Experiencing a Rivian electric joyride at SXSW 2025
Check out Rivian offering an off-roading experience in downtown Austin, Texas.
Fox – 7 Austin
Fresh off major upgrades to its R1S SUV and R1T pickup, Rivian is now set to launch a software update of its onboard navigation system to include Google Maps data — both for the new vehicles it’s producing and its existing customer cars. This isn’t simply Google Maps like the app on your phone, however. Leveraging Google’s Automotive SDK, Rivian has, in effect, overlaid its existing navigation experience over that of Google Maps, taking advantage of the internet giant’s superior “routing, estimated time of arrivals, traffic updates, search capabilities and satellite imagery,” as Rivian put it, in order to further augment its own in-house “EV-friendly navigation features.”
In other words, Rivian’s navigation system will now blend Google’s superior mapping capabilities with its proprietary charging information, including estimated range and battery capacity remaining at your destination, route planning, real-time charging info and more. In addition, Rivian skins the whole interface in its own design, a new version of which will also debut with the Google Maps update.
Even better, Rivian says the update will extend to its Rivian Mobile App (a 2025 MotorTrend Best Tech award winner), which benefits from Google-like photos and descriptions of searched destinations, as well as satellite map views and real-time traffic data. As before, users can send trips and navigation destinations from the app to their Rivians, and now they’ll be able to use the “share” function via Google Maps to do the same.
The rollout of the new Google-augmented system is imminent — Rivian says it’ll begin doing so via an over-the-air update for every all-electric R1S SUV and R1T pickup it has sold to date, and it will come already equipped with every new model it sells.
Photos by MotorTrend Staff, manufacturer
