Rivian is expected to begin deliveries of the R2 mid-size SUV to its first customers within the next few weeks.
The company’s software chief shared on Thursday additional details about the ownership experience — including the vehicle’s audio system, media, and entertainment apps that owners can expect at launch.
The information was provided by Chief Software Officer Wassym Bensaid during an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session in the r/RivianR2 subreddit.
Rivian started volume production of the R2 in late April at its Normal, Illinois, plant.
Employee deliveries of the Performance Launch Edition — priced at $57,990 — are underway, and the public configurator went live last week, ahead of its June schedule.
Force-Balanced Speaker Design
Among the most pointed exchanges was audio quality — a subject that has followed the R2 since its Block Party tour, where attendees flagged bass as a weak point on the pre-production units on display.
Bensaid responded at the time by clarifying that the vehicles on display were early builds without production audio tuning.
Reddit user ‘_FruitLoopin’ asked the Software Chief to explain the software behind the R2’s premium audio system, noting that “signs at block parties indicated it was unfinished and pre-production software.”
Bensaid went deeper into the hardware design.
“This is an area we’re really excited about for R2, and we are getting amazing results in our recent production tuning! We’ve had a lot of lessons learned with R1 which we are applying to R2,” he wrote.
He described the R2’s speaker configuration as a departure from conventional automotive audio, saying that “specifically, the force-balanced midwoofer and subwoofer use opposing drivers to cancel mechanical vibration.”
Bensaid explained that “most energy in a traditional speaker is wasted rattling door panels — with the R2 design, we redirect that into actual sound using physics, not just tuning.”
The R2 launched at SXSW in March with a 975-watt Rivian Premium Audio system featuring nine speakers, two midwoofers, and two subwoofers in the force-balanced configuration.
According to the Rivian executive, the audio hardware architecture is “entirely updatable through OTA, so as we continue to improve the experience with the launch of R2, we will continue to improve the R1 system as well.”
Audio quality has been a recurring pain point for R1 owners.
Rivian switched from its original Meridian-supplied system to an in-house solution in 2023, and owners have reported inconsistent sound quality across multiple software updates since.
No R1 Retrofit for R2 Audio Hardware
User ‘AllCatCoverBand’ followed up by asking whether R1 owners could expect to retrofit any of the R2’s new audio hardware, and when R1 improvements would arrive.
Bensaid drew a clear line between what can and cannot cross over.
“Audio tuning updates for R1 Gen 2 will be independent from OS 2.0, coming in the second half of the year,” he wrote. “Unfortunately, the Audio hardware and speakers are specifically designed for the R2 cabin and cannot be retrofitted on R1 vehicles.”
The distinction mirrors a broader pattern in the R2 rollout.
Rivian is using software updates to improve R1 vehicles where possible, while acknowledging that certain hardware advances — from the audio system to the Gen 3 autonomy stack — will remain exclusive to the newer platform.
New Media Apps Confirmed
User ‘sirkazuo’ pressed Bensaid on the R2’s infotainment app selection, asking about YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Pandora, Netflix, Disney+, and offroad mapping — writing that “the multimedia app selection is getting a bit stale.”
Bensaid confirmed three additions.
“R2 will have iHeart Digital Radio at launch. We have Amazon Music coming soon, and YouTube Music right after,” he said. “We will continue to expand our media portfolio on R1 and R2.”
The software head acknowledged the limitations of the current lineup, but framed the process as a partnership challenge, not a technical one.
“We prioritize based on feedback from our customers and the collaboration with our partners,” he noted, adding that “ultimately, we want to make sure that any integration meets our security and privacy standards and seamlessly integrates into our user interface.”
Rivian does not support Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, making its native app portfolio the only media interface available to owners.
The company added Dolby Audio support for Apple Music in its April software update.
R2’s AI Hardware Advantage
The AMA also surfaced the gap between the R1 and R2 versions of the Rivian Assistant — the AI-powered voice system that began rolling out to R1 vehicles earlier this month via software update 2026.15.
Both generations now have access to the assistant, but the R2 version runs on significantly more capable hardware.
The R2’s infotainment chip includes 200 Sparse TOPS of Edge AI compute and can run a local large language model directly on the vehicle — capabilities the R1 hardware does not support.
Asked what about the R2 most people are not paying attention to yet, Bensaid pointed directly to this.
“R2’s infotainment chip has about 200 sparse TOPs and is capable of running a local AI model, on the vehicle itself. Rivian Assistant, multi-modal awareness using the cameras and sensors, richer graphics — will eventually work when you’re offline in the middle of nowhere,” he wrote. “Which when you’re a Rivian owner, is kind of the point.”
He framed the onboard compute as the foundation for a compounding ownership experience.
“We own the full software stack down to the motors, suspension, and thermal management. The R2 vehicle you drive home is the least capable version you’ll ever own, and it will continue getting better,” Bensaid highlighted. “That’s not a feature, it’s the architecture.”
The R2 is central to Rivian‘s plan to scale from a niche EV maker into a high-volume manufacturer.
The company is targeting 20,000 to 25,000 R2 deliveries in 2026, within a total delivery target of 62,000 to 67,000 vehicles.
[rivian guidance]
Of those, the company expects to deliver 5,000 units in California alone.
Earlier this week, images shared on social media by attendees at the Normal plant showed several R2s with three-digit numbers scribbled on their windshields and rear windows — suggesting that the company might have produced over 500 R2 units already.
