Apple CarPlay is one of those must-have features for so many new car buyers. After all, how cool is it that your apps, texts, and personalization follow you everywhere you go? The problem is that automakers aren't so hyped about software from other companies in their cars.
Some manufacturers like Rivian, Tesla, and now even General Motors have instead opted to completely forego Apple CarPlay in future models. It might seem like a move that's hostile to consumers, but there's a method to the madness—or, at least that's what Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe tells us on a recent episode of the Decoder Podcast.
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Apple's Uphill Battle With CarPlay
Apple recently announced that it would be revamping the next-generation of CarPlay to become even more encompassing, allowing it to take over nearly every screen in a vehicle, so as long as the automaker would allow it. But automakers seem to have a bit of a thorn in their side over this, rejecting the notion of software on top of their existing vehicle software.
Rivian is one of those automakers that have decided not to move forward with Apple CarPlay integration despite the cries of their customers. It hasn't been clear why Rivian hasn't implemented this, either, especially as Apple is working to build a more cohesive solution that bridges the gap between phone and car.
It turns out that Rivian's idea of cohesiveness doesn't exactly align with Apple's. The electric automaker says that if it implemented CarPlay, customers would need to exit and re-enter the CarPlay application in order to perform basic vehicle functionality, like opening the front.
Essentially, it would make vehicle operation more exhaustive. CEO RJ Scaringe explains:
We’ve taken the view of the digital experience in the vehicle wants to feel consistent and holistically harmonious across every touch point.
In order to do that, the idea of having customers jump in or out of an application for which we don’t control and for which doesn’t have deep capabilities to leverage other parts of the vehicle experience.
For example, if you’re in CarPlay and wanna open the front trunk, you have to leave the application and go to another interface. It’s not consistent with how we think about really creating a pure product experience.
The specific example Rivian uses, opening the front trunk, can be performed one of four ways: via the app, the key fob, a physical button on the front of the car, or the infotainment screen. Unfortunately, there is no physical button to pop it open. There is no CarPlay-specific function to make that happen in a Rivian.
Automakers have been kicking physical buttons to the curb lately as controls are instead being moved to infotainment screens in a move that simultaneously simplifies the interior space of a car and decreases their manufacturing costs. In this case, it also adds a layer of compatibility complexity for third-party software like CarPlay.
RJ goes on to note that he believes that the biggest disadvantage of Rivian's in-house software is its mapping—at least for now. The CEO says that the company is actively working to improve its maps, and in the end believes that it will be the more robust solution based on the kinds of relevant information that can be integrated into the vehicle's overall functionality.
"I think the biggest complaint today around the lack of CarPlay is the improvements we need to make in mapping, which are coming," Scaringe said. "But again, even in mapping, we want to be able to separately select routing, separately select base maps, separately select points of interest, overlay that with charging routing, which is really important and is highly specific to the vehicle itself and highly specific to the networks and the ratings on those networks, which we bought a route planning company to support that."
Scaringe says that he believes that the complaints sometimes generate more noise than the problem actually deserves, but Rivian is working to resolve that. In fact, the company is working to "fully capture every feature that's in CarPlay," though its CEO acknowledges that it will take some time before Rivian reaches equilibrium with CarPlay.
"We just believe that it’s such an important piece of real estate, the digital ecosystem, that it was something we want to retain," he said.
Do you agree, or would you never buy a car without CarPlay or Android Auto?
