Rivian declares war on physical buttons

• Rivian’s Chief Software Officer says physical buttons are outdated. Controlling vehicles with your voice is the future
• The change depends on AI fixing ‘broken’ voice assistants
• However, Rivian owners aren’t sold on the vision

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In the age of the touchscreen, many automakers put a big old tablet-sized display in the center of a dashboard and call it a day. This has led to another phenomenon: minimalism in the car. Tesla is one of the pioneers in this field – I mean, just look at the The stripped-down interior of the Model 3, which people outfit with accessories bring functionality back to physical checks.

Then there is Rivian. The EV startup’s Chief Software Officer, Wassym Bensaid, recently unleashed a sharp take on the public that goes one step further. His opinion? Buttons in the car do So off and voice control is on.

Photo by: Victoria Scott / Motor1

Bensaid shared his opinion during an interview TechCrunch disrupts 2024. He explained that Rivian’s design philosophy revolves around the digital experience:the same justification Rivian gave for not offering Apple CarPlay in its vehicles– and that physical buttons are becoming an ‘anomaly’ in modern cars.

Now, Bensaid isn’t talking about moving all the controls to the touch screen. In reality, Rivian has pretty much already done that. He thinks the future of driving will go a step further and move to a voice-centric control plane.

“Ideally, you would want to communicate with your car via voice. The problem today is that most voice assistants are just broken,” Bensaid said during the interview. He later told TechCrunch more after stepping off stage. “The last North Star I have is that voice (control) is the primary means of interaction has become with The reality is that the vehicle is so feature-rich that even if we do a fantastic job in the user interface, there will always be a need to prioritize when it comes to having things with one or two menus behind them.

Ultimately, Rivian’s goal is to make every single vehicle control accessible via voice command. This doesn’t mean removing all buttons, at least that’s not what Bensaid suggested, but instead creating a multimodal way to improve the user experience, rather than having to scroll through menus on a central touchscreen.

Photo by: InsideEVs

That said, it seems like the Rivian community isn’t exactly sold on Bensaid’s vision. “Yes to buttons, no to voice,” said one Redditor on the Rivian subreddit. “I used to be able to control my fans and temperature in my button car without taking my eyes off the road.”

“Voice control should enhance physical control in this setting and not replace it,” said another.

Most of the complaints online related to common uses, such as trying to activate the voice assistant over loud music or performing specific tasks in the car (think moving seats and adjusting the air conditioning). The point people are trying to make is that there are certain features that don’t seem well suited to controlling with your voice.

Many complaints were about issues surrounding most modern voice assistants, something that Bensaid admitted was “broken.” But again, the goal is to develop something that solves these problems in the future, possibly with artificial intelligence and partnerships that Bensaid can’t talk about yet.

Rivian’s buttonless approach aligns with its vision of a tech-first approach to its digital in-car experience. However, that doesn’t mean everyone will be on board. After all, a voice command does not provide the same tactile experience as pressing a button. And until Rivian can prove that this technology works flawlessly, there will be some pooh-poohing from the peanut gallery.

Will Rivian choose the right side of history, or will its innovative thinking cause a period of negative attention as it prepares to capture more market share with its snazzy R2 and R3 platforms? Let me know in the comments what you think of a voice-controlled car.