Rivian and Volkswagen Provide Additional Details on Joint Venture, Now Totaling $5.8 Billion

By Karan Singh
Rivian Wave

Rivian and Volkswagen released an update to their Joint Venture, which was announced in June of this year. In the original announcement, Volkswagen promised to invest $5 billion in Rivian—$1 billion immediately and another $4 billion over time—for an equally controlled and owned joint venture.

“The partnership with Rivian is the next logical step in strengthening our global competitive and technological position.”

-- Oliver Blume, CEO of Volkswagen

The goals were to help Rivian reduce its cost per vehicle, while also helping Volkswagen with software and zonal control technology. This collaboration presents an incredible opportunity for Rivian, positioning its technology and software as the foundation for future EVs developed through the joint venture. Crucially, Rivian retains its intellectual property rights, opening up a substantial new revenue stream for the company.

JV Update

The JV has been updated with a total deal size of up to $5.8 billion now—which is an addition of another $800 million to the original proposal. Rivian and Volkswagen will send engineers to join the JV, which will be co-headed by Rivian’s Wassym Bensaid and Volkswagen’s Carsten Helbing. Both will take on the title of co-CEO at the JV.

“We’re thrilled to see our technology being integrated in vehicles outside Rivian – this is an important enabler to help accelerate EV adoption.”

-- RJ Scaringe, CEO of Rivian

The primary purpose of the JV is to start working on the electric architecture—that Zonal control—and the software for what Volkswagen calls “next-generation Software Defined Vehicles,” or SDVs. The JV will officially start on November 13th, 2024, with both companies beginning contributions to the JV on that date.

The best part? The JV focuses on more than just one market segment - it includes subcompact cars. That means a mass-market vehicle that’ll be built upon Rivian’s proven tech and software will one day be available - pushed forward by Volkswagen’s mass-market scale.

The JV will be based in Palo Alto, California, as well as some other sites in North America and Europe - for a total of up to four sites. It’ll be a chance for engineers from both companies to get together and figure out how to best leverage what both companies have to offer and build an appealing set of products.

JV Focuses

With the primary focus being on using Rivian’s pre-existing architecture and software stack, the R2 platform is a clear starting point for the JV - one of its key purposes will be to bootstrap the launch of the R2 in early 2026, and then go on to support the R3, and further Volkswagen vehicles sometime in 2027 and 2028.

Scaling Rivian’s technology will be challenging. While Rivian’s tech is modular, flexible, and highly capable, these advanced features come with a high price tag. To make vehicles that are both high-performing and affordable, the joint venture will need to focus on reducing costs without compromising on capability.

Interestingly, the JV also mentions automated driving functions - so we can probably expect Rivian’s Autonomy Platform to be present on these new vehicles as well - alongside a specific focus on OTA updates.

Rivian and Volkswagen have supposedly already built a driveable demonstrator vehicle, a Volkswagen car built to run on Rivian’s hardware and software, which sounds a lot like Scout…

We’re excited to see where this JV goes and how it helps shape Rivian, Rivian’s software platform, and the future of EVs.

A Look at the Features in Rivian’s 2024 Halloween Update

By Karan Singh
Rivian Wave

Halloween is just a day away. Are you ready to sport all of your Rivian’s new Halloween features? Rivian added various features in their annual spooky update with Rivian update 2024.39. This year, Rivian has gone all out, with not one but three Halloween car costumes and various other features.

The car costumes are selectable through the Rivian app when the vehicle is parked - and so are all the other fun features.

Halloween Update

Rivian’s Halloween update this time is the biggest it's ever been. Before we dig into the Car Costumes, let’s take a look at the sprinkling of other spooky features they’ve provided.

New Drive Mode Animations

First up is the drive modes menu. Every drive mode in your vehicle has taken on a spooky look, so pan through your available drive modes while you’re parked to see all the Halloween fun. Look closely because some of the spooky surprises are well hidden. The only mode that doesn’t have a spooky surprise is snow mode.

Camp Mode also got a little something special. The flame of the campfire is lit by some witch’s evil magic and is burning green alongside some pumpkins and crows in the background. And just like last year, pedestrians are zombies - but that’s not all. Motorcyclists and bicyclists take on a new form in the visualization - they’ve come back as headless horsemen.

Rivian has also introduced two additional lock sounds for Halloween, an owl and a crow. While all of the Halloween goodies will go away once the season is over, Rivian has already said that the owl lock sound will come back as a standard lock sound in the future.

There are also two new interior lighting modes, the red Crimson Moon, and the green Foggy Bog. To go with that, there’s a new selection of three songs to play internally, as well as a sound effect board, all done from within the Rivian app.

The best plan is to play some spooky sound effects while your Rivian is parked outside on Halloween night to give some trick-or-treaters a fright!

The Costume Selector in the App
The Costume Selector in the App
Rivian Wave

Knight Rider Car Costume

The Knight Rider costume dresses up Gear Guard Garry as Michael Knight and K.I.T.T.'s super intelligence takes over your car in the classic original TV show style. On Gen 2 vehicles, the lightbar up front will mimic K.I.T.T.’s unique red beam scanner, including the sound effect!

The Knight Rider interior screens
The Knight Rider interior screens
Rivian Wave

Over in the interior, you’ll get three unique displays inside your vehicle. On the driver’s display, you’ll see revs, speed, and a ton of other information, while the main display will tell you all about how ready K.I.T.T. is to tackle the bad guys. Finally, the passengers will have access to the tools K.I.T.T. has access to - everything from energy cannons and radars to Missiles and Turbo Boost.

Back to the Future Car Costume

Back to the Future dresses up Garry as none other than Doc Brown, and you’ll get a super cool set of movie-inspired interfaces on the inside of your vehicle. Gen 2 owners can hit the 88 mph button on their driver’s display and engage in Back to the Future-themed interior and exterior lighting, along with sound effects to match.

The Back to the Future Interior Screens
The Back to the Future Interior Screens
Rivian Wave

The driver’s display has all the information you’ll need to get your flux capacitor up and running, telling you all about the plutonium chamber and power you’ll need to hit 88 mph. The primary display will tell you when you’ve got your destination, what time it is now, and when you originally departed. The passengers get to keep an eye on the flux capacitor, and dial in the destination time!

Trunk or Treat Car Costume

Trunk or Treat has Garry as a scarecrow this year and has eight different sound effects and three color themes. That’s also alongside the option to select the thematic music for the interior of your vehicle.

All three interior screens will be haunted by ghosts and static, and Gen1 vehicle owners will get a green animation on the lightbar. Gen 2 owners will have their lightbar match their selected color.

Video Overviews

Jenna Ezarik over on X put together this awesome recap - so go take a look.

And if that’s not enough, iJustine on YouTube also put together this video review.

Rivian’s Reveals New Charge Port Behavior, Passenger Seat Storage To Be Removed in the Future

By Rivian Wave Staff
Rivian Wave

Rivian has released its latest owner’s manual (version 2024.39), outlining several details about changes to its 2024.39 software update and several hardware changes coming to Rivian vehicles.

While the 2024.39 update includes several big improvements, such as improved driver display widgets, improvements to Autonomy Platform+, the automatic front camera, support for Dolby Atmos in TIDAL, and more, the owner's manual also lists a few other changes.

New Wiper Speed Positions

This change was mentioned under in the Additional Improvements section of the release notes, but given how useful it is, we’ll outline it here as well.

Previously, the wiper positions, from top to bottom, were: Storm, Downpour, Shower, Drizzle, Sprinkle, Off, and Auto. With the 2024.39 update, the positions have been rearranged, and Off is now the lowest position, while Auto is placed just above it. This makes it easier to turn off the wipers in the vehicle since you can hold the switch down to jump to the last setting.

Rivian Wave

Automatic Front Camera Display

One of the nicest changes with this update is that the front camera will now turn on automatically when it detects objects in front of the vehicle. When Park Assist detects an object in front of the vehicle and the car is moving at speeds below 6 mph, the front camera will automatically be displayed.

Previously, the front camera would only be displayed if the vehicle was shifted from reverse to drive and moving under 7 mph, a threshold that has now been slightly reduced.

LFP Battery Calibration Notifications

Rivian’s 2025+ Dual Standard vehicles come with LFP batteries that need to be charged to 100% in order to be properly calibrated. In the updated owner’s manual, Rivian now clearly states when the owner will receive a notification about fully charging the battery. Owners will receive a notification to fully charge the battery if it hasn’t been charged to 100% in over two weeks or 500 miles. This will help ensure that the LFP batteries remain well-calibrated and the stated range is correct.

Charge Port Locking Behavior

Rivian has also updated when the vehicle’s charge port is locked for their second generation vehicles. Previously, the charge port was only locked when the vehicle itself was locked. Now, with the 2024.39 update, the charge port will lock any time the vehicle is charging, even if the vehicle is left unlocked. If the car is unlocked, the charge port will automatically unlock once charging is complete. If the vehicle is locked, the port will remain locked as well, just like it was before.

Right now, the owner’s manual for Gen 1 vehicles does not have the same statement.

Passenger Seat Storage

According to the manual, Rivian is preparing some changes to the interior storage compartments in future models. The storage drawer located under the passenger seat will no longer be available, leaving only the driver seat with this compartment.

In addition, the R1T, which features storage under the rear row seats, appears to be undergoing some changes. In the manual, Rivian no longer lists the rear seat storage where it used to list it as lockable and waterproof. It’s not clear whether Rivian is no longer claiming these compartments as lockable and waterproof or if there will be other changes.

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