Warning, this is a rant. I hate that they got rid of basic voice commands

[Sunroofguy]

How did we ever survive before voice commands "Oh the TRAVESTY I say!"

Simple knobs/buttons for things that don't need to be overly engineered. Adjusting vents by use of a touch screen is stupid, overly complicated, distracting and prone to more ways something can go wrong.

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[raylepper]

Phew....So when I took my first demo drive I noticed there were not buttons for a lot of things my other cars had buttons for. I thought it was kind of a poor design choice. But I bought the car, got used to things and really enjoyed it. Then along comes Alexa and some stuff got easier. I enjoyed it a little bit more. Then along comes the subscription thing for Connect+. $129 for a year to get everything I was already getting plus a few other nice things. Now I get 'Hey Rivian' and it works pretty darn well. At the end of the day, having current maps, connectivity, voice commands, early OTAs is worth it to me. It costs about as much as I pay for Hulu per month. Hell, the days of 'buy it once' software are pretty much gone forever. Oh, and a lot of us are people who spent another 10% of the vehicle cost on wheels, coatings, tinting, etc. immediately after the purchase. So...well, I'm just not that bothered. And that's my $0.04 (used to be two cents, right?)

 

[VSG]

FWIW, there is supposed to be a lite version of RA coming for offline and non-Connect+ control. Who knows when and what functionality it'll have, but it is supposedly coming.

I don't think Rivian has ever promised that. There has been some talk on the forums that "of course" there will still be basic voice commands if you don't have Connect+, but I don't see that promise one way or another directly from Rivian. If you have a reference saying it's coming, I'd like to see that.

When Rivian gave everyone a free RA trial a few months ago, RA worked for but Alexa still worked too, so there was no way of telling that all voice commands, even asking for directions, would be disabled for non-Connect+ users.

 

[VSG]

Besides being handicapped in some way, changing temperature using a voice command is just something I would never thought of needing. In every vehicle I've ever driven, it's a simple thing to do manually...even on a Rivian. Sorry for your loss.

It's not about any one command and whether YOU find it useful or not. The fact remains that many basic functions used to be able to be controlled by voice, for free, without a Connect+ subscription, and without the need to access the internet, but now that basic functionality has been removed.

Again, I don't think Rivian has ever done that before. Any previous features that have been put behind a paywall were only free as part of a free trial, and those were not only expected but reasonable moves that Rivian has disclosed all along they would be doing.

One example: I have always used voice commands to show the camera view when I am maneuvering into a tight parking spot or navigating a tricky forest service road on the edge of a mountain. My eyes and hands are otherwise occupied, so switching to the camera view by voice is a huge help. And it doesn't cost Rivian a cent to do because all the processing is local.

 

[CharonPDX]

FWIW, there is supposed to be a lite version of RA coming for offline and non-Connect+ control. Who knows when and what functionality it'll have, but it is supposedly coming.

That should have been available day one.

I have never had Alexa turned on. I have never (since it became paid) paid for Connect+. The voice functionality without it was always "a bit basic," but it worked for what I wanted it to work for. Having that functionality completely disappear even though I wasn't using Alexa is ridiculous.

Sure, getting to play with RA for a month or however long C+ was free for when RA got turned on was fun, but not enough for me to pay for C+.

 

[savethemanual]

It's not about any one command and whether YOU find it useful or not. The fact remains that many basic functions used to be able to be controlled by voice, for free, without a Connect+ subscription, and without the need to access the internet, but now that basic functionality has been removed.

Again, I don't think Rivian has ever done that before. Any previous features that have been put behind a paywall were only free as part of a free trial, and those were not only expected but reasonable moves that Rivian has disclosed all along they would be doing.

One example: I have always used voice commands to show the camera view when I am maneuvering into a tight parking spot or navigating a tricky forest service road on the edge of a mountain. My eyes and hands are otherwise occupied, so switching to the camera view by voice is a huge help. And it doesn't cost Rivian a cent to do because all the processing is local.

Agree, Rivian should not have taken away features that were already included on the vehicle and put them behind a paywall.

Disagree that a vehicle is unsafe without the ability to talk to it as the OP has suggested.

 

[VSG]

Sorry OP: When we bought our Rivians, we also, whether we realized it or not, effectively agreed to this:

"Rivian may remove or deprecate all or part of the features or functionality ... at its sole discretion and without obligation or notice to you."

Where exactly are you quoting this from? It's important to see the context, especially when legal terms are being discussed. If you're referring to https://rivian.com/legal/terms in Section 18, that refers to "Rivian Applications" or mobile apps. I don't see how that section allows them to remove basic car functionality.

@portdirect: So you think this gives Rivian the right to remove the navigation entirely, unless you pay for Connect+? And you would be OK with that? Navigation is probably the biggest use of bandwidth, so if it were a matter of making money they could save huge on making people pay a monthly fee for their navigation. Or how about the controls to open the frunk etc. from the center screen? What if they charged you for being able to redirect the HVAC vents? (we're treading in BMW territory here ...)

It's perfectly reasonable and expected for Rivian to charge for streaming data that is discretionary. Like you would need for video streaming or Apple Music. They have said all along they were going to do that. But it is not acceptable for Rivian to start charging for a basic feature of the vehicle that has always been free, like voice commands or navigation. And they have never before moved formerly free services into Connect+ before.

That sucks, but the bigger issue is that this business model is increasingly normal.

Either regulators need to establish clearer ownership protections for software-defined products, or as consumers we need to get much better at reading the small print and refusing to buy products where we do not meaningfully retain rights over the functionality we paid for.

Again, it's not about monetizing things that cost Rivian money, like extra streaming data. That's not being questioned. It's about a basic function that is free to Rivian and has always been free to all customers for more than 4 years now, which is being removed. Voice commands. Are we going to have to pay for the ability to turn on our seat ventilation next?

Full disclosure - I had a similar emotional reaction to other things Rivian has done in the past, but am perhaps several months down the 7 steps to acceptance journey.

Like what, exactly? I don't think they've taken anything away ever, except now with the voice commands. Prove me wrong.

 

[VSG]

I have never had Alexa turned on. I have never (since it became paid) paid for Connect+. The voice functionality without it was always "a bit basic," but it worked for what I wanted it to work for. Having that functionality completely disappear even though I wasn't using Alexa is ridiculous.

Yes, exactly. This is not about Alexa, and is not a complaint about Connect+. It's about an accessibility and ease of use feature that was removed.

 

[VSG]

I hear what everyone is saying, but Alexa was destined to be removed at some point, as most technology is surpassed by newer. Alexa was originally designed to help increase sales on Amazon, not do all the things it does today. However, it was also designed with the flexibility to add new functions and capabilities. A great tool in 2014 and developers took advantage of this capability. In 2020 Rivian saw Alexa as the best option to integrate voice commands and such. So, they did. However, Alexa base code was not designed to do all the things people were finding it could do, and the things RIvian wanted to do. Systems which evolve in this manner become unwieldy, slow, inefficient, and hard to maintain over time. By 2024 Amazon realized it had to rewrite Alexa if it was to remain relevant. So, they did and rolled out the new version in 2025. Rivian continued to run the old version of Alexa. Its likely that Rivian looked at where they wanted to go in the future and concluded Google and Gemini would support the future better than Alexa. So, they made the transition. Could Rivian have also upgraded to the new version of Alexa along with implementing Gemini? Yes, but why keep the expense of a redundant system which had been surpassed. Its the way business works and technology evolves.

Well no, this has nothing to do with Alexa.

And you've got the narrative all wrong - it was RIVIAN that is responsible for most of the shortcoming of the in-vehicle Alexa support. Rivian did a minimal and not very good job of integrating Alexa. And Rivian never improved the integration over the years, while occassionally making things worse (talking away timers for one - Why?) This has been discussed many times here over many years. For example, you used to be able to turn on/off the defroster via voice, but you couldn't turn on/off the defogger. Huh? (Or was the the other way around - I can't test that anymore and I don't feel like searching through my posts from years ago where I gave a lot of examples like this.) And you use to be able to change screens on the center display but not all screens for some reason - you could just ask for navigation or cameras but not anything else.

Regardless, Alexa was more than capable enough for everything Rivian did with it. Yes it's fine with me that Rivian moved away from Alexa, but the biggest reason RA is so much better is that Rivian put way more effort into it. RA can control most of the car's functions, where Alexa was never allowed to (or "taught" to, if you will). I will however miss Amazon Music and streaming my own music via Plex integration with Alexa over my phone's hotspot - that's how I got my music.

Likewise, the "licensing fee" argument cannot be significant. If I can buy an Echo device for $20 with lifetime Alexa support, or a $200 printer with built-in Alexa, the per-unit charge to put it into a Rivian can't be significant, even if Rivian had to pay (it might be part of the deal Rivian had with Amazon, which is still in force).

But again, this is not about Alexa. It's about basic voice commands going away.

 

[VSG]

Phew....So when I took my first demo drive I noticed there were not buttons for a lot of things my other cars had buttons for. I thought it was kind of a poor design choice. But I bought the car, got used to things and really enjoyed it. Then along comes Alexa and some stuff got easier. I enjoyed it a little bit more. Then along comes the subscription thing for Connect+. $129 for a year to get everything I was already getting plus a few other nice things. Now I get 'Hey Rivian' and it works pretty darn well. At the end of the day, having current maps, connectivity, voice commands, early OTAs is worth it to me. It costs about as much as I pay for Hulu per month. Hell, the days of 'buy it once' software are pretty much gone forever. Oh, and a lot of us are people who spent another 10% of the vehicle cost on wheels, coatings, tinting, etc. immediately after the purchase. So...well, I'm just not that bothered. And that's my $0.04 (used to be two cents, right?)

This all sounds reasonable, but you're sort of missing the point.

This isn't about whether Connect+ is worth the money. Some people will say yes, some people will say no, and we all can afford it if we own Rivians. Not the question here.

It's also not about all the improvements they're making via OTAs. However, perhaps you would think differently if they charged you for OTA updates with the bug fixes and new features. (In the old days when navigation in cars used to be a thing, this is what they used to do - you had to pay hundreds of dollars every year to get map updates, which had to be installed at the dealer. And which were always a year out of date, just by the nature of the way they were updated.)

The issue is that we all purchased a baseline vehicle. And while we were promised new features in general, most of us recognize that hardware goes out of date and new features require better hardware, so the improvements are going to diminish over time and eventually slow to a trickle. But the expectation is that bug fixes (especially security fixes) should be free for a really long time. And that once we've been given a feature, it won't be taken back arbitrarily.

What we didn't bargain for or agree to is the baseline moving backwards - for features that came with the vehicle to be REMOVED. That means I have less than I had before. Yeah, some companies have done that (Sonos bricking their speakers, etc.), but how did that go for them? And it's NOT what I've come to expect from Rivian.

 

[godfodder0901]

I don't think Rivian has ever promised that. There has been some talk on the forums that "of course" there will still be basic voice commands if you don't have Connect+, but I don't see that promise one way or another directly from Rivian. If you have a reference saying it's coming, I'd like to see that.

When Rivian gave everyone a free RA trial a few months ago, RA worked for but Alexa still worked too, so there was no way of telling that all voice commands, even asking for directions, would be disabled for non-Connect+ users.

I can't find it right now, but maybe @RivianTrackr could point us in the right direction?

 

[RivianTrackr]

I can't find it right now, but maybe @RivianTrackr could point us in the right direction?

Yes, at one time when Rivian Assistant rolled out Rivian had told me they were working on a few limited version. To my knowledge, that’s still planned but super low priority.

 

[JacobAZ]

Well no, this has nothing to do with Alexa.

And you've got the narrative all wrong - it was RIVIAN that is responsible for most of the shortcoming of the in-vehicle Alexa support. Rivian did a minimal and not very good job of integrating Alexa. And Rivian never improved the integration over the years, while occassionally making things worse (talking away timers for one - Why?) This has been discussed many times here over many years. For example, you used to be able to turn on/off the defroster via voice, but you couldn't turn on/off the defogger. Huh? (Or was the the other way around - I can't test that anymore and I don't feel like searching through my posts from years ago where I gave a lot of examples like this.) And you use to be able to change screens on the center display but not all screens for some reason - you could just ask for navigation or cameras but not anything else.

Regardless, Alexa was more than capable enough for everything Rivian did with it. Yes it's fine with me that Rivian moved away from Alexa, but the biggest reason RA is so much better is that Rivian put way more effort into it. RA can control most of the car's functions, where Alexa was never allowed to (or "taught" to, if you will). I will however miss Amazon Music and streaming my own music via Plex integration with Alexa over my phone's hotspot - that's how I got my music.

Likewise, the "licensing fee" argument cannot be significant. If I can buy an Echo device for $20 with lifetime Alexa support, or a $200 printer with built-in Alexa, the per-unit charge to put it into a Rivian can't be significant, even if Rivian had to pay (it might be part of the deal Rivian had with Amazon, which is still in force).

But again, this is not about Alexa. It's about basic voice commands going away.

According to the OP's it has everything to do with Alexa. You have a misunderstanding of what Alexa is. The original design base code was never intended to be the voice tool to control a complex vehicle. The core base code is a command only tool to interact with Amazon purchasing system. They included the ability to create skills so people control simple devices they sold (turn a switch on and off). Skills were built upon skills and the monster grew. It was then adapted, not rewritten, to function as a voice control for limited auto functions. Yes, Rivian had to intgrate the commands, but the Alex base they were working with was never intended to be used in this manner to this degree. Because of the Alexa foundation and capabilities it had no future with Rivian plans. For example, Amazon music, which runs through Alexa streams real time (a few seconds down load at a time). The problem, unless you have a stable constant internet connection (a fixed base), the music can't play with issues. 60 miles per hour is a problem. It may work fine in the city but not in many rural areas on an ATT network. Apps like spotify download an entire song (at least a lot of it) to the infotainment memory, and avoided this problem. The base code of Alexa can't support what is needed. Rivian feels Google can do a better job. Trying to integrate Alexa and Gemini together would have been a nightmare. Its a good business decision, but painful for some users to lose what they had. Rivian provides a better solution, but it does cost, because it costs Rivian ...

As for subscriptions which include a fast internet connection. ATT charges for this. It's not free to Rivian. I don't know who gets how much money, but ATT provides and gets paid for the streaming bandwidth. Rivian pays ATT for the low volume minimum to make the car function.

 

[GRSmith]

Under connect+ features on the current website, they list what is included for free and what features a subscription to connect+ adds. It says it includes basic voice commands without connect+ subscription.

https://rivian.com/connect-plus#features

 

[Kaiju]

Umm, what exactly?
The removal of voice control described by the OP is the first time they've done this as far as I've seen.
Expiration of trial periods don't count as removing or monetizing features.

Things you don't habitually use will disappear without being noticed. Offline scheduled charging and navigation have been gone going on a year now. Those weren't even mentioned in patch notes.

Rivian called it a 'new feature' but if you had a dual motor prior to 2025 there was also a time when you could turn auto ride height off and it would stay off. Not so any more and I'm fairly sure it's a daily nuisance for thousands of people. That was another surprise not in any patch notes.

I have never used voice commands, but I feel the same way about navigation not working like it did when I bought my truck. It all makes me wonder in the not too distant future if there won't be people who sell OS replacements for abandonware vehicles. I'd probably buy one if it meant I wasn't bound to Rivian's choices.

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