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"... Rivian will integrate Alexa into its electric pickup and SUV"

EyeOnRivian

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As reported by TechCrunch Rivian announces ahead of CES that it will integrate with Alexa.

Rivian will integrate Amazon’s voice assistant Alexa into the R1T pickup and R1S SUV, the company’s first electric vehicles that are set to debut at the end of the year.

Rivian said Monday it also plans to extend the Alexa integration to 100,000 electric delivery trucks that Amazon has ordered from the automaker. The electric vans are expected to start delivering packages to customers in 2021.

The integration into the R1T and R1S will give owners access to standard Alexa features, such as playing music, placing calls and navigation, as well as the ability to control the climate, open and close the trunk and other vehicle features.

Rivian said it plans to give Alexa other capabilities designed for its vehicles. For instance, owners will be able to remotely tap into the camera embedded in Rivian’s pickup truck from Amazon screen-based services like Echo Show and Fire TV to check on whatever gear is stashed there. The integration also will allow access to certain Alexa features when the vehicle is offline, a decision meant to match up with how these vehicles might be used.

Rivian’s vision is to “enable exploration without compromises and provide our owners the best digital experience, no matter where their adventure takes them,” said Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe. “We want this to be the most comprehensive, most seamless Alexa integration in the market.”

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Source and to read rest of the article: https://techcrunch.com/2020/01/06/a...grate-alexa-into-its-electric-pickup-and-suv/


Also as reported by CNET:

There are two major ways Rivian's Alexa integration will work. First, it'll do all the usual stuff you expect, say, an Echo Dot to do: It can play music, make calls and send directions to connected devices like light bulbs, in addition to working with the myriad skills available on other Amazon-enabled devices.

But with this deeper connection to the car, Rivian has opened up a whole second area of functionality. Alexa will be able to change actual vehicle settings, whether it's adjusting the climate control or opening the trunk and windows. If you have an Echo Show or Fire TV, you can use those to access the pickup truck's bed camera, for a little extra peace of mind. Rivian also mentioned mysterious "car-to-home" and "home-to-car" skills that it claims are unique to its own cars, but as of this writing, the company has yet to divulge more details about those skills.

Now, you might be saying to yourself, "All this stuff is only good if I have an internet connection." You'd be right, but given the level of connection between Alexa and Rivian's vehicles, the automaker says internet access won't be a necessity, per se. Rivian promises certain Alexa features will be available when offline, but again, it did not specify which ones.

Source and read rest of the article: https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/rivian-amazon-alexa-integration-ces-2020/


I didn't realize Rivian had placed a camera that covers the R1T bed.
Also wise that the Alexa features will work offline - handy when in remote areas with no coverage.
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Tyker

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I had read/saw in a video about the bed camera that if someone cuts the lock it activates so you can see who is stealing your stuff. Jury appears to still be out about some sort of "sentry mode" will be included.
 
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EyeOnRivian

EyeOnRivian

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I had read/saw in a video about the bed camera that if someone cuts the lock it activates so you can see who is stealing your stuff. Jury appears to still be out about some sort of "sentry mode" will be included.
I do recall hearing about if the cable is cut something happens like an alarm and a notification to your phone. Don't recall a camera, interesting.

As for some sort of a "sentry mode," I had asked a Rivian team lead this very question at the Normal, IL event past October. He said definitely, even better than Tesla's. And of course, nothing more than that. No details of any kind. Beyond that I haven't heard any other reports or comments about it so it will be interesting to get something more definitive from Rivian on this topic. I'm hoping some of these unknowns get fleshed out at CES this week.
 

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I am also hoping for some new juicy info from CES, otherwise I will be at fully charged with my ongoing list of questions to which I anticipate several "we will disclose at a later time" responses.
 

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Regarding Alexa, saw some Twitter posts in response suggesting potential Rivian customers are concerned about privacy and they may reconsider. Not a deal breaker for me but what say others here?
 

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Nice to see Alexa integration properly confirmed now. VERY happy to see they're thinking about offline functionality. Personally, I would have picked Google Assistant integration, but this makes sense given the Amazon investment. Hopefully this news about better standardization and more open platforms applies to Rivian vehicles as well: https://www.digitaltrends.com/news/apple-amazon-google-partner-to-create-better-smart-home/. IMO Google has the best voice recognition and ML tech at the moment, but Amazon isn't too far behind. At least they didn't try to build their own and end up with a dumpster fire like most other traditional auto manufacturers.
 
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EyeOnRivian

EyeOnRivian

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Regarding Alexa, saw some Twitter posts in response suggesting potential Rivian customers are concerned about privacy and they may reconsider. Not a deal breaker for me but what say others here?
I think at a minimum Rivian needs to supply an option to disable / turn off the feature as I think that will assuage most people's concerns. Personally I'm more familiar with Google Assistant. I was (and still am to degree) leary of these voice activated systems lurking in one's home (or vehicle) but as someone pointed out to me I better get rid of or turn off my smartphone because it's listening. Until I learn more about the possible privacy concerns people are bringing up, I'm OK with it. Again, as long as Rivian provides a means to turn off the feature, I'm good as I suspect others will be too.
 

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I hope it will answer to "Rivian"...I experience a good number of false activations to both "Alexa" & "Echo" with my wife's favorite home gadget.

I'm not a huge fan due to potential privacy & cybersecurity reasons, but it is good for playing music, reminders, and adding things to our grocery list...
 

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Also added this to first post by @EyeOnRivian

Also as reported by CNET:

There are two major ways Rivian's Alexa integration will work. First, it'll do all the usual stuff you expect, say, an Echo Dot to do: It can play music, make calls and send directions to connected devices like light bulbs, in addition to working with the myriad skills available on other Amazon-enabled devices.

But with this deeper connection to the car, Rivian has opened up a whole second area of functionality. Alexa will be able to change actual vehicle settings, whether it's adjusting the climate control or opening the trunk and windows. If you have an Echo Show or Fire TV, you can use those to access the pickup truck's bed camera, for a little extra peace of mind. Rivian also mentioned mysterious "car-to-home" and "home-to-car" skills that it claims are unique to its own cars, but as of this writing, the company has yet to divulge more details about those skills.

Now, you might be saying to yourself, "All this stuff is only good if I have an internet connection." You'd be right, but given the level of connection between Alexa and Rivian's vehicles, the automaker says internet access won't be a necessity, per se. Rivian promises certain Alexa features will be available when offline, but again, it did not specify which ones.

Source and read rest of the article: https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/rivian-amazon-alexa-integration-ces-2020/
 

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Regarding Alexa, saw some Twitter posts in response suggesting potential Rivian customers are concerned about privacy and they may reconsider. Not a deal breaker for me but what say others here?
I'd prefer to use a button to activate it rather than have it always listening, which is what I've done with Siri. Otherwise, I bet most of the people swearing off Rivian due to the Alexa integration are people who never had a reservation in the first place.
 

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skyote

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Hexijen

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Regarding Alexa, saw some Twitter posts in response suggesting potential Rivian customers are concerned about privacy and they may reconsider. Not a deal breaker for me but what say others here?
I absolutely do not want alexa in my vehicle. They said it can be disabled, and I really hope that ends up being true. I have a preorder but it would give me pause if it couldnt be disabled. As long as I can keep it from never accessing the internet, I'm fine with it.

Would be nice to have an "offline-only" setting for the Alexa features
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