Rivian Recap: 10/09/2026
Hey there,
Here's your weekly Rivian Recap for October 9th, 2026.
A fun Halloween mode, Rivian Assistant hits R2, surprise audio update, unannounced seat hardware removal, and a buried drive mode change.
Let's dive in!
Editors Note: This newsletter has been laser focused on Rivian, but I've done some light content for other interesting electric options in the past.
If this expanded to be include "clean sheet" EVs, would it still appeal to you?
There are other compelling vehicles/bikes/etc coming to market that I'd love to explore together if the majority of you are game.
Hit reply and let me know so I can get a sense of what you're looking for.
Software
This was a big week for software across the Rivian fleet.
We finally got the new Halloween mode rolled out to R1 and R2 vehicles, and I have to say it's one of the more fun updates they've done.
It's an official Ghostbusters theme, and is more deeply integrated into the Rivian software than past examples (which were also fun).
A new experience is the augmented reality display with Slimer, who flies around the vehicle and shows up on both the birds eye view camera, as well as the front/back cameras when he's in those positions.
The team at Rivian has long talked about wanting to incorporate augmented reality into their vehicles, and many of their core concepts do eventually end up in a product in some form.
Perhaps we'll see augmented reality displaying information about your surroundings out on a trail, such as pointing out mountain peaks or lake names in a future adventure.
The beautiful side of a software defined vehicle :-)
For R2, a significant feature addition in this update was the inclusion of Rivian Assistant for hands free routing, control, and phone handling.
Fellow creator David Vaught had more time to poke around the R2 implementation of Rivian Assistant, which you can check out here.
Given that I have another cross state trip coming up this weekend that I'll be taking solo, I'm really happy to have voice control again for things like routing, music, and general vehicle control.
You can check out a more comprehensive 2026.36 video walkthrough from Tyrone Holland here.
The timing of this was interesting given that Rivian took it even further with making the Halloween theme pull all the way into assistant as well.
The software team seems to be a their best when they have time and space to focus on the little details that make the experience more cohesive.
Speaking of the little details, 2026.36 had a surprising audio update on R2 that jumped out almost immediately.
This audio system was already a bit bass heavy but the tuning seems to have significantly cranked the bass response overall.
If you're into hip-hop or other songs designed to be bass forward this really comes through, but it can also lead to other songs sounding muddier.
As I'm on the road trip the next few days I'll be playing with this more, but I expect I'll be utilizing the EQ more than in the past based on the music I'm listening to in order to clean up vocals.
Lastly on the software front, there's a change in the manual for R2 that most people are going to find nit picky, but I find to be fairly underhanded.
A big reason I elected to trade-in my Gen2 Dual Max R1T was for the dual motor behavior with auto suspension and clutch disconnect/reconnect.
In the R2 manuals through multiple software versions, it stated that the expected behavior of R2 was to have on-road drives modes be persistent even across drives that gaps of longer than 4 hours.
So no matter if you chose Conserve, Sport, or Snow... in theory it should stick to those instead of always reverting back to All-Purpose.
In practice, this only worked properly for Conserve mode.
Now with 2026.36, Rivian has swapped the wording (on page 214!) to now say every drive mode always reverts back to All-Purpose after 4 hours.
I honestly don't know if I would've gone through with my purchase of R2 if it had listed the behavior to be this way at the time of delivery, given how much it drove me crazy in my R1T (and still does in our R1S).
Thankfully the clutch disconnect/reconnect is a huge improvement with R2, but my issue here is that the vehicle was stated to work a certain way when I took delivery, and as of this week, it is no longer written that way.
Particularly for the performance trim, it feels like R2 should mirror what we see in the Tri and Quad motor R1 vehicles. Where the user is allowed to pick the mode that they want, and it sticks until the user elects to change it.
I cover more of this in the 2nd half of this weeks video.
Hardware
The big hardware story this week hit the forums and social media like a freight train, but the reaction was more about how instead of the what.
In short, the hardware you likely test drove is not what's being delivered.
Seemingly starting back at the beginning of September, Rivian started excluding the seat back fan in the R2 ventilated seats.
You still get the fan pushing air up from the bottom cushion, but the fan responsible for getting air on your lower back is no longer equipped.
Noted across many early impressions and reviews was both how spectacularly powerful, and noticeably loud, the ventilation system was.
We're getting mixed reports from Rivian about if this was for the feedback on noise, or if there is some kind of parts shortage slowing down deliveries.
Those in cooler climates probably won't mind the change all that much, however those in warmer states are often stating the top level performance of the dual fan solution was a big reason they were planning to get an R2.
More than the change itself though, I think people are more upset about the lack of communication here above everything else.
Many reservation holders went out and did test drives, only to have delivery day come around and the vehicle they were given had an inferior cooling ability.
There was no heads up about the rolling change including their VIN, no MSRP adjustment was made as we've seen with other automakers, and if the order holder chose to refuse they forfeited their non-refundable deposit.
As I mentioned in this weeks video, rolling part changes are extremely common, in particular for companies like Rivian and Tesla.
However, these things have a scale of importance and I think Rivian has miscalculated how much a decent chunk of their buyers would care.
To alleviate this situation, it would've been great to see Rivian:
1. Inform order holders when the change was made, and why (the why still isn't fully settled, even internally).
2. Offer those who had non-refundable deposits in place for a confirmed order the option to back out and and have it fully refunded.
3. Give non-refundable deposit holders an offer for a small Gear Shop credit if they elect to continue with delivery. Or perhaps 3 months of Rivian Adventure Network charging.
Those 3 things would've made it clear that Rivian was making a change, that is was material, and given everyone a fair opportunity to make their choices.
For many, a simple change of dropping the seat back fan from two seats is not the biggest issue at stake here.
Instead, it's a community driven brand feeling like the trust has been broken because there was no communication and it feels like Rivian would bankging on no one noticing.
I hope we see improved communication, and some lessons learned in this process for the next time something like this comes up.
Community
This whole debacle about the R2 seat ventilation is a stark reminder of just how community driven Rivian is overall as a brand.
It's both what makes it great, and can make it extremely reactive at times when it feels like the trust agreement has been violated.
While I certainly don't want to gloss over that reality, I do hope we can all take a step back and appreciate the fun things we do have.
A truly fun Halloween mode that can bring joy to our friends and neighbors.
The local Rivian clubs that help us get out in our vehicles to learn more and do things many of us never though possible... let alone in an electric vehicle.
And at the end of the day, just go have fun on the next adventure.
I'm personally really looking forward to having a "digital hangout" with many of you during my quarterly live stream on October 29th for the earnings call.
Bring your best questions and I'll do my best to answer them following the official call. I appreciate each and every one of you being here.
Worth Checking Out - R2 Sunshade
I suppose with the seat ventilation dropping down a notch in performance, it puts more emphasis on helping keep heat out of the cabin and off the seats in the first place.
I've used VION in both our Gen2 R1S & R1T, so I was excited to put it through it's paces during the big road trip.
Here's a picture of the prototype installed in my R2:
R2 has a much more powerful HVAC system than what we see in R1 products, but all that power comes at a cost of energy draw.
Using a solid sunshade provides maximum thermal load reduction for the cabin to help you eek out more efficiency that otherwise goes to the HVAC.
It's one of the best sub $100 accessories you get for any Rivian in my opinion.
Here's a link for R1S/R1T sunshades as well, the same code saves you 10%.
My thanks to VION for helping make this newsletter possible.
Latest Deals
October deals are here, and most of them are set to extend into securing your offer by November 2nd with a November 30th delivery deadline.
The majority of the offers are still working on incentivizing the remaining 2026 model inventory, but we do have a new 3.99% offer for 2027 vehicles.
There are still some overall price reductions available:
Check out the price reduction on R1S.
Check out the price reduction on R1T.
Here's what's sticking out for deals this week:
Dual Large (3.99% or $1.5k lease bonus) [Lease vs Buy Example]
2026 R1S Dual-Large (Premium Audio)
2026 R1T Dual-Large (Premium Audio, Utility V2 Tonneau)
Tri Max (1.99% or $1.5k lease bonus) [Lease vs Buy Example]
Quad Max (3.99%) [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 R1S or R1T?
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: