Rivian CEO on CarPlay, Lidar, and affordable EVs

Decoder with Nilay Patel

I’m Joanna Stern, the senior personal tech columnist at The Wall Street Journal, and this is my final Decoder episode filling in for Nilay while he’s out on parental leave. My guest today: Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe. This is RJ’s third time on the show, and it felt like the perfect follow-up to my conversation last week with Ford CEO Jim Farley.

I loved the idea of going straight from Ford to Rivian. And if you listened to the Farley episode, this one flows nicely. RJ and I cover a lot of the same challenges: tariffs, China, EV pricing. Of course, I also asked about CarPlay.

Links:

• A pretty fascinating look under the hood of the Rivan R2 | The Verge
• Rivian CEO says CarPlay isn’t going to happen | The Verge
• Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe says too many carmakers are copying Tesla | Decoder
• Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe isn't scared of the Cybertruck | Decoder
• Rivian breaks ground on $5 billion Georgia plant | AP
• Rivian narrows 2025 delivery guidance Q3 as production slips | WSJ
• Rivian R2 remains on track for $45,000 and 2026 production | Car and Driver

Credits:

Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Our producers are Kate Cox and Nick Statt. Our editor is Ursa Wright.

The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.

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