{"id":16095,"date":"2026-05-13T12:50:46","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T12:50:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/13\/hey-rivian-the-adventurous-evs-get-a-new-ai-onboard-assistant-ars-technica\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T12:50:46","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T12:50:46","slug":"hey-rivian-the-adventurous-evs-get-a-new-ai-onboard-assistant-ars-technica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/13\/hey-rivian-the-adventurous-evs-get-a-new-ai-onboard-assistant-ars-technica\/","title":{"rendered":""Hey Rivian"\u2014the adventurous EVs get a new AI onboard assistant – Ars Technica"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Rivian Assistant is available for both Gen1 and Gen2 hardware.
Rivian has quickly built a reputation as one of the auto industry\u2019s leaders when it comes to vehicle software. Its clean-sheet approach to an electric vehicle\u2019s electronic architecture earned it a $5 billion investment<\/a> from Volkswagen Group, and its in-house infotainment system is beloved by owners despite no plans inside the company to support phone mirroring through Apple CarPlay or Android Auto.
In the absence of phone mirroring\u2014and the way it lets you easily use Siri or Google Assistant hands-free while driving\u2014Rivian has now added a new AI digital helper in its latest software update, compatible with both older Gen1 Rivians<\/a> (model-year 2024 and older) as well as the more recent Gen2 models<\/a>.
The Rivian Assistant rolled out in its latest software update<\/a>, 2026.15, to all owners with a subscription or trial for Connect+, Rivian\u2019s connectivity services. You activate it like most digital assistants, either with a button on the steering wheel, an icon on the infotainment display, or with a trigger phrase\u2014in this case \u201cHey Rivian\u201d or \u201cOK, Rivian.\u201d
Because the assistant runs within Rivian\u2019s private cloud, it has a deep integration into the EV\u2019s subsystems similar to BMW\u2019s and Mercedes-Benz\u2019s offerings, rather than the more pared-back abilities of the in-car AI assistant provided by Google to OEMs that use Android Automotive and Google Automotive Services. Rivian says that the AI can \u201ccontrol vehicle settings, climate control, navigation, media, messaging, and calling,\u201d it can reference the owner\u2019s manual, will reply to questions, search for information, and even explain in-car alerts and help you troubleshoot problems.
Rivian says you can also personalize the assistant via the Rivian mobile app, allowing it to connect to your calendar so it can access your schedule and to remember your preferences over time, including places you drive to regularly, like work or a school drop off, as well as things like music genres and favorite restaurants.
I foresee that the reaction to Rivian\u2019s assistant won\u2019t be entirely positive, given the amount of antipathy some have toward LLM-based technologies. A few might even go as far as to declare they\u2019ll never purchase a Rivian as a result, no doubt. But asking your car by voice to reschedule a meeting or find a spot to eat lunch seems a heck of a lot safer than someone using their smartphone when they should have their hands and eyes on the road.
Ars Technica has been separating the signal from the noise for over 25 years. With our unique combination of technical savvy and wide-ranging interest in the technological arts and sciences, Ars is the trusted source in a sea of information. After all, you don\u2019t need to know everything, only what\u2019s important.
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source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Rivian Assistant is available for both Gen1 and Gen2 hardware. Rivian has quickly built a reputation as one of the auto industry\u2019s leaders when it comes to vehicle software. Its clean-sheet approach to an electric vehicle\u2019s electronic architecture earned it a $5 billion investment from Volkswagen Group, and its in-house infotainment system is beloved […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16095","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}