I'm driving).

Nav? I understand wanting a fully integrated nav system with intelligent charging suggestions. The thing is for about 95% of our drives, we were within the 53-mile EPA range of our Volt in all-electric mode. A 314-mile battery will probably cover 98-99% of our drives, even with the daily 70% charging target. It is a very rare trip we go on that we actually need to think about charging. And in those cases, it's not going to be spontaneous. I will be familiarizing myself with the routes and the options. And I will gladly punch my destination into the vehicle's system to run side-by-side with my chosen nav app.

I think Rivian's system will be good. It will be good enough that we wouldn't cancel our order over it. But I think the lack of CarPlay/AA will prevent it from being great. And I'll say it again, when you start getting your vehicles, send pics of your stupid-looking dash and vent mounts to customer service with the feedback that you'd love to use the charging mat but can't until they provide CarPlay/AA.

The ship has totally sailed for launch. That's fine. If enough people beat them over the head about it (the press is off to a good start), they'll come around and get it into an OTA update.

 

[Darkon]

Gotta love internet arguments. But when your pet peeve is the thing being discussed, you have to jump in (even against your better judgement).

glad you joined, you made good points.

I just put my order few weeks ago so my truck is not gonna be ready until what 2022 or 2023. I will wait to cancel indeed Until then I will do my part to "beat them over the head about it". And who knows, by then, there will be new app, new trucks (the Alpha is damn cute, if it is not vaporware).

I could see a future with a new CP/AA version 2 being more integrated into existing car UI due to the large screens. We just need to ask for it.

 

[Scott]

Gotta love internet arguments. But when your pet peeve is the thing being discussed, you have to jump in (even against your better judgement).

- CarPlay is free to license. I believe AA is too.
- For the tin foil hat crowd who thinks this is at Amazon's insistence, I highly doubt Amazon has nearly as much control over Rivian's decisions as that crowd likes to imply
- CarPlay works fine in a window. It scales up great onto bigger screens these days too.

Speaking from experience, every vehicle I've ever had with CarPlay, I have been happy to tuck my phone away in the console. Every vehicle without CarPlay, I have always had the phone mounted to a vent or the window or...

Yes, bluetooth audio works for listening to content from your phone. No, that does not satisfy the primary point of CarPlay. CarPlay lets me switch between Apple Music, the podcast app, the Libby app my local library uses for audio books, and every other source of content on my phone. It lets me do this easily with big buttons on the screen. Without CarPlay, I will absolutely be mounting my phone so that I can control content from all of these sources (not a Spotify subscriber, don't want to become one, and even if they eventually implement Apple Music, there's still all the other apps on my phone that are sources of content when I'm driving).

Nav? I understand wanting a fully integrated nav system with intelligent charging suggestions. The thing is for about 95% of our drives, we were within the 53-mile EPA range of our Volt in all-electric mode. A 314-mile battery will probably cover 98-99% of our drives, even with the daily 70% charging target. It is a very rare trip we go on that we actually need to think about charging. And in those cases, it's not going to be spontaneous. I will be familiarizing myself with the routes and the options. And I will gladly punch my destination into the vehicle's system to run side-by-side with my chosen nav app.

I think Rivian's system will be good. It will be good enough that we wouldn't cancel our order over it. But I think the lack of CarPlay/AA will prevent it from being great. And I'll say it again, when you start getting your vehicles, send pics of your stupid-looking dash and vent mounts to customer service with the feedback that you'd love to use the charging mat but can't until they provide CarPlay/AA.

The ship has totally sailed for launch. That's fine. If enough people beat them over the head about it (the press is off to a good start), they'll come around and get it into an OTA update.

My new favorite post on this topic. Well said

 

[a76marine]

My only hope is that I read that an OTA update could add the feature in the future. So I won't cancel my order yet of course, but Rivian, I beg you, add the feature.

No, no... by all means, cancel. I am probably behind you in line and think everyone should take your post to heart so I can get mine sooner!

 

[Jamuso]

My new favorite post on this topic. Well said

All point were excellent. can we replace tin foil with aluminum foil going forward. I want my crowd to be aptly named! ??

 

[Autolycus]

I can't believe there is yet another thread discussing this, we've gone from beating a dead horse to the poor things skeleton...

Little did you know, a day later there would be 8 (!!) pages to this thread!

 

[Autolycus]

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.

Microsoft was effectively a monopoly, which subjects its actions to greater scrutiny.

Also, a badly-coded and designed internet browser on your desktop computer can't cause a fatal car wreck. Automakers will always be given a lot of latitude on how they manage any part of their vehicles.

 

[R_1_T]

Gotta love internet arguments. But when your pet peeve is the thing being discussed, you have to jump in (even against your better judgement).

- CarPlay is free to license. I believe AA is too.
- For the tin foil hat crowd who thinks this is at Amazon's insistence, I highly doubt Amazon has nearly as much control over Rivian's decisions as that crowd likes to imply
- CarPlay works fine in a window. It scales up great onto bigger screens these days too.

Speaking from experience, every vehicle I've ever had with CarPlay, I have been happy to tuck my phone away in the console. Every vehicle without CarPlay, I have always had the phone mounted to a vent or the window or...

Yes, bluetooth audio works for listening to content from your phone. No, that does not satisfy the primary point of CarPlay. CarPlay lets me switch between Apple Music, the podcast app, the Libby app my local library uses for audio books, and every other source of content on my phone. It lets me do this easily with big buttons on the screen. Without CarPlay, I will absolutely be mounting my phone so that I can control content from all of these sources (not a Spotify subscriber, don't want to become one, and even if they eventually implement Apple Music, there's still all the other apps on my phone that are sources of content when I'm driving).

Nav? I understand wanting a fully integrated nav system with intelligent charging suggestions. The thing is for about 95% of our drives, we were within the 53-mile EPA range of our Volt in all-electric mode. A 314-mile battery will probably cover 98-99% of our drives, even with the daily 70% charging target. It is a very rare trip we go on that we actually need to think about charging. And in those cases, it's not going to be spontaneous. I will be familiarizing myself with the routes and the options. And I will gladly punch my destination into the vehicle's system to run side-by-side with my chosen nav app.

I think Rivian's system will be good. It will be good enough that we wouldn't cancel our order over it. But I think the lack of CarPlay/AA will prevent it from being great. And I'll say it again, when you start getting your vehicles, send pics of your stupid-looking dash and vent mounts to customer service with the feedback that you'd love to use the charging mat but can't until they provide CarPlay/AA.

The ship has totally sailed for launch. That's fine. If enough people beat them over the head about it (the press is off to a good start), they'll come around and get it into an OTA update.

CarPlay isn't free, since it requires Apple defined authentication hardware in order to support. While it might not be expensive, it certainly isn't free. In addition, it would also require certification by Apple and/or Google, depending on what the OEM integrates. Certification adds time to the development cycle and subsequent software updates to the IVI system.

 

[crashmtb]

Anything will be a huge upgrade from my 2002 Avalanche. Does not even have Bluetooth. My wife's 2019 Ascent has AA but I don't drive her car often enough to say whether I like Bluetooth or AA better.

my 2002 truck can do this, Rivian cannot. gimme my waffle machine, Rivian!

 

[Tim-in-CA]

Yea, a pretty big miss seeing as this is a HUGE complaint of Tesla customers. AA/CP may not be the best, but it's always good to give users options. CP has actually gotten better over time. Maybe with Alexa built in, I'll be able to play Amazon Music, Pandora, etc using voice commands instead? I pretty much use that hack along with an Amazon Alexa Auto device in my Tesla.

 

[Sdvictor]

I love AA/CP, but the purpose they serve (connectivity with updated data, streaming services); but if the end purpose is served via constant OTA updates and increased connectivity services (Audible, YT Music/Apple Music/etc, ABRP, Plugshare, etc), then it won't be as bad. That part remains to be seen. The only thing I will miss is the police warning that Waze provides, but it's not hard to keep my phone nearby

 

[jjswan33]

I think it boils down to choice in the end. We all hope that the Rivian UI will be the best in every category but every platform has its strengths and weaknesses. So where the Rivian UI works well I am happy to use it but I doubt it will ever integrate with my iPhone as well as I would like it to.

This trend of only doing offerings from preferred partners is the wrong direction.

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