The Rivian R2 is getting a Pet Cam, a feature that streams the cabin's interior camera to the owner's phone so a dog waiting in the car can be checked from the grocery store or the coffee line. It is exclusive to the R2 and ships in a software release numbered 2026.36.
Per Rivian, Pet Cam runs on the R2's high-definition RGB interior camera and lives in the Gear Guard section of the Rivian app, where a live color feed carries a real-time cabin temperature badge. For a quicker look, the app dashboard and the phone lock screen refresh with periodic snapshots of the cabin, so an owner can check in without opening a video stream. Anyone staying in the car can end the stream with one tap on the main center display. On the Rivian R2, that stop control matters for a camera that points into a space people share, and it keeps Pet Cam from reading as a pure surveillance feature.
Pet Mode, the existing feature that holds cabin climate for animals, also gets new phone controls across the range. The Rivian R2, R1T and R1S (first and second generation) can all have Pet Mode switched on remotely from the app, which covers the owner who walked away without enabling it. Turning it off is done with the paw icon in the climate micro-app on the app dashboard, and each change asks for a quick confirming tap so climate control is not shut off by accident. Rivian frames the whole package around its own count that more than 60 percent of its owners travel with a dog.
The same release brings Rivian Assistant to the R2. R1 owners already have the voice assistant, which handles climate, media and navigation requests, general knowledge questions, destination weather and song identification. On the Rivian R2 it starts from the right Haptic Halo wheel on the steering wheel, a tap on the display icon, or the phrases "Hey, Rivian" and "Okay, Rivian." The rollout of the update is beginning for eligible R1 and R2 vehicles, and the release notes and per-vehicle availability sit in the Rivian app and on the center display.
