rivian s new pet mode lets you watch your dog from your phoneRivian is bringing a new Pet Cam feature to the R2 through an over-the-air update, letting owners watch their dogs inside the cabin via live stream. The feature is exclusive to the R2. It draws on the interior camera mounted behind the rearview mirror glass to display the cabin in full-color, high-definition.Owners launch the stream through Gear Guard. The interface shows the cabin temperature alongside the video. If a continuous feed isn't practical, the Rivian app pushes new snapshots to a phone's lock screen so owners can glance quickly. Rivian says that more than 60% of the people who own its vehicles bring pets along, a figure it has cited as a driver of its pet-focused feature set.The live streaming carries a cost. Access requires a subscription to Rivian's Connect+ plan at $14.99 per month, and Gear Guard Live Cam caps streaming at one hour each day. The system can detect whether a person, rather than a dog, is in the car and will deny monitoring in that case, per Rivian. If the stream is activated while someone is seated in the cabin, that person can deactivate it from the touchscreen with a single tap.Alongside the R2-only Pet Cam, the update brings changes to Pet Mode that extend to R1T and R1S owners through the Rivian app. Owners can now remotely activate and deactivate Pet Mode from the app. That helps if they drove off without switching it on. The update also adds in-app protection against accidentally toggling Pet Mode on or off.The same over-the-air update finally brings Rivian Assistant to the R2. This AI-powered voice system has been on the R1 for some time. Anyone in the R2 can now control climate, media, and navigation, or ask general questions, by saying "Hey, Rivian," or through the Halo Wheel on the steering wheel.Tesla owners moving to Rivian will recognize much of this, since Tesla vehicles have offered similar cabin-camera monitoring and Grok integration for a while.