Rivian wants to prove that Tesla isn’t the only automaker that can come up with fun, seasonal updates for its cars. Its latest came just in time for Halloween, and transforms onscreen representations of the people around its vehicles into zombies, witches, and more.
Revealed with a video earlier this month, over-the-air update 2023.38.00 adds a new tab called “Halloween” in the settings screen of the Rivian R1T and R1S. Under that tab, occupants are provided with the opportunity to “Make it Spooky.”
When pressed, the option changes the pedestrians and cyclists that can be seen in the vehicles’ infotainment screen in ADAS view mode into zombies and witches, respectively. Motorcyclists are also transformed into witches in the driving mode.
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While that’s fun and innocent, it is worth mentioning that keeping an eye out for pedestrians is especially important around Halloween. I hate to be a bummer, but more American child pedestrians are killed on October 31st than any other night. Vox reported last year that fatalities for the group are 43 percent higher than average on the night.
While it makes tragic sense that more accidents happen on a night when more children are out walking the street, it also makes sense to take that into account while driving. So take special care to watch out and slow down for pedestrians tonight.
On the lighter side of things, the fun continues with Rivian’s update. In addition to changing the graphics for the ADAS system, the spooky mode also makes it look like a pumpkin has fallen out of the vehicle whenever the infotainment screen shows that a door or storage compartment is open.
To cap it all off, Rivian has also replaced the standard chirping sound that accompanies the locking or unlocking of the doors with something decidedly spookier: the organ sound from Toccata in D Minor. Now, if only Rivian could replace the low-speed sound with Vincent Price’s laugh, it would be a perfect Halloween.