tl;dr: Rivian's CSO defended the lack of CarPlay support by claiming screen mirroring "takes over every single pixel," but the author refutes this by noting standard CarPlay only uses part of the screen (as seen in Volvos) and is entirely optional for users. The author argues CarPlay is additive—drivers who prefer Rivian's native UI simply wouldn't use it—and says he won't buy a Rivian R2 or R3X despite wanting one until the company adds support.