Rivian says AI makes debate over CarPlay ‘completely obsolete’

Rivian’s chief software officer, Wassym Bensaid, joined Nilay Patel in the latest Decoder interview. And his comments on CarPlay show Rivian continuing to double down on its refusal to support Apple’s platform.

Rivian’s software chief explains why customers don’t need CarPlay

Nilay Patel’s Decoder podcast often features high-profile guests in the automotive world, and Patel always asks about CarPlay. Last fall, for example, Rivian’s CEO RJ Scaringe joined the show and said that “customers will appreciate” the lack of CarPlay eventually.

Decoder’s latest episode features Rivian’s software chief, Wassym Bensaid. It arrives shortly after Rivian launched its highly anticipated AI assistant.

In addition to talking about the assistant, and Patel’s positive and negative experiences with it, the conversation highlights CarPlay.

Bensaid explains that the whole debate over excluding CarPlay is made “completely obsolete” by the rise of AI. Here’s the full quote:

What we’re seeing right now with the advancement of AI technologies is just another reason why I deeply believe that RJ and Rivian made the right choice by investing into our own technology and software. Cars are moving from, as you said, the buzzword “software-defined” to “AI-defined.” The possibilities now for such deep AI integration in the car make the entire CarPlay debate completely obsolete.

He goes on to say that “agentic integration” will entirely upend the way users interact with apps.

Top comment by Peter

It really depends on how you use your devices. He may be correct for people who use their devices like him (whatever that entails). But I value consistency and on-device data. For security and privacy reasons I avoid use of cloud apps. Other than iCloud, I put nothing in the cloud (I am placing an awful lot of trust in Apple's security).

Because I Value consistency, I live in an Apple ecosystem.

Based on all that, I am unable to see how I would enjoy interfacing with AI rather than Car Play. I love the Rivian vehicles, but there is no chance I will buy one without CarPlay.