“Rivian Assistant” Promises to be the Best Voice Control System in a Car Yet
Key takeaways
- Rivian’s in-house AI assistant can control almost anything in your car while talking like a human.
- Voice control has been around in cars forever, and digital assistants are hardly new.
- Why It MattersMost in-vehicle digital assistants and voice command systems are constrained because they were developed by third parties.
Why this matters: an automotive development that could shape industry direction or buying decisions.
Rivian’s in-house AI assistant can control almost anything in your car while talking like a human.
Voice control has been around in cars forever, and digital assistants are hardly new. Rivian Assistant, though, is promising to be a new kind of both that not only talks to you conversationally but can also control nearly every aspect of your car, not to mention access the internet at large. It’ll be rolled out to all compatible Gen 1 and Gen 2 R1T and R1S vehicles and incorporated into the upcoming R2, but only if you pay for the Connect+ wireless service.
Why It MattersMost in-vehicle digital assistants and voice command systems are constrained because they were developed by third parties. Whether you like Siri or Alexa or Gemini, each was grafted onto cars rather than designed for them. As a result, they often can only control a few vehicle functions, can’t read the owner’s manual, and generally don’t do a whole lot. Rivian says its assistant is different because it was developed internally and is connected to every aspect of the vehicle and the company through the Rivian Unified Intelligence digital framework and the vehicle’s Zonal electrical architecture.