Rivian CEO Reveals Why He's Against Adopting Apple CarPlay: 'You Have To Control...'

Rivian Automotive Inc RIVN CEO RJ Scaringe said his company would rather be in charge of its own software experience than rely on third-party services like CarPlay offered by Apple Inc AAPL.

What Happened: Vertically integrating Rivian’s electronic stack and software stack allowed the EV maker to integrate features in a way that you typically don’t see, Scaringe said in an interview. Scaringe was speaking with YouTuber Marques Brownlee on the Waveform podcast.

“You have to control the entirety of the software stack to really fully leverage right all the capabilities,” Scaringe said.

Controlling the system allows the company to be the “arbiter or the head chef” of the customer experience, allowing it to quickly iterate and improve, as opposed to handing it over to a third party, Scaringe said.

During the interview, the CEO of Rivian mentioned the possibility of adding CarPlay to their vehicles in the future, but only if there was significant consumer demand for it.

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Why It Matters: While Lucid Group Inc LCID announced in late March that the CarPlay software will be standard on all Lucid Air EVs, General Motors Co GM said that it plans to phase out CarPlay and Android Auto technologies starting with the 2024 Chevrolet Blazer.

Instead, GM now proposes to shift to built-in infotainment systems with Alphabet Inc‘s GOOG GOOGL Google.

Meanwhile, Apple claimed in June that about 79% of car buyers in the U.S. will not consider a model without CarPlay.

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