Wassym Bensaid, Rivian‘s software chief, responded on Monday to a social media post where an owner of two first-gen R1 vehicles complained about several unsolved bugs in the company’s latest software update.
The Irvine-based EV maker has been praised for its in-house software development, with the team commited to releasing software updates nearly every month.
However, according to complaints from several customers, the software complexity may sometimes lead to bugs and a less friendly user interface.
These concerns were shared on X by user Tyrone Holland, who made a lengthy “list of bugs and software issues still around” after the update.
“There is no other software out there like Rivian. They have made their own way in the vehicle software world,” Holland stated, adding, however, that they “have to stop calling out fixes when things aren’t fixed.”
Commenting on Rivian’s Driver + assisted driving system, the customer said it is “sometimes too aggressive with where it “THINKS” it is in the lane vs where it ACTUALLY is.”
The owner, who acquired two first-generation R1 vehicles, said they “try to push me over in the lane as if I drifted out of the lane when I’m dead center.
Despite the criticism, Holland admitted that the system’s weaker performance may be due to it being a first-generation vehicle equipped with less advanced technology.
“I think this might be what it is,” he wrote.
The owner also mentioned the lack of “multiple-vehicle support,” which Holland said needs “to come IMMEDIATELY,” adding that “the experience when you own more than one R1 is less than stellar.”
The post gained traction on the social media platform and reached the chief software officer himself, who replied, “I have 2 Rivians and want the same.”
However, Bensaid noted that “it’s not worth to spend energy on it now as it introduces inconveniences and security risks.”
According to the software head, Rivian will “come back to it” after introducing “multi-factor-drive (very soon) and CCC digital keys (soon).”
The former is equivalent to Tesla’s PIN-to-drive feature. The latter is a new digital key from the Car Connectivity Consortium, which would allow cross-platform compatibility, making it a major upgrade.
The brand’s R1 vehicles currently use Apple Wallet on iOS and the Rivian app on Android for digital key access.
Bensaid on VW x Rivian JV
Earlier this month, Wassym Bensaid told Business Insider that “inexpensive cars shouldn’t have low technology,” referring to the ‘Rivian and VW Group Technology‘ joint venture.
“It’s something which is extremely close to my heart because it’s a way to bring that technology into many more cars,” Bensaid told the media outlet.
Bensaid also said in a Bloomberg interview that the joint venture is as an opportunity to scale the company’s tech to “not only European vehicles, but a much broader set of cars,” which go from “really premium to the mass market.”
The engineer is keen on decreasing “overall development cost, and then the overall cost of maintenance over time” for the three brands.
To Bensaid, VW’s hardware complexity — “different seats, different doors, different lights, different sensors, different cameras in the different vehicles” — can be mitigated “by moving it to software.”
Volkswagen‘s investment was contingent on Rivian posting positive profits at the end of each quarter. About a year ago, Volkswagen agreed to invest $5.8 billion in the EV maker as it provides the German automaker with next-generation EV architecture and software.
Rivian reported a record gross profit of $206 million for the first quarter, a result that was mainly due to $157 million in revenue from automotive regulatory credit sales.
