But, VW is willing to pay $5B for their software platform. I think they want to extend that to being able to sell custom chips and “AI” capabilities, whatever that means.
* Doors refuse to open
* Lose the ability to control media playback using any controls
* Any button in the UI just opens and closes the windows
Granted, I'm a server side/backend engineer mostly, and I don't know much about writing software/firmware for a very hostile emf environment. But if any project I worked on had bugs like this, fixed at the rate they're fixed on Rivian, I would assume a badly flawed architecture or non existent technical leadership
Yet VW paid billions for this very software. I can't imagine how bad it must've been on their own stack that they gave up and bought this other seemingly broken stack
The Rivian app does not permit you to send a command to the car while the app thinks the car is processing a command. Trunk opening? You can’t unlock the door. On top of this, if you try to open the trunk while outside Bluetooth range and then Bluetooth connects, you are still stuck waiting for the pending command to complete.
Oh, and the ridiculous “hey let’s always remind you that you own a Rivian” Live Activity seems to synchronize on a schedule that involves being hours and hours out of date.
The Rivian app sucks.
I really wish they would hire a strong frontend team. I can almost always figure out what happened just from the signal, and it's usually a state machine getting stuck. Which I have some sympathy for, but also you just can't have that happen in something that is going to feel polished and responsive.
Stuff like "Doors refuse to open" is vague enough it could be a similar kind of issue which needs physical service/replacement rather than just a software update, especially if other buttons are triggering completely separate actions with the windows. Or it could very well be 100% software issues, which could be more apparent with additional details like "only does it after transitioning from this screen or pressing things in this order" type problems.
If something's wrong with your car's head unit firmware or android auto connection or whatever, of course you'd have a technician look at it?
Pretty much, yeah. I race SCCA and build race cars. Exactly why I want nothing to do with these, you don’t own it. You’re leasing the hardware that’s hogtied to the software.
As a car guy, it surprises me you weren't aware of this trend yet but I guess we all find out sooner or later. But hey - maybe that '89 Carrera will keep on trucking for a few more decades though - good luck!
https://theoutline.com/post/1398/why-can-t-karen-sandler-get...
I think you might be the one needing the luck
- Yolk steering is terrible
- Lack of physical knobs. Haptics are nice but haptics don't work well for cars.
- Tesla menus are getting stuffed more and more with options, making affordance and UI crowding much worse
- The horn is a button press...no one in a emergency situation is looking for a button press..
- Native apps (for example Spotify) are inferior to just using my phone via bluetooth
- Calendar integration / notification is too chatty
one funny one is that periodically you can trigger the "more cowbell" rainbow road easter egg. You can cancel the road animation, but you can't cancel the easter egg music or control the volume.