• Rivian says that AI in the cabin is the future of in-car controls.
• This essentially puts the debate over Apple CarPlay integration to bed, at least in Rivian’s eyes.
• Whether consumers agree remains to be seen.

A lot of people love Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The idea of mirroring your phone to the infotainment system is a huge selling point. But an increasing number of automakers, including Tesla, General Motors, and Rivian, to name just a few, are turning their nose up at the idea and instead using their own in-house solution.

Recently, Rivian’s chief software officer, Wassym Bensaid, elaborated on the company’s software philosophy. It turns out that the EV maker still isn’t a huge fan of stuffing CarPlay into its cars and instead believes that no amount of buttons or screen mirroring can replace the interface that really matters: your voice.

Photo by: Rivian

Bensaid revealed the automaker’s software direction during a recent interview on the Decoder podcast. He noted that screen-mirroring tech like CarPlay presents the unique challenge of taking over every single pixel of a car’s infotainment, which isn’t how Rivian sees itself interacting with the people using its software.

Moving forward, Rivian believes that everyone’s favorite buzzword—AI—will be the preferred way that drivers interact with their cars. This means that features like Rivian Assistant will be front and center, controlling major vehicle functions as the tech matures.

That last nugget about the tech maturing is the most important part. We all know that using voice assistants has been a subpar experience on certain vehicles. Even Rivian’s customers have complained about the in-car voice recognition in the past, which means putting a lot of trust in the company to fixing the software moving forward (and won’t accidentally turn off your headlights while driving like some other brands).

Bensaid says that the use of AI makes the CarPlay argument moot. Here’s an excerpt from Decoder’s interview:

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.

I really believe that the way you interact with apps—which are mono-threaded with single buttons or single icons—will be completely reshaped into a world where an agentic integration presents itself as a wholesome user experience.

He continued to note that Rivian believes that voice “has the chance to be the primary interface in the car,” meaning that while buttons do exist, they shouldn’t be the primary way that the driver interacts with features inside of the vehicle.

This, of course, minimizes the need for additional hardware and helps to cut the cost of physical parts. But it also eliminates the need to dig deep into software menus to find certain features.

The problem with CarPlay’s integration is that this sort of agentic use of AI isn’t really available to Rivian or other automakers, at least not yet. So Rivian can quickly pump out new features and improve functionality much more quickly than if it were waiting on a third-party partner.

Bensaid also noted that Rivian’s number one requested feature was CarPlay. Five years ago, more than 70% of respondents surveyed by Rivian said they wanted CarPlay in their vehicle. Rivian didn’t budge, though, and that request has recently dropped to less than 25%. Bensaid attributes that success to the number of features that Rivian shipped over the last five years, essentially upping the level of convenience of the in-car tech faster than Apple could pump out similar integrations in CarPlay.

And while you may be burning tokens with frontier models, using AI as your primary control interface, Rivian says it could rate-limit users if they spend hours talking to the assistant like a conversation partner, to keep compute costs low. But even better, Bensaid says that much of the AI inference could be moved down to local compute, presumably thanks to the upcoming XMM3 infotainment chipset. That means the vehicle would be able to process conversational commands using its own hardware and software, rather than fully relying on data centers thousands of miles away.

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Rivian is probably right that future cars will eventually stop revolving around mirroring our phones. The industry will eventually pivot to the solution that provides greater convenience for the driver and more usable data for the automaker. That very well could be a homegrown solution like the one Rivian has built.

Now, whether Rivian or any other automaker can truly deliver the magical AI-powered car at scale remains another question entirely. Admittedly, these voice assistants have become alarmingly good at interpreting what humans are asking for, as we’ve seen with the latest Volvo EX60 that InsideEVs recently reviewed and came away impressed with its Gemini integration. So the long-awaited future of making in-car voice assistants truly capable may arrive sooner than we think. 

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In the year 2026 it is painfully easy to identify the least-favored child at Stellantis. The fact that it’s Chrysler—the name that appeared on U.S. corporate letterhead for nearly a century—is frankly more than just a little bit insulting. I’ll be 42 this year, which means that for half my life, Chrysler has been in what I can only describe as a perpetually irrecoverable tailspin, and that breaks my inner Mopar boy’s little heart.

Two decades ago, Chrysler was selling the Crossfire alongside the then-new LX-platform 300 sedan and showing us concepts like the ME Four-Twelve Concept. and Firepower. The former—so-named because it had midship-mounted engine with four turbochargers and twelve cylinders—was essentially a Le Mans prototype for the street, the latter a Hemi-powered Viper with an automatic transmission and an interior that didn’t suck out loud.

If you were too young or too into European or Asian cars to appreciate any of the things I listed above back then, just run your eyeballs over this gallery. Sure, the Crossfire was just a re-skinned Mercedes-Benz, and the Pacifica was just something for Celine Dion to sell to soccer moms, but the the former was at least interesting, and the latter was one of those too-soon-to-market crossovers that the company would be well-served to have back in 2026. It also legitimately punched above its class and price.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of seeing the brand in purely pre- and post-bailout terms, but arguably, the killing blow was dealt before that, by Daimler, which helped run its parent corporation desperately low on cash before divesting itself of pretty much the entire thing—just as the global economy was about to implode. Remember Cerberus? I’ll wait while you spit; go ahead. The years in between Daimler’s retreat and the company’s bailout and compulsory absorption by Fiat certainly allowed the wound to fester, but they weren’t the cause.

But more and more, every time it seems like development money might finally trickle down to Chrysler, instead we’ve seen it fall victim to another corporate pivot, leading to a now two-decade-long-roster of regrettable could-have-beens. In the below, I see the earliest hint of a new van, a new midsize crossover and a new sedan. Where are they?

Between its existing products ageing out of the market and this parade of never executed upon projects, the brand now has precisely one model to sell—one that could just as easily be sold under any of the company’s other American brands, save perhaps for Jeep. That might leave one to assume that “Chrysler” only exists so as not to put Stellantis in breach of its dealer franchise agreements. It’s a good thing minivans are selling, right?

In its defense, the Pacifica is the exception that proves my rule. For starters, it’s genuinely nice. The Pinnacle is nothing short of a leather-upholstered living room on wheels. Beyond that, the nameplate represents almost the entirety of the brand’s investment and innovation over the past two decades. From “Stow and Go” in 2005 to the now-discontinued plug-in hybrid model introduced in 2017, Chrysler has sent a consistent message that it still cares about its minivan customers. Regrettably, the message implied by the trajectory of its other products (not to mention the Stellantis c-suite) isn’t so uplifting.

Given the money Stellantis has lost to sliding sales and EV development write-offs, perhaps it’s not the best time to beat this drum, but if I wait any longer, there may nobody left to hear the rhythm.

I wonder, is anybody even listening now?

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There’s a key challenge with some electric vehicles’ door handle design. If the door handles pop out electronically, a dead battery can leave you locked out, and unable to open the hood. Without hood access, you probably won’t know how to jumpstart a dead low-voltage battery, leaving you locked out. 

Here’s how you solve that issue, at least if you own a Rivian R1T or R1S. The latest video from Out Of Spec Bits breaks down the process, which is similar to the process for most EVs with pop-out door handles. 

In the video, Kyle and Scot from Out Of Spec start with a 2026 Rivian R1S that is completely dead. Both the low- and high-voltage batteries are dead, a worst-case scenario for an EV. Without a functioning 12-volt battery, you often can’t engage the charging system on the high-voltage battery. That’s why jump-starting the 12-volt battery is the first step.

For most EVs, there is a manual way to get into the cabin or hood. On Gen 2 Rivian R1s, there’s no manual way to get in, but there are a pair of wires in the trailer wiring harness that can be used as jump leads. By connecting a jump box or another vehicle’s battery to these cables, you can power up the vehicle’s low-voltage power system and engage high-voltage charging.

Unfortunately, the video shows that this is all easier said than done. The Rivian requires a consistent 12-volt signal to power up its door handles and screens, and a portable roadside jump-box isn’t quite enough. Even a larger lead-acid model isn’t enough to get the on-board charger to accept an AC connection and begin charging. 

This is where you connect the jump box to a Rivian R1S or R1T.

Photo by: Out of Spec Reviews (YouTube)

To solve that, Out Of Spec jumps the Rivian the old-fashioned way, with a pair of jumper cables and a gas car. The Rivian takes so much load that you can hear the Ford Crown Victoria’s engine rev up, but that’s enough to get it charging. From there, the DC-to-DC converter handles the rest of the low-voltage charging, while the wall plug and onboard charger juice up the traction battery.

For most EVs, it won’t be this challenging. Modern EV battery systems are designed to keep the 12-volt batteries topped up, and most are easy to jump start when they inevitably expire. Still, if you want to avoid dealing with this, the advice is the same. Always replace your car’s 12-volt battery every three to five years, or at least get it tested to ensure it’s still strong. You’d hate to walk up one day and find your power door handles tucked away, unable to open.

Contact the author: Mack.Hogan@insideevs.com

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