YouSaid · the spoken record

Daniel J. Krawczyk

lines on the record: 78
first: 2026-05-28
most recent: 2026-05-28
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“I think The way I probably define my job and probably my priority number one is help the company grow and build on our two main assets. And I think our two main assets is one technology and two our people and culture. Technology, I think we have a wonderful opportunity now by taking that technology into many more cars across a wide range of portfolio and trims. And then culture, that's my daily obsession, which is really making sure that we continue to have the same DNA of agility being nimble, prioritizing action, quick decision making, and really iterating really fast so that we are at the forefront of”
2026-05-28 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Rivian's software chief thinks you don't need CarPlay or buttons · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The reason I ask that, as you mentioned at the very beginning, that it's an infusion of Rivian's culture, but now they're not Rivian employees. But then you are also the chief software officer of Rivian. How does that culture persist if the thing is its own entity and it's not as directly connected to Rivian or they're not Rivian employees?”
2026-05-28 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Rivian's software chief thinks you don't need CarPlay or buttons · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They are employers of RVTech. Actually, we started with about 800, 900 developers coming from Revian. And then we had about, call it 50 colleagues who joined us from the Volkswagen group. And then the rest, this is developers and engineers that we hired in the past 18 months. So everybody's architect.”
2026-05-28 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Rivian's software chief thinks you don't need CarPlay or buttons · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“consumers around the world. Now, can the technology be used for non-EBEs? Can it be used for hybrids or eyes? Obviously, the answer is yes, but for the time being, this is not the priority of the trend venture.”
2026-05-28 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Rivian's software chief thinks you don't need CarPlay or buttons · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The scope of the joint venture for the time being is really powering all the electric vehicles. I mean, this is the agreement that we have with Volkswagen. And honestly, a big part of it is one of the main reasons personally I joined Rivian is I joined Rivian for the mission. And I think the joint venture provides us with an extraordinary opportunity so that we can get this technology to accelerate electrification into many more cars around the world. One of the first products that we're building with Volkswagen Group is the ID1, which has taken our technology to a mass market vehicle. I mean, this is a car that will sell for less than 25,000 dollars and will be opening the technology opening that Rich feature said to many more.”
2026-05-28 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Rivian's software chief thinks you don't need CarPlay or buttons · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“When you think about that underlying electrical architecture and zonal computers, and we're going to cut down the number of computers, but have fewer and more powerful computers, one of the things that it seems like an obvious opportunity for Rivian and maybe way more complicated for Volkswagen is that you have a big battery that can just power computers all the time. They can be online, they can be functional, they can be available Volkswagen also makes gas cars and make hybrids. There's some pendulum swing in the industry between electrics and gas vehicles, particularly here in the United States. Is that a challenge or are you just not thinking about their gas cars at all?”
2026-05-28 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Rivian's software chief thinks you don't need CarPlay or buttons · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“of computers and the car so that we simplify the overall packaging, we simplify the overall bill of materials. This is the brains of the system. And then on top of that, we develop software that the different brands can use so that they express their own identity and think about it in a way where we do 80%, 90% of the hard work. and then we provide customization hooks so that an Audi drives like an Audi and then a Lamborghini presents a different UI than a Rivian. But then what's happening under the hood, what's happening behind the scenes is based on the same platform.”
2026-05-28 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Rivian's software chief thinks you don't need CarPlay or buttons · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Great question. I mean, really, first of all, I think what's important for us is to clarify the role of the joint venture. So we're responsible of the underlying electrical architecture and then the operating system. And what that means exactly is, I mean, when you look at the modern car today, pretty much every single interaction you have with the car is powered by software. And in lots of cases, you don't realize it. I mean, people tend to associate software to the infotainment, to what they see on the UI and the screen. But there's software everywhere in the car. I mean, the way the car navigates, the way the car drives, the way the car saves energy, the way the car does cabin comfort, all of that is actually managed through software. So the way to think about this is our role is to first of all build an electrical architecture with as less as possible.”
2026-05-28 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Rivian's software chief thinks you don't need CarPlay or buttons · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, one of the questions I have here is you describe it as an operating system. It seems like a good framework. People understand what operating systems are. I realize car operating systems are vastly more complex than people give them credit for, but it's an operating system. Then there's expressions of the operating system. And I know that our audience, they think of the software in the car and they think of the infotainment screen and that's it. That's just one expression, right? The user interface that Irivian is running, there's going to be other expressions for Volkswagen, for Scout, I presume for Lamborghini, all running the same core operating system expressed in different ways. That is a real push and pull dynamic, right? Where do the features live? Who gets to build what feature? What are the core capabilities of the operating system and the platform versus what does Lamborghini want that it doesn't want Rivian to have? How do you make those decisions?”
2026-05-28 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Rivian's software chief thinks you don't need CarPlay or buttons · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Underneath that, there's a technical team, so software, engineering, electrical engineering. The technical team reinforced to me. And then Carsten is my partner in crime. He takes care of the operations. And then he's also the main interface to the Volkswagen group. There's a ton of complexity in terms of managing different requirements, different inputs from the brands, really doing all that arbitration so that we continue pushing towards a platform approach and then we reduce the overall complexity of the portfolio that we're supporting with the BW group.”
2026-05-28 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Rivian's software chief thinks you don't need CarPlay or buttons · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“the right decision to really partner with Ribyan in this case and not only embrace that technology that we built from the ground up, but then also embrace the culture, the approach, and then the DNA of Reven as a company.”
2026-05-28 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Rivian's software chief thinks you don't need CarPlay or buttons · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The way we design cars at Rebian, for example, is we actually really design the car around the electrical architecture and around software and around the adaptability of software. So software and technology is at the table since very early. It actually impacts the overall packaging of the car. And we really use that platform and that operating system mindset so that we have a car that can evolve over time and that get better and better for our customers. And such changes are so deep. We're really to do it well, you either need to have the right partner or you go with a clean sheet approach. And I think the Volkswagen group has made”
2026-05-28 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Rivian's software chief thinks you don't need CarPlay or buttons · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“abstracted functions like what the automotive industry are using with things like probably you have heard about Otozar but like a true hand-coded operating system and then you also need a deep cultural change with really very different way of approaching the car and the overall development the old traditional model cars are defined many, many, many years in advance people claim that they know about the software features four or five years in advance and then it's a very fixed waterfall approach”
2026-05-28 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Rivian's software chief thinks you don't need CarPlay or buttons · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think really what I personally appreciate in terms of the Volkswagen group decision is the recognition that developing what is called software defined vehicles requires a complete clean sheet approach. You cannot approach it just by band-aids and then just by trying to have some level of software content into the car. And as you said, the Volkswagen group have tried. Actually, they have tried twice. But really deep inside, there's two things which are really important here. One is you need to have talent who are able to develop true software, not”
2026-05-28 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Rivian's software chief thinks you don't need CarPlay or buttons · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Fawn teenage memories of my dumb old car with that head in it. Now the whole cars are computers and you expect a lot of things to happen and that integration is too hard. What I would say broadly is that the legacy OEMs have known this for years, right? They have been on their own journey to solve this problem, to cut down on the number of ECUs, I don't know, Jim Farley was on the show from Ford five years ago, being like, too many ECUs, we're going to down. Volkswagen in particular had its own giant project to do this that failed. I think we can now there's enough distance you're a year and a half into the new JV. We can say Cariad, which Volkswagen had started failed. Why do you think the new JV and the infusion of Rivian culture is going to be successful where Volkswagen's attempt to do it on its own did not meet any kind of positive results?”
2026-05-28 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Rivian's software chief thinks you don't need CarPlay or buttons · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, this is the pitch that every sort of pure play car startup has been making for a long time, right? The way that the OEMs built cars was done and you shouldn't have 1,200 ECUs from 1,200 different suppliers. And that was fine for gas cars that were pretty dumb where the only computer was like my old pioneer head unit that had the screen that folded out. By the way, I love that head unit. If you could bring that back, that would be great for me.”
2026-05-28 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Rivian's software chief thinks you don't need CarPlay or buttons · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“For whatever reason, you want to slightly change that sequence, then you're going again for another cycle of changes. And this is why that old model really doesn't work anymore. Cars now are integrated systems with what we call zonal computers and thinks about them as this is general purpose powerful compute that we place in the middle of the car and they become decentralized brain of the different functions. And then the more software you can move on those zones, the more it provides a control of those end-to-end features for the customers.”
2026-05-28 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Rivian's software chief thinks you don't need CarPlay or buttons · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And then there's a lighting sequence, and then you get to the car and your entire profile is configured. And then whether it's the seeds, whether it's the steering wheel, whether it's the infodament system, whether it's the HVAC, everything is configured for you. That sequence is probably just 15 seconds. But doing that in the traditional world requires the coordination of more than 10 different suppliers. You need to talk to the seed supplier, you need to talk to the door supplier, you need to talk to the HVAC supplier, you need to talk to the entertainment supplier, you need to talk to the security system, you need to talk to the cloud, you need to talk to the third party for the digital key, and then just imagine that”
2026-05-28 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Rivian's software chief thinks you don't need CarPlay or buttons · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“between many of those suppliers it requires very long development cycles and that approach kind of worked in the past when the expectations of consumers were not super high in terms of end-to-end features in the cars but I think with the advancement of AVs with the types of user experiences that the Teslas and the Rivians and the Chinese cars are offering now that's no longer really an option for any car manufacturer. And I'll give you just a small example. I mean when you walk to the Arabian and I know you're currently having a Gentoo quad, you have your Apple, let's say digital key, you walk to the car and then the car will recognize you.”
2026-05-28 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Rivian's software chief thinks you don't need CarPlay or buttons · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I actually, I can't find a better name, so I admit that I'm also using the same in the lack of a better definition. But think about it this way. I mean, when you look at older architecture cars, they're really an aggregation of multiple mechanical components. And then underneath that, there's in some cases hundreds of electronic units which one of them is meant to do one thing. And generally, that's actually mirroring the way those cars are built because they are developed using different tier ones and then different suppliers. And in that world, integrating an end-to-end vehicle feature requires a ton of coordination.”
2026-05-28 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Rivian's software chief thinks you don't need CarPlay or buttons · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Then also it exercises the technology in very different ways and really puts us in a wonderful position so that we can build an architecture, an operating system for the entire industry. So that question of architecture and operating system.”
2026-05-28 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Rivian's software chief thinks you don't need CarPlay or buttons · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And that was really the genesis of the great partnership that we have now with the Volkswagen Group, which has really taken the Rivian technology stack, taken software, the electrical architecture, the Rivian DNA and culture as well, and then marrying that with the incredible scale that Wagen Group has. And it really provides a fantastic opportunity for both companies because now we can have a solution that can not only underpin the Airbnb vehicles, as we mentioned with the R2 as the first car that the joint venture. shipping. But then eventually in the future, every single electric model in the VW group. And think about it from your premium cars and Audi, for example, to luxury cars with Porsche, Bentley, Lamborghini, to the mass market cars. And that suddenly provides an opportunity of scale.”
2026-05-28 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Rivian's software chief thinks you don't need CarPlay or buttons · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“not easy it requires a very different type of tenant it requires in some cases really complete cultural change because you're not only developing software but then you need to adopt different methodologies different ways of doing things you need to be much more agile When you look at the industry Companies have tried to do that in-house. Some of them Partner, some of them tried to use tier ones and a lot of Recipes did not really work.”
2026-05-28 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Rivian's software chief thinks you don't need CarPlay or buttons · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Before we dive into Architect and the joint venture, I think it's really important to talk about the overall industry landscape. The automotive industry is really going through a major disruption. the amount of software content in the cars with technologies like electrification, connectivity, autonomy. is significantly increasing and that is creating a big divide between traditional OEMs and then new tech forward companies. And consumers now have really much higher levels of expectations in terms of the overall experience and convenience in the cars. And multiple OEMs have tried really hard to get software content, but”
2026-05-28 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Rivian's software chief thinks you don't need CarPlay or buttons · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Awesome. There's a lot here. Let's start with the organization. So you're the chief software officer at Rivian. I think a lot of people understand what that means. You're the guy that they can yell at about carplay. Don't worry. We'll come to that. There's new Rivian assistant, which is an intelligent agent inside the car that I've been playing with that I want to ask you a lot of questions about. Then there's RV Tech, which is the joint venture with Volkswagen. You're building a new zonal architecture for a bunch of cars. I believe the R2 is the first car that's going to run that new architecture. What are the lines between RV Tech and your role there, the CO there, and your role with Rivian? And what is the boundary between the software you build and the joint venture and the software you build at Rivian?”
2026-05-28 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Rivian's software chief thinks you don't need CarPlay or buttons · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Ben's head. You're the chief software officer at Rivian. You're also the A very important software joint venture between Rivian and Volkswagen, which is just straightforwardly called Rivian Volkswagen Group Technology. Welcome to Dakota. Thanks, Neil. Super excited to be here. I am very excited to talk to you. I have a lot to talk to you about. It occurred to me as we were doing the prep for this episode that you're in charge of building a new kind of software for cars, but also because of the joint venture in charge of building a new kind of software company that builds the new kind of software for cars. It is the most fractal decoder I think we've ever had.”
2026-05-28 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Rivian's software chief thinks you don't need CarPlay or buttons · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I wanted to understand how Wassem navigated the tension between the two. You know, classic decoder bait. It's also a big moment for Rivian in general right now. The company is gearing up to deliver the more affordable Rivian R2, which is the first vehicle based on this new architecture, and the company also just shipped the AI-powered Rivian assistant in its R1 vehicles. You'll hear what Sim talked about the assistant. Is the beginning of a big bet Verivian as it tries to create a more ageentic software platform in its cars. In an With Wasim, and I found Experience and certainly powerful and engaging”
2026-05-28 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Rivian's software chief thinks you don't need CarPlay or buttons · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Hello and welcome to Dakoda. I'm Neil I Patom, editor in chief of the Verge. And Dakoder is my show about big ideas and other problems. Today I'm talking with Wasim Bensayet, 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, and it effectively puts Wasim in charge of the operating system and electrical architecture where 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 she'll hear Wassim talk about is the core element of the entire thing. I also wanted to know where the lines were, what parts of Rivian software get to be just for Rivian, and which parts of the core technology are shared across both the smaller company and the behemoth that is Volkswagen crew. And, of course,”
2026-05-28 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Rivian's software chief thinks you don't need CarPlay or buttons · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT