Rivian's software chief thinks you don't need CarPlay or buttons

About this episode

Nilay Patel interviews Wassym Bensaid about Rivian's software innovations and its partnership with Volkswagen.

Today, I’m talking with Wassym Bensaid, the chief software officer at Rivian, and the co-ceo of Rivian’s platform joint venture with Volkswagen. That joint venture, called RV Tech, is about a year and a half old, so I wanted to ask Wassym how it all works and Rivian’s ongoing relationship with Volkswagen. Because it’s Rivian, I also had to ask Wassym about CarPlay. But the company also just launched an AI-powered voice assistant, which I got to try early. So I had a lot of fun digging into that with Wassym, too. This is a fun one – really in the weeds of a lot of my favorite things to talk about. Links: Rivian’s AI-powered voice assistant is ready to roll | The Verge The R2 is nearly here — can Rivian stick the landing? | The Verge Rivian’s AI pivot is about more than chasing Tesla | The Verge Rivian / VW will start testing their first EVs next year | The Verge Rivian CEO: ‘We’re really convicted’ about skipping CarPlay | Decoder (2025) Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe says too many carmakers are copying Tesla | Decoder (2024) Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe isn't scared of the Cybertruck | Decoder (2023) Rivian’s chief software officer says in-car buttons are ‘an anomaly’ | TechCrunch Subscribe to…

People in this episode

Host: Nilay Patel

Guest: Wassym Bensaid

Topics covered

• Rivian
• software
• automotive technology
• AI
• Volkswagen
• CarPlay

Keywords

• Rivian
• Wassym Bensaid
• CarPlay
• AI voice assistant
• Volkswagen
• automotive software

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Rivian, Volkswagen, Vox Media Podcast Network

Products: CarPlay, AI-powered voice assistant

More episodes of Decoder with Nilay Patel

• Condé Nast CEO Roger Lynch on AI, the Met Gala & his secret succession plan · June 11, 2026 · 55 min
• Microsoft AI chief thinks superintelligence is near, but won't take your job · June 8, 2026 · 1h 16m
• Elon Musk is steamrolling Wall Street to become a trillionaire · June 4, 2026 · 49 min
• AI is blowing up music. How should the Grammys handle it? · June 1, 2026 · 1h 6m
• How Sundar Pichai is rethinking Google for the AI era · May 26, 2026 · 51 min
• Musk v Altman: Much ado about nothing · May 21, 2026 · 34 min