Rivian has begun rolling out its first major over-the-air (OTA) update for the R2 SUV, about one month after orders opened and deliveries commenced.
Chief Software Officer Wassym Bensaid confirmed the release on Wednesday, which brings features like Launch Mode, Pet Comfort, Gear Guard, garage-door pairing and an in-vehicle WiFi hotspot to the midsize SUV for the first time.
“First R2 OTA rolling out today!” Bensaid wrote, listing the additions alongside a mention of “many more fixes and improvements.”
Those headline features have already drawn most of the attention since Bensaid began teasing them earlier this month, from Launch Mode’s 3.45-second 0-to-60 mph test run to the confirmation that Pet Comfort would finally reach the R2.
However, the update — which Rivian has not yet detailed in a full changelog, also carries a dense set of corrections across nearly every part of the vehicle’s software stack — as the company tunes the platform alongside the feedback of early R2 owners.
As of Wednesday, the release notes for software update 2026.24 had only been published by owners and shared on platforms such as Rivian Roamer and Rivian Trackr.
The Headlight Fix
Among these is a fix for Adaptive High Beams, which Rivian confirmed would not enable on some vehicles.
The correction closes out a complaint that had been building on the r/RivianR2 subreddit, where owners described the SUV’s matrix LED headlights as failing to adapt at all, regardless of whether the system was left on automatic or engaged manually.
Multiple posters in that thread said they had been told informally that a fix was coming in the next OTA, and Rivian has now delivered on that assurance, as EV reported earlier this month.
Dynamic Adventure Lighting, the adaptive high-beam and matrix LED system, is standard equipment on the R2 Performance Launch Edition and was introduced as part of the model’s specification back in March.
Because R2 runs on RivianOS 2.0, a ground-up rewrite of the software stack, the feature had to be re-implemented within the new architecture rather than carried over from R1.
Autonomy, Access and Climate Cleanup
Elsewhere, Rivian says it has refined hands-on-wheel detection to cut down on unnecessary prompts while driving, and resolved a handful of driver-display glitches during Blind Spot View, including overlapping notifications and a Universal Hands-Free icon that failed to appear during turns.
Vehicle access reliability gets a broad pass as well, addressing passive entry after the vehicle wakes from sleep. It covers rear door handles, NFC unlock with a digital key, and digital key detection on the wireless charging pad.
The update improves liftgate behavior, including power-close cinch operation and drop-glass function after software installs.
Rivian also fixed a case where the interior liftgate button failed to open the liftgate when the vehicle was locked, and another where the same button partially unlocked the car instead.
Climate control sees more consistent vent behavior after sleep-wake cycles, along with a fix for the vehicle entering sleep mode while a phone-initiated seat heat or vent request was still active — a scenario that would have left the command unfulfilled.
App and Infotainment Fixes
The Rivian mobile app picks up several corrections tied to charging, including a fix for a charge rate that displayed as zero miles per hour during DC fast charging.
The bug caused the app to ignore consecutive remote charge commands, and one that sent an inaccurate range reading of zero to the app entirely.
On the infotainment side, Spotify no longer gets stuck in a perpetual loading state, and iHeartRadio’s terms and conditions can now be accepted from inside the vehicle.
Apple Music gains an option for higher-quality stereo tracks over cellular alongside fixes for logins and simultaneous playback from two sources at once.
Turn-by-turn navigation chimes, which had stopped playing during routes even though voice guidance kept working, are restored, and Rivian says trip and arrival estimates now better account for charging stops along a planned route.
Smaller fixes round out the release: a trailer icon now appears in the three-dimensional driver display view when towing, the Haptic Halo Wheel’s scroll and click behavior has been smoothed out, turn signal volume has been reduced, and a bug that required driver seat recalibration at the start of every drive has been resolved.
What’s Still Coming
The update does not include Pet Cam, the camera-based feature that lets owners check on pets remotely through the Rivian app, which Bensaid noted remains on track for later this year.
Rivian also has not published a complete official changelog for the release, with fuller release notes expected in the coming weeks.
Deeper integration with the third-party route-planning app A Better Route Planner, which Bensaid has separately promised for this year, has also yet to materialize.
