Rivian Recap: 07/24/2026
Hey there,
Here's your weekly Rivian Recap for July 24th, 2026.
R2 wheel options may surprise you, Rivian point-to-point caught testing, final 2026 R1 deals, 12v location, first R2 auction, and an R2 engineering deep dive.
Let's dive in!
Note: I'll be doing my quarterly simulcast of the Rivian earnings call on July 30th at 2pm Pacific / 5pm Eastern. I will continue to be focused on product, but these calls are a great excuse for the community to hang out.
I'll hang around at the conclusion of the earnings call to answer any Rivian questions you may have with live Q&A.
Expect one additional email next week when I go live. If you are interested in joining the YouTube live stream, I hope to see you there!
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It's also the final push for the CCAN Action Fund EV Raffle, who I happily partnered with this month to help promote a great cause. Ends July 30th.
Software
Thanks to our friends at Rivian Roamer, we can see that we are in what seems to be the longest drought for R1 software updates since launch.
While the Rivian Assistant update proved to a pretty good update, adding features that many owners waited years for (like SMS integration), we are approaching 3 months without an update for R1.
Historically, Rivian has been fairly consistent with a roughly one update per month cadence. Clearly, trying to get R2 and Rivian OS 2.0 up to par has been consuming developer resources.
While last week we saw 2026.24 hit R2, which backfilled many (but not all) of the missing features for the new platform, we may be in a for a bit of a wait to get the platforms synced up.
Rivian has already confirmed that R1 will be getting Rivian OS 2.0 later this year, which should help consolidate the effort across Gen1, Gen2, and now R2 which is effectively running Gen3 for the in-car computer.
(Not to be confused with what will be Gen3 autonomy, coming in 2027).
A few things still missing for R2 in the current build:
- Climate scheduling (to pre-cool or warm based on your work schedule).
- Google Casting support.
- Rivian Assistant.
I'm sure the team is working as hard and fast as they can for these flagship features, in addition to fixing a ton of bugs.
Every time you take on an entirely new user interface paradigm, you introduce new bugs that were not present in the older software.
Hopefully, the wait to see the release cadence return to R1 won't take too terribly long, as there are a number of things we still want to see here.
I've been told after my frequent complaints about the driver profile selection, that a notable improvement is intended for the next major R1 software update.
Given that we've seen notes about this being fixed or improved before, I'll have to see it to believe it, but I would very much welcome any improvement here.
Next up is what I'd love to see on R1 software sooner vs later.
Includes things such as:
- Significant improvements to Pet Comfort Mode behavior.
- Speed running at least the top 20 media apps (YouTube music, for example).
- Additional mapping features, such as weather overlays, OnX style offline mapping, in addition to Waze for the diehard fans.
- Rear screen updates, particularly for camp mode.
- Feature parity in music apps to their native counterparts, such as seeing more complete search results, and the ability to add to an "up next" queue.
Of course there are still many paper cuts that come as a result of Rivian being adamant about not supporting CarPlay or Android Auto.
I realize people think this debate is beaten to death, but the poor group messaging situation, feature incomplete versions of the apps they do have (such as Apple Music), and the app desert in general mean that there are still very compelling reasons to have phone projection support.
The most wild part of this refusal to have phone projection systems, is that the VW/Rivian joint venture is going to have phone projection support for VW brands that Rivian is developing for and maintaining.
This means that all the excuses for not spending the development resources or maintenance overhead are completely thrown out of the window.
I firmly believe that if Tesla ends up supporting CarPlay as is rumored, Rivian will ultimately have no choice but to cave. Their customers will be better off for it, and it will push their team to offer better native experiences to pull people out of a projection based environment.
Some fans caught heavily equipped versions of R2 in the wild testing and validating the upcoming point-to-point system.
Rivian has continued to promise "point-to-point comes late 2026", but I think what they really mean is "closed beta group access" for late 2026.
I do not expect widespread fleet deployment for customer vehicles to have point-to-point autonomy until early 2027 at the earliest.
This is still exciting news though! Seeing these on the road, coupled with my conversations with the autonomy team has me bullish.
I think Rivian will surprise many people with how quickly we see autonomy improve over the next 12-18 months.
Hardware
This week, I spent time going into a deep dive as to why I think many people (68% based on your feedback) may be choosing the wrong wheels.
This video has sparked some really solid discussion with hundreds of comments on the video. Hopefully it helps you make the right choice for your situation so you can go in with eyes wide open.
Next, Jose over at RivianTrackr was able to take delivery of his Launch Green R2 at the factory in Normal and was allowed to photos. Congrats, Jose!
I recommend checking out his thread since there are quite a few cool shots, but one stuck out to me more than others:
Here we see what appears to be an Esker Silver R2 Premium, equipped with the 20" Bi-Color wheels.
For many people, I think this will end up being a really ideal spec. You get a quality paint color (no charge), an ideal wheel size, and great range (330 miles).
The fact that we are already seeing R2 Premium coming down the line though is very interesting to me, because many reservation holders got an email like this recently:
Given that we know the R2 Performance with Launch Package has Autonomy+ listed as one of the perks, I'd assume that's what they are referring to.
But is it possible that Rivian plans to include Autonomy+ for any R2 build delivered with Gen2 autonomy hardware until the cutover to Gen3 in 2027?
That seems unlikely, but not explicitly impossible given the wording.
Considering how many (myself included) weighed the inclusion of Autonomy+ and the tow package as worthy reasons to jump on a launch version of R2 over waiting for Gen3 or lower trims, this would create an interesting situation.
The expectation is for every single R2 trim to carry Gen3 and LiDAR in the future, even the lowest "Standard" configurations. If nothing else to make sure the training and ground truth fleet is as large as possible.
But there are many who would gladly save another $5k+ to drop down to a Gen2 equipped R2 Premium, if it came with Autonomy+.
Despite the various holds and delayed deliveries, we've seen many people get their order window pulled forward. Could the conversion rate be lower than expected from reservation to purchase?
Including Autonomy+ on non-performance trims could very easily sway more people who may be on the fence to jump now instead of waiting.
I've reached out to some people at Rivian hoping to get further clarification here, and I will report back if I hear something concrete.
Next up, while we've heard that the 12v battery (which is, unfortunately, still lead acid instead of lithium ion) had moved to the rear seat in R2, we finally get our first look:
Rivian has had a fairly, let's say interesting, relationship with 12v solutions over the years. Gen1 originally launched with 2x 12v batteries, which was quickly trimmed to 1x 12v + capacitor.
There were early reports of Gen1 12v batteries dying, and the way it cycles seems to make this more consumable for Gen1 than you get on other vehicles.
Gen2 moved the 12v under the front passenger seat, but some parts suppliers lead to cracking 12v batteries that left some stranded and prompted a "customer satisfaction" campaign to get them replaced in advance.
Both of our Gen2 vehicles had their 12v replaced, one through mobile service and the other tacked onto a service center visit.
I do hope they got it figured out from the start this time, but I still would've loved to see them be lithium ion based, similar to the change Tesla made in 2022, to have a similar duty cycle as the main vehicle battery.
The first R2 went to auction on Cars & Bids, and had a somewhat surprising result for the final winning bid.
With only 4 bids and a sale price of $63,500, it's very likely that the original owner lost money after accounting for sales tax.
Unlike the initial crazy prizes with saw for R1T, R1S, and Cybertruck, it appears that the early demand is all about the lower price point vs the product.
R2 does appear to be a great product, but a huge reason for the appeal is the lower price point which makes the secondary market price elastic.
This could give a bit more evidence that pull through from reservation to purchase is a bit softer as well. I still think Rivian will be able to sell a ton of R2, but data points like this show they are at the ceiling for mass market prices.
Lastly for hardware, Munro & Associates was given access to a deep dive with R2 engineers.
One of the biggest differences for R2 vs R1 is the structural battery pack design, so I really enjoyed learning more from the team behind the philosophy and design decisions that went into that change.
The same group was also able to get a 2nd video with Jeff Hammoud, which actually gives us one of our best looks yet at R2 Standard.
Community
Last week I highlighted this adventure from Chad of Rivian Roamer, and he's back with a recap of his nearly 3,000 mile road trip.
Considering how loaded down his Tri-Motor R1T was with accessories and All-Terrain tires, 1.76 miles per kWh is actually not bad.
This is a great example of how nerdy Rivian Roamer's premium service let's you get, and I'm totally here for it.
Just a heads up that it's final call on the $2 discount for Stay Curious stickers.
This code expires at the end of the month, so if you're into the design or want to support the content, I'd love to personally mail you some of these.
It has been such a joy getting photos back from those of you rocking the sticker on your vehicle... I appreciate you!
Worth Checking Out - CCAN Action Fund Raffle
This week I partnered with CCAN Action Fund on their annual raffle, which gives you the chance to win some pretty awesome prizes.
I still can't believe how many tickets are still unsold, this close to the finish line.
With only 6 days left... the odds are still quite excellent!
1st Place (up to $115k):
- Rivian R1S, R1T
- Lucid Gravity, Air
- Porsche Taycan, Cayenne, Macan
2nd Place:
- Rivian R2
- VW ID.Buzz
- Any Hyundai Ioniq
3rd Place:
- 2027 Chevy Bolt
Check out the CCAN Action Fund raffle here.
My thanks to CCAN Action Fund for helping make this newsletter possible.
Latest Deals
We seem to be in the final push to clear out 2026 model year R1S and R1T.
Two notable changes for the final week of offers.
1. 2026 Tri-Motor R1S & R1T improve to 0.99% financing
2. $1k additional discount if purchased by July 27 (Any 2026 R1)
We seem to be *very* close to 2027 models dropping, but these offers combined with any other "reduced price" on remaining inventory should stack up to be a pretty solid deal.
Forest Edge has also been removed from the configurator, so it's existing inventory only until sold out.
Here's what's sticking out for deals this week:
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)
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 ($3k Lease or 1.99% for 60 months) [Lease vs Buy Example]
All R1 referrals also get 3 months of free charging on the Rivian Adventure Network, as well as some shop credits (varies by trim).
I hope enjoyed this week's edition of the Rivian Recap. Let me know what you'd like to see more of in future editions!
Even if you just want to say hi, hit reply – I'd love to get to know you 👋
Stay curious ✌️,
Travis Ketchum
P.S. Thinking about buying a new Rivian?
Make sure you use a referral code. A friend, a neighbor, or someone who has helped you along the way.
Here's mine: TRAVIS4699411
P.P.S. Here are some tools and resources you may find useful: