Rivian Recap: 05/29/2026

Hey there,

Here's your weekly Rivian Recap for May 29nd, 2026.

R2 deliveries start in 11 days, in-transit to spaces, demo drives, weird trim "gotchas", and Forest Edge interior returns to R1 (for now) as... a value?

Let's dive in!

Software

While the bulk of interest this week is likely around hardware, we did still learn more about Rivian Assistant this week thanks to an interview Wassym Bensaid (head of Rivian Software) did with Nilay Patel on the Decoder podcast.

He covered everything from the Volkswagen joint venture, to Rivian Assistant, and yes of course... CarPlay/Android Auto.

I have notes and thoughts on each of these below.

Rivian Volkswagen Technology (RVT)

It's no secret that Rivian has been burning through cash in their quest to become a scaled up and profitable company.

R2 is a key ingredient to getting there, but even that won't likely make them cashflow profitable for years.

The $5.8 billion dollar deal with VW (the largest in automotive history), was a key cash infusion Rivian needed when borrowing money became expensive for EV startups.

Baseline information:

1. The VW deal is focused on in-car software, and the little controller computers around the car that handle duties like windows, locks, and core systems.

2. The deal does NOT currently include any "AI" focused software, such as Rivian Assistant or Autonomy based features.

New information:

There seems to be a push to expand the joint venture to include more of the AI stack, which could be one or both of the assistant or autonomy workflows.

Could an expanded partnership be the core unlock to additional funds Rivian is likely to need to successfully start ramping Georgia production?

Would those funds finally help them hit cashflow positive status, reaching sustainability?

Rivian Assistant

With continued use of Rivian Assistant, this is both the most ambitious software integration we've seen from them, and the most impressive.

It is far from perfect, making some pretty comical errors in-line with many AI based assistants powered by large language models (LLMs), but it's a great first step that makes a marked step forward in vehicle functionality.

However, it's worth noting a few things.

1. While the in-car speech recognition and the most basic explicit vehicle controls seem to happen on-device, most are bouncing out to a blend of Google Gemini and Google web sourcing.

This is how it seems to have more refreshed context than most other AI chatbots, including the hilarious "Sad Mike" knowledge.

R2 will run more models in-vehicle for rapid responses on more tasks.

2. The hooks that Rivian has built-in for deep vehicle control are really the most impressive part about this implementation.

Other vehicles coming to market, such as the Volvo EX60 which I'm actually quite excited about, are also powered with Gemini and have similar features.

They are not nearly as polished though for vehicle control, and come up with ridiculous instructions for things like "washing your car" that are just bad.

But for the most common use cases, like temperature and seat heater controls, they do an admirable and arguably similar job in completing the task.

(Here's a quick comparison tool btw of R2, EX60, and iX3)

Wassym defended the AI interaction paradigm as the interface that should replace most users requests for poking the screen and selecting specific apps.

Even as a heavily software first kind of guy, I'm not sold on this approach, especially as it is primarily anchored on "possibilities" instead of what is actually shipping and functional for customers to use today.

Which leads us to this next bit from the interview.

CarPlay and Android Auto

In the interview, Wassym brought up that in the early days of Rivian, approximately 75% of customers were requesting CarPlay.

Today? The number is apparently around 25%.

However, this feels like a cherry picked number, because back in 2021/2022 it was a bit of a surprise to many first time buyers that CarPlay wasn't available.

Most buyers in 2026 have heard that Rivian doesn't support CarPlay, and decided to buy it anyway.

(It's worth noting that R1 sales have declined for 2 consecutive years.)

The vehicle didn't have any SMS support, voice initiated calls were basic, and maps had real problems running on Mapbox data.

Sitting here in mid 2026, things have improved now that we have the real deal version of Google Maps, there are native (if flawed) audio apps for Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, and SiriusXM.

But in the past few years we haven't seen much movement on the additional services integrations, coupled with a limited appetite to do so from Rivian.

Rivian Assistant is a solid improvement, but it still doesn't work as you'd expect with group messages, and has limited calendar support.

Earlier this week I brought up this discussion (again), because unless Rivian is willing to cater to the top apps that cover at minimum the major customer use cases, they will continue to lose sales over this specific decision.

In the Decoder interview, we learned that the underlying software that will be deployed to the VW fleet of newer electric vehicles based on the shared platform, will often times include CarPlay/Android Auto for those brands.

This means, in the future you could buy a Scout, Porsche, or Volkswagen... powered by underlying Rivian software and have a more capable user experience that *also* allows for phone projection.

Suddenly, not only do you instantly get full coverage for all major apps, but you also pick up the tiny fringe apps and services that Rivian is absolutely never going to do a deep integration for.

That means, while your Rivian is stuck with whatever their team has time or interest in supporting, VW group brands get the experience of...

Your group messages just work, every media app streams how you'd expect, and you don't have to sign-in to every service you care about on yet another device (your vehicle), because your phone provides the authentication.

I do believe that first party integration can offer a convenient experience, but the delta between what Rivian delivers today and what they can pick up across the board from phone projection systems is staggering.

This doesn't (and shouldn't be) a zero sum philosophical war. Supporting phone projection is a huge release valve, and gives them room to provide the most compelling native experience and actually win that usage back.

Hardware

Ok, now to the things most of you are probably the most excited for.

R2 deliveries finally start... and they start in 11 days!

As I'm sure many of you saw in your inboxes, we are finally in the final 2 weeks before real deal customer deliveries kick off.

There are many R2's spotted loaded on transport trucks, as these are headed out to local showrooms for seeing them in person + demo drives.

I know many of you are excited about trying to take delivery as soon as possible, and for most, R2 will be your first Rivian and potentially even your first electric vehicle... exciting!

Rivian had initially said that existing R1 customers would get priority delivery, and that seems half true.

Here are the important notes on delivery selection:

1. Existing R1 owners and new owners will be "balanced", so I'd expect a fairly equal mix of R1 owners and first time owners.

This is great news if this will be your first Rivian, you don't have to wait for the existing owner queue to be exhausted!

It feels like a fair way to reward early backers with their own line, while still servicing those who are excited to join the brand for the first time.

2. Expiring leases can help, where if you have an expiring lease (Rivian or not), Rivian will do their best to line up with your timing. It may very well completely miss depending on the order and end date, but an effort will happen.

3. Rivian also plans to batch out based on geography, proximity to service centers, and overall logistics. You also do NOT have to take delivery if your name is called, as you can wait until you're ready (prices and availability may change if you delay, however.)

Those demo drives will be given priority for reservation holders who have been invited to confirm their order, as it is most urgent that they feel confident in committing based on first hand experience.

Be sure to check with your local space, as they are likely to have at least one R2 if not a few. It sounds like the Seattle University Village location is a lock for at least one R2 on June 9th.

Now that things are getting really "real" for deliveries, some of you are still undecided on which trim may be the right fit for you.

That's a reason I spent way too much time obsessing over the configurator and found a number of surprising "gotchas" across the various trims.

I'd really love to see Rivian offer a Premium trim of the RWD variant so users can get all the primary upgrades and creature comforts without giving up the maximum range possible.

Make sure you watch this before locking in that order.

On Thursday, we got a limited return of the "Forest Edge" interior colorway.

With green everything (seats, headliner, dash, door cards), this niche favorite from Gen1 makes a limited time return.

This option comes as a bundled offering that actually packs a surprising amount of value that could have some people getting an excellent deal.

Important things about the Forest Edge option:

1. Available for R1S and R1T as a Dual Max option only

2. Comes bundled with the sound & vision package

3. The green headliner is microseude (like the higher end tri and quad)

4. Limited exterior color options: Glacier White, Forest Green, Half Moon Grey

5. 22" sport dark wheels are included, 20" dark all-terrain upgrade ($) available

6. You can purchase the performance upgrade for the same $5k

Now here's the value piece ($6k in savings):

1. Forest edge comes with the max battery pack

2. Sport dark wheels included

3. Paint color options are no additional charge

If you configure a similar dual max with an upgraded interior color, you're looking at paying $6k more for a vehicle with the same options and capability.

So if the green interior is your jam, or at least not a deal breaker, consider scooping up one of these while they list for a terrific value.

Here's an R1S and R1T example in the shop (comes with 250 shop points + 3 months of free charging when you use a referral code!).

Community

Part of the ramp up to R2 deliveries is that you can now save your favorite configurations of R2, and share them with others.

I've been enjoying seeing others configurations posted on social media.

If you talk to any really early R1 reservation holders (hi!), they will almost all tell you they went in and changed their configuration about a million times.

Here's the current spec I'm planning to go for.

My primary motivation here is to deliver the best possible Rivian content for the channel and here in the newsletter.

Have you gone and saved your favorite spec yet to see how it all shakes out?

Worth Checking Out - Emporia

A number of you have reached out asking about recommended home level 2 charging solutions.

While I still believe the Tesla wall connectors offer the best quality, software support, and user experience for the dollar.

However, I understand some are averse to giving Tesla even $1.

So if you're looking for other alternatives and want to shave some cost from the $800 wall connector from Rivian, check out the Emporia Pro level 2.

You still get 48 amps of power delivery and a NACS handle, along with a 25' cable so you can easily reach your vehicle charge port.

Purchases through these links make this newsletter possible.

Latest Deals

The May offers are officially coming to a close before the next newsletter, so if these catch your eye (or the Forest Edge pricing for R1S and R1T look good), you'll want to grab them.

June deals could go either way on us, but as I always try to recommend, buy based on what you know is true in front of you vs what may be in the future.

(FYI, there have been a few configurator changes this week.)

Here's what's sticking out for deals this week:

Get 1.99% for 60 months on these builds:

Dual Large w/Performance [Lease vs Buy Example]:

2026 R1S Dual-Large w/Performance (Premium Audio)

2026 R1T Dual-Large w/Performance (Premium Audio, Utility V2 Tonneau)

[Only the Dual Max/Performance also qualifies for $3k lease bonus]

Dual Max w/Performance [Lease vs Buy Example]:

2026 R1S Dual-Max w/Performance (Premium Audio)

2026 R1T Dual-Max w/Performance (Premium Audio, Utility, V2 Tonneau)

Tri-Max [Lease vs Buy Example]:

2026 R1S Tri-Motor