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

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, which everyone just calls RV Tech. That joint venture kicked off about a year and a half ago with a nearly $6 billion investment from Volkswagen. It effectively puts Wassym in charge of the operating system and electrical architecture for every future EV from Volkswagen and its associated brands, including familiar names like Audi, but also new companies like Scout. There’s a lot of Decoder ideas in there — I really wanted to know how that joint venture works and how it’s structured to preserve Rivian’s unique software culture, which you’ll hear Wassym talk about as the core element of the whole thing. I also wanted to know where the lines were — what parts of Rivian’s software get to be just for Rivian, and which parts of the core technology would be shared across the smaller company and the behemoth that is Volkswagen Group. And, of course, I wanted to understand how Wassym navigated the tension between the two. You know, classic Decoder bait. Verge subscribers, don’t forget you get exclusive access to ad-free Decoder wherever you get yo…