As essential as issues like touchscreens and software program are to the fashionable automotive expertise, we seldom cease to ask why all the things appears so ugly.
Your common automobile’s touchscreen and menus possible have all of the performance of a Palm Pre, with the aesthetic attraction and inventive worth of a Fort Price outlet mall. Their menus and controls usually really feel haphazardly designed and look totally forgettable. That is true even after greater than a decade of in-car display screen dominance and a future we’re continuously advised is centered round over-the-air updates and smartphone-like tech options.
So when Rivian got down to fully overhaul its in-car software program expertise, its designers declared that issues don’t need to be this fashion.
The electrical startup’s newest infotainment setup options cel-shaded depictions of its vans and SUVs, offset by animated depictions of various landscapes, vibrant colours, velocity strains such as you’d discover in a Japanese manga comedian and tons of “Easter eggs” within the backgrounds. New updates even give the software program “costumes” impressed by traditional TV exhibits and flicks like Again to the Future and Knight Rider.
After I requested Rivian’s Chief Design Officer Jeff Hammoud why his crew went this route, one phrase got here up time and again: “Optimism.”
“We felt it was a chance to have a bit little bit of enjoyable and create a character across the automobile,” Hammoud stated in a current interview. Greater than that, he stated, the brand new software program interfaces replicate a philosophy inside Rivian. “We would like all of it to look inviting,” Hammoud stated. “Our automobiles have a pleasant look and that’s a part of our model… that optimism round what we’re making an attempt to do by way of electrification and defending the world for our children.”
Photograph by: InsideEVs
2025 Rivian R1S and R1T Graphics
Rivian’s new interface language went dwell this summer season on the closely up to date 2025 R1S and R1T fashions and by way of software program updates to earlier vehicles. They provide house owners an animated illustration of their car that spins and transforms as they regulate issues like journey top settings and the varied driving modes.
On one other automobile, switching to sport mode may imply a brand new set of gauges on the central show or shifting the menus to a pink coloration scheme. However on an R1S or R1T, a cartoon depiction of the automobile zooms onto what appears like a race observe as its glowing taillights fade right into a red-and-white background. As a substitute of pop-ups to verify you’re in “Snow Mode” or some off-road setting, Rivian presents a shift to an enthralling winter panorama or the car perched atop a rocky mountain. Clouds, windmills and birds transfer about within the backgrounds and all of those visuals tackle a unique character at evening as effectively.
Photograph by: InsideEVs
2025 Rivian R1S and R1T Graphics
None of that is important for a automobile to perform correctly, in fact, and it’s extremely unlikely that these animated graphics will probably be a make-or-break promoting level. However they add a ton of one thing intangible—character—to Rivian’s vehicles, and so they flip one thing that was once an afterthought at greatest into one thing you truly stay up for utilizing. And Hammoud stated {that a} ton of effort went into devising how this ecosystem ought to appear and feel.
“We used this concept of manga-style [or] Studio Ghibli movies, these actually optimistic films the place you are feeling such as you’re in one other world, and actually taking that into a mode the place we might create the completely different worlds of the drive modes,” Hammoud stated. He’s in fact referring to the famed Japanese animated classics from Hayao Miyazaki and different creators like Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki’s Supply Service and, most lately, The Boy and the Heron. All of these are landmark animated movies launched to worldwide acclaim. However Hammoud stated additionally they share the overall vibe Rivian goes for nowadays.
Photograph by: InsideEVs
2025 Rivian R1S and R1T Graphics
“You have a look at one thing like Akira, versus Studio Ghibli,” he stated, referring to the Nineteen Eighties comedian and landmark animated movie a few dystopian future. The latter is “a bit bit extra optimistic and on the pleasant facet of that. We wish to talk energy and dynamism with the car, however we nonetheless wished to have this form of, ‘sitting down Sunday morning watching cartoons along with your youngsters’ vibe with it as effectively.”
That stands in stark distinction with one other eye-catching electrical car designed that has a distinctly apocalyptic power: exhausting angles, allegedly bulletproof stainless-steel, a “Bioweapon Protection Mode.” Whereas Hammoud didn’t point out it by title, he made clear that he, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe and their design groups didn’t share the identical philosophy.
Photograph by: InsideEVs
2025 Rivian R1S and R1T Graphics
“Once you have a look at vans, their faces are very aggressive, very indignant, just like the entrance ends might eat young children,” Hammoud stated. “Purposely, we’re like, ‘All proper, effectively, we do not want an enormous grill.’ We would like it to look inviting. Have a look at our headlight shapes. Our automobiles have a pleasant look.”
A lot of this was afforded by the facility of the Unreal Engine, a 3D graphics software program system made well-known in video video games that’s now making its technique to the automotive world. This allowed Rivian’s artists and designers to “scale” all these new photos simply with out having to attract each individually.
“It was actually vital to us that no matter automobile you could have, it’s the suitable set of wheels and it is the suitable coloration [on the screen], in order that approach we’re taking a look at is definitely consultant of your car,” Hammoud stated. “If we needed to create, which is what we did previously, a picture for each single [Rivian color or option], that’s hundreds and hundreds of photos.”
With the Unreal Engine, Hammoud stated, “You place within the specs of the car, like if it is a Forest Inexperienced automobile with 22s, you simply put that into the code, and increase, it is rendered and it updates.”
Photograph by: InsideEVs
2025 Rivian R1S and R1T Graphics
Rivian isn’t alone in making an attempt so as to add a extra distinctive look and character to its software program expertise in addition to its exterior designs. Mini lately added a cartoon canine to its infotainment programs as an AI-powered digital assistant, and a number of other Chinese language automakers are taking comparable approaches. And as with these vehicles, Rivian’s strategy goes past mere visuals; these capabilities symbolize new methods for drivers to work together with their vehicles and management their options within the software-driven car period.
So does it work? Primarily based on a current take a look at of a 2025 Rivian R1S, I feel the reply is usually sure. It’s pretty simple to seek out the capabilities you need and the large, vibrant shows symbolize novel methods of presenting data to the motive force. That’s essential since Rivian famously—or maybe infamously—eschews most bodily buttons and Apple CarPlay in its EVs. It additionally goals to do extra with voice controls, though it has a methods to go there to match many rivals.
However this strategy to software program does present what Rivian’s product of, and why a conventional conglomerate just like the Volkswagen Group sees such worth in what the corporate does. That 2025 R1S acquired higher whereas I had it, receiving an over-the-air software program replace that improved the power and effectivity gauges (and put them according to the remainder of the automobile’s new inventive language) whereas correcting some points with the stereo and including the Halloween-themed visuals.
And till Rivian can get the upcoming R2, R3 and R3X fashions on the street, it’s acquired extra in retailer for its present vehicles each by way of software program updates and extra tweaks—although Hammoud was cagey about what precisely is coming subsequent.
“Now we have some new updates which might be coming subsequent yr on R1 that I am excited to share, some particular editions,” Hammoud stated. “I will go away it at that.”
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