All posts tagged: Hey

Rivian rolls out ‘Hey Rivian’ AI assistant with full vehicle control

Rivian rolls out ‘Hey Rivian’ AI assistant with full vehicle control

Published by skeptic

Rivian is rolling out its new AI-powered voice assistant to all Gen 1 and Gen 2 R1 owners as part of its latest over-the-air software update. The feature, activated by saying “Hey Rivian” or holding the left steering wheel button, requires an active Connect+ subscription. The assistant is notable because it can actually control your vehicle’s core functions — something that Tesla’s competing Grok assistant still cannot do months after its own launch. Built on Rivian Unified Intelligence Rivian Assistant is built on what the company calls “Rivian Unified Intelligence,” a multi-modal AI framework that integrates custom large language models with an orchestration layer designed to understand both the vehicle’s systems and the driver’s personal context. The company first previewed the technology at its AI and Autonomy Day in December 2025, where it also revealed an in-house silicon chip and Level 4 self-driving ambitions. The assistant is now the first consumer-facing product of that AI push. Advertisement – scroll for more content Unlike phone-mirroring voice systems like Apple CarPlay’s Siri or Android Auto’s Google Assistant, …

“Ted Lasso”‘s Brendan Hunt channels “Hey Jude” into a one-man play

“Ted Lasso”‘s Brendan Hunt channels “Hey Jude” into a one-man play

Published by Sam Flores

Award-winning actor, screenwriter and playwright Brendan Hunt joined host Kenneth Womack to talk about how his upbringing and “Hey Jude” inspired his new one-man stage production and much more on “Everything Fab Four,” a podcast co-produced by me and Womack (a music scholar who also writes about pop music for Salon) and distributed by Salon. Hunt, best known for portraying Coach Beard on the Apple TV series “Ted Lasso” (on which he is also co-creator and writer), told Womack, “I literally don’t remember a time when I didn’t know about The Beatles.” Growing up in Chicago, he says his earliest memory was being three years old, his parents having just divorced, and wandering out of bed to find his mother alone watching “Yellow Submarine.” Even from that young age, Hunt says, “they drew me in. That’s basically been it for me from there.” His Beatles journey took him through his mother’s “big record collection” and being exposed to “their psychedelic years way younger than I should have been,” and then discovering the “mop-top” years later through …

Tesla launches Spring Update 2026 with ‘Hey Grok,’ new Self-Driving app, and more

Tesla launches Spring Update 2026 with ‘Hey Grok,’ new Self-Driving app, and more

Published by skeptic

Tesla is rolling out its Spring Update 2026 software, bringing over a dozen new features to its fleet. The highlights include a redesigned Self-Driving subscription app, voice-activated Grok, and a long-requested auto-install feature for software updates. The update also adds some fun touches, like a new “Cyberhog” Pet Mode character and custom virtual wraps for Model S and X owners. New Self-Driving app with one-tap subscription The biggest functional change in the Spring Update is a redesigned Self-Driving app for vehicles running Tesla’s AI4 (HW4) hardware. The new interface lets owners subscribe to Full Self-Driving (Supervised) with a single tap at $99.99 per month and provides a dedicated stats dashboard. The stats tab tracks your Self-Driving usage with a daily streak counter and a breakdown of total miles driven with and without the feature active. This is clearly designed to nudge owners into subscribing — and keeping their subscription — by gamifying the experience. Advertisement – scroll for more content This comes just days after Tesla began rolling out FSD v14.3, which features a complete …