Rivian software executive Wassym Bensaid has revealed many upcoming features and improvements in a new Q&A published on Instagram.
Easily one of the best improvements brought about with the introduction of electric vehicles is over-the-air (OTA) updates. As Tesla CEO Elon Musk often states, these improvements allow your car to get better while just sitting in your driveway. Now, Rivian has revealed a series of upcoming software improvements in a question-and-answer segment held on the automaker’s Instagram yesterday.
The list of improvements coming to Rivian vehicles is extensive and much needed, bringing features that many in the community of owners have been asking for for a long time. Most predominantly, Rivian’s hotly anticipated dash cam update is just on the horizon, allowing owners to automatically record accidents, operate as a security camera system, and even record cool videos from the vehicle’s cameras.
The second major update is the introduction of in-car video streaming. While still early in the development process, Rivian aims to replicate the success Tesla has seen in introducing services like Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+. This update will come alongside improvements to audio that Rivian is presenting as part of its new in-house “Elevation Audio” experience.
Other new features are somewhat iterative or minor but will still add up to a massive improvement in usability when taken as a whole. Rivian will add phone app-based navigation and bug reporting, in-car text message integration, scheduled battery preconditioning, garage door integration, and improved energy analysis.
Finally, Rivian will introduce a slate of improvements to pre-existing features, helping to make them easier to use and more reliable. Foremost, Rivian is working on vehicle performance improvements, including towing and overall range improvements, achieved through more efficient programming. On top of range improvements, Rivian continues working on the “phantom battery drain” issue, which many Rivian owners have complained of. This fix will also generally improve vehicle battery resilience.
As shared by Bensaid, Rivian’s software roadmap is highly determined by user feedback, often coming from the company’s highly active Reddit page, where employees and owners intermingle to address problems and think of future features. Looking to the future, with Rivian’s continuing dedication to software improvement, it is headed in a great direction to quickly improve its product line in the coming months and years. Hopefully, it can inspire legacy automakers to do the same.
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