Rivian Recap: 08/29/2025
Hey there,
Here's your weekly Rivian Recap for August 29th, 2025.
Rivian may finally be improving Gen2 mobile keys with CarKey support, new stealth offers on Rivians in the R1 shop and off-grid adventures.
Let's dive in!
R1
Tired of the constant lock, unlock, lock behavior when your Rivian is even remotely close at all?
Gen2 owners may finally soon be able to call that a thing of the past when the long overdue CarKey support finally ships.
First seen by Macrumors that Apple has lit up support on their end, Wassym has now confirmed that the update is very soon.
It's worth noting that two flagship phones are expected to be supported beyond just the iPhone which is big news for Android users out there.
I'm optimistic that this and the use of ultra-wide band will finally make Rivian's lock/unlock feature work at least as well at Tesla's do. 🤞
After getting more time in the seat with 2025.26, a few subscribers pointed out that they thought Spatial/Atmos support had also been improved.
I can confirm that spatial support has seemingly improved, but the variance is still really wide here depending on how the song was mastered.
Some spatial songs now actually sound quite compelling, while others continue to sound hollow and flat as I find many "spatial" masters to be.
For me, it's enough to continue to have spatial audio disabled, and stereo upmixed to involved the headliner speakers, but I'm happy to see them continuing to improve the audio.
The major changes for audio are still expected to be in 2025.30, but improved low end response (which is larger on the R1S given the 10" woofer vs 6x9" in the R1T) is a pleasant upgrade in the interim.
I finally got a video together about the Starlink Mini I picked up recently and have used on some off-grid outings.
Starlink Mini + Rivian = The Ultimate Adventure Combo
People seem to have strong feelings about Starlink, but I can't think of another product quite like this that enables what this can do... let alone at this price.
As a software CEO it has already proved invaluable, and based on some comments by viewers it has saved their bacon recently as well.
And lastly for R1 news... Red Canyon lives!
While Limestone is for sure on the way out with "limited inventory remaining" it seems as though Rivian has done an about-face with the unique red color.
The main catch? Custom builds with Red Canyon may push orders into early 2026.
I'd really love to know how the back and forth on colors went down, and what other colors they have planned for next.
Supposedly purple is in the mix, but I'll hold judgement until I see colors in person because every Rivian color has impressed more in-person than in photos in my humble opinion.
R2 + Beyond
Rivian is slated for an approximately 3 week shutdown at the Normal, Illinois facility in September to make progress on integrating components of the R2 production line with the main facility.
This is a major milestone towards real operation where customer ready R2's are rolling off the assembly line.
Could we be closer to the first R2's reaching customers than originally slated?
I have to imagine Rivian learned a thing or two about the lengthy delays that R1 originally had reaching customers and is perhaps underpromising here.
When Rivian demonstrated the R2, they also showed off a rear shelf and seat system for proper tailgating.
Now, @Hillbe has located their patent on a similar system for R3/X that could make it to the list of fun little touches that you could see on a future hot hatch from Rivian.
Speaking of patents, Chris also found this very cool patent for a rear full size spare tire designed for R2 with a clever in-tire mechanism for add-ons that could prove to be super useful.
Let's hope some of these make it to production!
Autonomy
I touched a fair amount last week on 2025.26 and how I think the flywheel for Rivian should go fast now that they are fully on an in-house stack.
Multiple media sites have picked up on a comment that RJ made about expecting point-to-point autonomy by late 2026 from the same InsideEV's interview.
Personally, I do think Rivian is aiming to get there but I would be surprised if we see anything resembling the driveway-to-driveway scope that say, FSD currently aims for, until sometime in 2027.
But even with that, it seems like the curve of improvement should be steep from here forward.
In a bit of a funny circle, Jose over at Riviantrackr reached out to Wassym about the lane centering performance I talked about last week and as a surprise to hopefully no one, Rivian is aware of it and will be improving it soon.
Given just how impressive the gains were on all other behavior, I have to imagine we will see lane centering improve by next month and we may finally see lane shading away from large nearby vehicles by the end of the year.
Community
I just wanted to give a shout out to Evelyn, Chuck and their giant good-boy Casey for their continued support.
They were kind enough to loan me their Ultra Red Model X earlier this year for both a comparison against the R1S as well as to test FSD v13.
They are excited to join the Rivian community when R2 finally ships, so long as they have a killer red color 😅.
May we all be so kind and welcoming as this community continues to grow.
Latest Deals
Rivian always wants to keep us on our toes.
Another week means a slew of more updates to the offers and incentives.
Here are the 3 incentives added this week:
- 2026 Tri-Motor got added to the $6,500 lease incentive (plus $7,500 federal)
- 2025 Tri-Motors now have "stealth" discounts. Things like paint color and wheel upgrades have been zeroed out. One of the better builds now if you were planning on a fancy color and off-road wheels!
- Score a free camp speaker when you do a demo drive or fill out a trade-in request form (but seemingly don't need to do a trade-in) and order the same day. Offer expires September 15th.
Here are the supported builds with offers + my recommended upgrades on audio, tonneau, etc.
2025 Tri-Motor R1S <- Stealth deals (free paint and wheel upgrades)
2025 Tri-Motor R1T <- Stealth deals (free paint and wheel upgrades)
2026 Dual-Max Performance
- 2026 Dual-Max Performance R1S
- 2026 Dual-Max Performance R1T
2025-2026 Dual-Standard (an excellent entry value)
I would highly encourage everyone to lease so you can claim the incentive, even if you plan to buy out immediately.
Here's my video about lease vs buy to help better understand the numbers.
I hope enjoyed the this weeks 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