In-car AV continues to become less of a trend and more of a mainstay in the latest automotive releases, though the cloud-based nature of auto updates can be a liability, as some Rivian owners have discovered.
Rivian is an electric vehicle manufacturer that is known for being well-received in the consumer market, as well as supplying Amazon with electric delivery vans as part of a partnership. However, their latest software update has been a blunder, with the update’s installation resulting in a stall that essentially bricks the main instrument display as well as the infotainment console.
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Rivian VP of software engineering Wassym Bensaid took to the Rivian subreddit to provide a series of updates to the issue, at first writing:
“We made an error with the 2023.42 OTA update – a fat finger where the wrong build with the wrong security certificates was sent out. We cancelled the campaign and we will restart it with the proper software that went through the different campaigns of beta testing.
Service will be contacting impacted customers and will go through the resolution options. That may require physical repair in some cases.
This is on us – we messed up. Thanks for your support and your patience as we go through this.”
Thankfully, in an update dated 11/15, Bensaid wrote:
“The team has been able to build a solution that fixes the issue remotely. Roll out starting today. Thanks to the community for the support.”
While Rivian owners have collectively breathed a sigh of relief, a software update taking out several vehicle features due to human error is a glimpse into the risk of cars that are becoming more and more reliant on the cloud.
