On April 8th, RJ Scaringe, the CEO of Rivian, stated that their electric vehicles will not be compatible with Apple CarPlay. During an appearance on the Waveform podcast with MKBHD, Scaringe explained why Rivian does not support CarPlay.
Marques Brownlee also pointed out a statistic shared by Apple at the WWDC 2022 conference, claiming that “79% of car buyers in the US only consider vehicles that support CarPlay.”
Scaringe responded by stating that Rivian does not want to give control of their infotainment system to companies like Apple, and instead wants to build their own in-car system experience that they can control. Scaringe’s response is as follows:
“Whether it’s music or maps, Rivian wants to integrate multiple top platforms. As Rivian advances the upgrade process, we still want to play the role of arbitrator or chef and have sufficient control over the infotainment system. This is an important part of improving the user experience, and we will not hand it over to other companies.”
