More from The Code Conference 2023: all the news as it happens
Scaringe said he doesn’t like the BMW model of charging for heated seats — a feature that’s just flipped on or off.
But for something where there’s “ongoing R&D efforts,” he thinks it makes sense and consumers are willing to pay. “We’re certainly planning that in future products,” he said.
For Rivian, that probably looks like some sort of autonomy features.
CEO RJ Scaringe says that a vehicle without a steering wheel has a “relatively constrained” set of use-cases. It can also create a feeling of “steering anxiety,” which is an incredible term.
Even though Rivian has a big commercial deal to make electric delivery vans for Amazon, consumer cars represent about 80 percent of Rivian’s business, he said.
Scaringe says Rivian is still working on its months-to-years long backlog and ramping up production to meet it.
“It’s an incredibly high-cost problem to have,” he said. But he doesn’t want to get rid of it entirely. “It’s good to have some backlog.”
He questioned whether it should be six months of backlog or more like a year and a half. I heard an audible “Yiiiiick,” from a woman behind me.
I don’t get the sense that Rivian is going to move to a one-wiper system.
But he’s happy that there’s competition. “I think it’s great that a product like that exists in the world.”
He’s being interviewed by Verge EIC Nilay Patel and CNBC senior media and tech correspondent Julia Boorstin.
