Unreal Engine: Rivian UX Program Update: From Early Adoption to Full Lineup

[Rivianero]

Stumbled into this amazing video from the 2024 Unreal Engine conference.

It provides great insights into Rivian's unique UX design, compute hardware for the infotainment system, rendering drive modes and driver display, the software stack and dev process, as well of the talented team of experts pulling this off. I found this to be incredibly informative and inspirational. Enjoy!

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[PBRAZ]

May or may not be an popular opinion, but I feel this is a classic example of form over function. The current UI lags transitioning between screens, most likely because the system is using valuable resources to render spinning wind turbines and birds - things I could care less about. Another example of the huge disconnect between management and customer experience.

 

[Davethadog]

May or may not be an popular opinion, but I feel this is a classic example of form over function. The current UI lags transitioning between screens, most likely because the system is using valuable resources to render spinning wind turbines and birds - things I could care less about. Another example of the huge disconnect between management and customer experience.

I agree. Watch the videos of people using the hummer ev interface and it’s so trashy. The only difference here is that it has a different aesthetic that is somewhat more forgivable but it still does nothing. Still like looking at it though. Could be worse, could be a polestar 2 UI.

 

[Rivianero]

this is a classic example of form over function.

This comment makes me think that you have strong opinions about Rivian's UI, but didn't bother to watch the video. There is really interesting information in there about how their UI objectives of low resource use, fault tolerance, and tremendous efficiencies.

If you don't like the UI, you are certainly entitled to your opinion. I recognize that competitors have features that Rivian has not yet implemented. Everyone is entitled to their aesthetic preferences.

IMHO, Rivian has set themselves apart from the pack with their unique vehicle experience. From from my perspective as a software architect, they have accomplished this in a very eloquent way.

Note that this all runs solely on the infotainment system; it doesn't steal any cycles from the ADAS, sensors, or vehicle control systems. Those use use separate compute resources.

 

[PBRAZ]

This comment makes me think that you have strong opinions about Rivian's UI, but didn't bother to watch the video. There is really interesting information in there about how their UI objectives of low resource use, fault tolerance, and tremendous efficiencies.

If you don't like the UI, you are certainly entitled to your opinion. I recognize that competitors have features that Rivian has not yet implemented. Everyone is entitled to their aesthetic preferences.

IMHO, Rivian has set themselves apart from the pack with their unique vehicle experience. From from my perspective as a software architect, they have accomplished this in a very eloquent way.

Note that this all runs solely on the infotainment system; it doesn't steal any cycles from the ADAS, sensors, or vehicle control systems. Those use use separate compute resources.

I do have strong opinions of the Rivian UI, but not the aesthetics. My issue, if you read my post, has to do with usability. There have never been consistently smooth transitions between any of the major infotainment screens, since day 1. I would much rather have a smooth UI experience than flapping birds, and I assure you , the majority of the folks on this board would agree.

Would I prefer to have both? Absolutely. But since I don't, it shows yet another example of Rivian prioritizing being "cute" and "different" at the expense of usability.

 

[Dark-Fx]

May or may not be an popular opinion, but I feel this is a classic example of form over function. The current UI lags transitioning between screens, most likely because the system is using valuable resources to render spinning wind turbines and birds - things I could care less about. Another example of the huge disconnect between management and customer experience.

It's always been this way, but not as obvious before, because they have increased the power saving measures since.

AAOS needs to launch apps and cache them before they are responsive. Rivian used to keep it active enough that you'd really only have to do it once between software updates. Once you've done it on *this* startup, they are fairly responsive. There is probably something they could be doing differently to preload "apps", but I don't have enough experience to make suggestions.

 

[lmikles]

It was great to see the detail they went into to get their 'world' right. While I don't know how much of this would be part of the VWRivian JV, I'm sure this helped to sell Rivians commitment to the UX.

 

[Rivianero]

I do have strong opinions of the Rivian UI, but not the aesthetics. My issue, if you read my post, has to do with usability. There have never been consistently smooth transitions between any of the major infotainment screens, since day 1. I would much rather have a smooth UI experience than flapping birds, and I assure you , the majority of the folks on this board would agree.

Would I prefer to have both? Absolutely. But since I don't, it shows yet another example of Rivian prioritizing being "cute" and "different" at the expense of usability.

OK, thanks for that clarification.

I haven't had that same experience. Sorry I didn't understand. You're saying that the transition between apps isn't smooth, right?

My R1T is also gen1, so I imagine there are no hardware differences. I wonder what could make my experience so different.

ADAS is twitchy as heck, but that's not really what we're talking about.

Some of the streaming media apps are rough, to be sure. Think I discovered yesterday that the Audible app is streaming rather than downloading audio books. Makes for a rough experience on back roads.

Still lots of work to do for sure, but I can't say I have any issues with transitions.

 

[ElGuano]

I’m not sure the very modest animations make any difference to the smoothness or speed of transitions. If it’s always been like this, including before the cell shaded animations, my guess is the they’re not sacrificing transition performance or responsiveness to implement the animations.

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

May or may not be an popular opinion, but I feel this is a classic example of form over function. The current UI lags transitioning between screens, most likely because the system is using valuable resources to render spinning wind turbines and birds - things I could care less about. Another example of the huge disconnect between management and customer experience.

The subtle background animations are loops, they don't take up hardly any resources, once loaded and cached (which happens every time right after you do a soft reset). Transitions on the other hand do take resources because they require many frames—that's why there aren't many. Anyone who's made a GIF that has transitions know how quickly the file size can balloon.

Huge disconnect between management and CX? What?? You mean you'd rather have an even laggier experience? Says no one ever.

There's also computing limitation of the gen 1 platform that they have to be cognizant about.

 

[blank_lemur]

There's also computing limitation of the gen 1 platform that they have to be cognizant about.

I'm actually curious how much difference there is between Gen1 and Gen2 on the infotainment system... The ADAS parts are massively upgraded, but according to Vidya in the recent Monroe video (@21:40 if the link doesn't take you there), the infotainment is "a Qualcomm processor, very similar to Gen1".



That said, I keep wondering if they'll ever offer an "infotainment upgrade" in the future ... because they seem to be stressing the existing system today. I just don't know if it's because they've run out of hardware resources already or they just have a long ways to go to optimize how well the software utilizes it...

 

[Rivianero]

I keep wondering if they'll ever offer an "infotainment upgrade" in the future

I'd love to have that. However the software engineer in me understands that offering such does increase the complexity of the install base on which the software has to be validated. Perhaps there is something in their build pipeline that would make this not a big burden.

 

[PBRAZ]

OK, thanks for that clarification.

I haven't had that same experience. Sorry I didn't understand. You're saying that the transition between apps isn't smooth, right?

My R1T is also gen1, so I imagine there are no hardware differences. I wonder what could make my experience so different.

ADAS is twitchy as heck, but that's not really what we're talking about.

Some of the streaming media apps are rough, to be sure. Think I discovered yesterday that the Audible app is streaming rather than downloading audio books. Makes for a rough experience on back roads.

Still lots of work to do for sure, but I can't say I have any issues with transitions.

Correct, load times are slow when switching to certain screens. I feel like they could cache them better, perhaps, but what do I know. It doesn't affect all users, are perhaps they don't care or notice; but others do:

https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/threads/2024-51-0-spotted.38901/

It was a lot faster prior to all the animated stuff came to be.

 

[Yossarian]

Correct, load times are slow when switching to certain screens. I feel like they could cache them better, perhaps, but what do I know. It doesn't affect all users, are perhaps they don't care or notice; but others do:

https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/threads/2024-51-0-spotted.38901/

It was a lot faster prior to all the animated stuff came to be.

This is my impression (that the system was faster prior to the relatively recent animations being added) as well. I write this strictly as a user, with no software tech background My impression is also that screen sensitivity has gotten worse recently, with a much firmer touch required, again simply a user observation. From my perspective, neither issue is much more than a moderate annoyance though.

 

[JeromePowell]

I prefer speed to cool animations and I had no issues with the Polestar 2 UX with AAOS. Form follows function, simplicity and intuitive design = elegance in my book.

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