Other Manufacturers Kicking the Tires on Rivian Software / Interested in Partnership

[SDH]

An electric 718 or 911 with Rivian software would be awesome! There are 0 EV's right now without a roof! It is a hole that really needs filling.

Convertible R3 could be fun.

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[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

Convertible R3 could be fun.

Like the Mk1 Golf Country Cabrio VW never made?

 

[Doc]

A year ago, my father in law had an insane prediction that Rivian would eventually be a software only company and not build cars. Time will tell and I hope not cuz I love my Rivian

Here's a clip from CNBC that came out about 3-4 months ago (right after the JV with Volkswagen was announced). At the very end, it makes the point that Rivian's software has real value and it takes an obscene amount of capital to manufacture cars. He who controls the software can control the industry...especially with the rapid change that's leaving many traditional manufacturers behind.



Hope Rivian continues to produce vehicles and after the latest capital infusions, I think they'll get to the scale they need by being able to produce the R2/R3 at scale from the GA plant. However, it seems the key to the kingdom is tied up in the software stack. Sort of like in the old IBM PC world where the value was the software and the hardware was almost a giveaway.

 

[iansriv]

An electric 718 or 911 with Rivian software would be awesome! There are 0 EV's right now without a roof! It is a hole that really needs filling.

718 EV already out. 911 will not be an EV in our lifetime. Porsche has done a terrible job of the EV strategy. Not sure where they go from here.

You're spot on about the convertible. Rivian would do well to go there.

 

[KW_88_SS]

I don't see myself ever buying a VW. But I can imagine being interested in some of the other VW owned brands so I'll start off by saying that I hope all of the VW brands incorporate Rivian's software.

An electric 718 or 911 with Rivian software would be awesome! There are 0 EV's right now without a roof! It is a hole that really needs filling.

I can promise you I don't want Rivian software in my Porsche lol.

 

[Zoidz]

Interesting statement by an analyst, although they are frequently wrong.

"The venture is likely to become the platform of choice in the Western world apart from Tesla (TSLA.O), opens new tab, Canaccord Genuity analysts said in a note. The joint venture also helps alleviate "a significant chunk of the capital concern" for Rivian, the analysts said."

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

Here's a clip from CNBC that came out about 3-4 months ago (right after the JV with Volkswagen was announced). At the very end, it makes the point that Rivian's software has real value and it takes an obscene amount of capital to manufacture cars. He who controls the software can control the industry...especially with the rapid change that's leaving many traditional manufacturers behind...

Hence the catch phrase du jour in the industry: software defined cars

 

[kurtlikevonnegut]

Interesting statement by an analyst, although they are frequently wrong.

"The venture is likely to become the platform of choice in the Western world apart from Tesla (TSLA.O), opens new tab, Canaccord Genuity analysts said in a note. The joint venture also helps alleviate "a significant chunk of the capital concern" for Rivian, the analysts said."

If that's true it would be enormous for Rivian's valuation, as they would join Tesla as being valued primarily as a software company and not a manufacturer. It would also be interesting to see VW go from being a laggard in automotive technology to, effectively, a visionary in the space of a few years.

 

[SANZC02]

I don't see myself ever buying a VW. But I can imagine being interested in some of the other VW owned brands so I'll start off by saying that I hope all of the VW brands incorporate Rivian's software.

An electric 718 or 911 with Rivian software would be awesome! There are 0 EV's right now without a roof! It is a hole that really needs filling.

I’m sure that is the plan. I recall when I read the original story the deal is with the VW Group, not the VW division.

 

[MountainBikeDude]

On a serious note, I found this report to be very interesting considering the timing relative to the other reports of Rivian moving towards more autonomy built into its platform and the recent Executive Orders regarding in-car technology from China.

The EO effectively eliminated some major players from the board for any legacy auto makers who were looking to outsource autonomy integration or were going to rely on Chinese technology to power their autonomous platforms. For companies that see in house development as too big of a fish to swallow, the idea of VW's JV with Rivian is probably very appealing. I think there's skin for VW as well, since they could theoretically create a software stack that works in other vehicles together under the JV and benefit from licensing as a partner.

I personally don't think that these things are happening in a vacuum, and it could lead to some really interesting developments around the time that Rivian releases their full year results for 2024.

There was talk in one of Kyle's recent CES videos that VW and Rivian are also working in the background with quite a bit more than what's been announced to the public, a good portion of the deal was also part sourcing and combining orders to bring down manufacturing costs.

I'm curious how Canada's 11th province, or 4th territory will cope on a semiconductor front without Chinese made chipsets.

 

[ThumprMN]

Pontiac, AMC, Saab…

 

[gultin]

I don't think so. That GM-Honda tie up is long defunct: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2023/1...ectric-vehicles-ending-collaboration-with-gm/

The Prologue/ZDX experiment will be one-offs—and a stop-gap to when Honda can get up to speed on EVs. Honda has a JV with Sony, poorly named as AFEELA. Sony is a computing hardware and software powerhouse. Sony Playstion worked with Unreal Engine in video games long before UE was in cars. Sony's Gran Turismo team did the graphic interface in "Godzilla", Nissan R35 GT-R.

Honda's own future EV effort: https://www.thedrive.com/news/honda...ies-saloon-and-suv-will-really-look-like-this

Highlights from Sony-Honda Afeela presentation at CES '25:

Afeela this ain't gonna take off, if ya catch my drift.

 

[captainjp]

Porsche, Bentley, Bugatti…
See the pattern?

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

Afeela this ain't gonna take off, if ya catch my drift.

Yup. Their pricing is 100% #loftygoals.

 

[beaker]

Convertible R3 could be fun.

I'd buy a power-retractable R3x T-Top so hard

Call it the T-R3x

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