Carmakers are taking Apple fans for an unbelievable ride

CarPlay is still giving some automotive CEO a bad case of road rage. Take, for example, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe, who was interviewed over on Stratechery (subscription required).

As with most discussions with CEOs in literally any industry in the Year of Our Lord 2025, most of it revolves around AI. Eventually, however, they get around to the question the Macalope wanted answered, which is what, exactly, is your problem? Specifically with CarPlay, which Rivian, like several other auto manufacturers, does not allow to sully its beautiful automobiles.

It is a good question; we get asked that a lot.

Oh, really? You don’t say. Probably because CarPlay is so freaking popular. Not to hear Rivian talk about, though. In Rivian’s eyes, everyone’s crying out for that hot Rivian UI.

We’re very convicted on this point.

Interesting word choice because there’s “convinced” which means sure about it, there’s “conflicted” which means not sure about it, and then there’s “convicted” which means guilty.

Paging Dr. Freud. Dr. Freud, meet your party in women’s lingerie.

Because that’s where the slips are, you see.

Yeah, you got it.

Our view is a lot of the applications will start to go away and you’ll have your AI assistant.

[Screech of tires, sound of a guardrail being broken, sound of car exploding over Take The Wheel AI Jesus Gulch]

…when you say, “Rivian, tell me what’s on my schedule for later today”, you don’t care that it has to go agent to agent to Google Calendar to pull that out, you just want the information…

And while you already trust Apple with that information, you definitely want to expand that circle of sharing to include… [checks notes]… your car manufacturer.

[Picks up sheet of paper again] Seriously? Is that what it says?

So as we’ve thought about this, inserting any sort of abstraction layer or aggregation layer that’s not our own just is extremely risky…

As opposed to just using the aggregation layer that the driver is used to in literally every other moment of their lives. The fundamental problem with the argument from these auto manufacturers is they imagine you are in your car all day, every day. You have a house, but why go in it? It’s full of screaming children! Your children! And they make the car so nice! Why would you want to be anyplace but this wonderful car?!

…our goal is to make it such that… …if they were to go back to CarPlay, they’d miss having the integrated holistic experience that we can create.

Sure, sure, they use an iPhone all day long, they’ve used one for 18 years, but that 15 minutes in the car when they went to the Piggly Wiggly was so magical, they want that experience so much they’ll sit in the garage with the motor running. Good thing it’s electric!

This would seem delusional except for the fact that these auto manufacturers don’t really believe this themselves. These are just fantastical arguments they offer in order to sell their idea, which is really just about getting more user data in order to make more money.

Once again, a car manufacturer is here to tell us they’re just doing what Apple does!

[Apple] would never have a screen in a screen on their own devices.

[Note to self: Photoshop that awkward monkey look meme with a picture of iPhone Mirroring and insert it here, it’ll be hilarious.]

It’s like you have two different UIs playing out and I just think it’s poor UI, it’s a poor user experience.

Yes, but no. First of all, this happens all the time. Anyone who owns a television knows the pleasure of navigating the TV operating system UI and any number of different UIs from streaming services. Second of all, instead of providing a window to a user experience the driver is used to all day long, you’re forcing them to use one they are less familiar with for the relatively smaller portion of the day they’re in the car.

So we brought Google Maps in, which was a big one…

Recall that the big reason Apple Maps even exists is because Google wanted more user data than Apple was comfortable giving them.

Scaringe claims that once they get a Rivian, customers forget all about CarPlay because Rivian’s experience is so good. Either that or they just get CarPlay head units.

We will never agree on this issue, but the main reason we will never agree on it is that the Macalope wants a particular user experience, and Rivian and other car manufacturers who eschew CarPlay want user data so they can sell it.

[Programming note: The Macalope will be off next week for the holidays.]