Rivian R2 Adds Lock-Screen Pet Cam in 2026.36 Update

Rivian R2 owners can now keep a live view of their pets on a phone's lock screen after the 2026.36 software update.

Pet Cam uses the R2's high-definition interior camera to show the cabin inside the Rivian app, according to Engadget. Owners get two options: a full livestream, and a still snapshot that refreshes on a schedule and can appear in the app dashboard or on the lock screen. Early materials from Rivian described the lock-screen option as snapshots updating every minute, a lower-bandwidth alternative to holding an open video session.

The feed can be stopped with a tap on the vehicle's main display. The off switch stays in the car.

Pet Cam works alongside Pet Mode, the climate-control setting that holds cabin conditions steady for animals when the owner is away. Rivian will let owners turn Pet Mode on from the Rivian app, with a confirmation prompt when switching it on or off remotely. That app control will extend to all Rivian models, while Pet Cam itself is limited to R2 vehicles, per Rivian. Rivian describes the camera as a companion to Pet Comfort Mode.

Looking at what this means for vehicle software design, placement matters more than the camera itself. Moving the cabin view to the lock screen removes unlock, app launch and navigation from the checking loop. It is the difference between glancing at a watch and opening a phone. That lowers interaction cost, meaning fewer taps and less time, for a task owners repeat often and with some anxiety. It also creates two patterns of use. Livestream fits active worry. Periodic snapshots fit background reassurance.

In my view, the supporting details are as revealing as the headline feature. A snapshot mode respects limits that pure video ignores: cellular bandwidth, phone battery and server relay load. Fetching a still once per minute is cheap and robust where continuous uplink video is fragile, especially in parking structures and fringe coverage. Giving anyone in or near the vehicle a one-tap stop on the center display keeps consent and control local, even as viewing goes remote. The underlying architecture will be familiar to technical readers. The hard parts are session setup, NAT traversal (the method devices use to find each other across mobile networks), authentication and clean teardown, not pixels.

The broader context here is the steady move of vehicle functions from physical switches in the cabin to authenticated remote actions, meaning commands tied to a logged-in identity. Remote climate is no longer novel. What the industry is still working out is the safety design around it. A confirmation prompt on remote changes to Pet Mode is a small pattern with large effect. It guards against pocket taps and mis-taps, and it creates an explicit record of intent for a function tied to animal welfare. Extending that app control across the fleet while keeping Pet Cam on R2 points to a hardware requirement, namely the interior HD camera path, rather than a packaging choice.

Worth flagging for owners is the operational pairing. A camera does not cool a cabin. Rivian ties Pet Cam to Pet Comfort Mode for a reason. Video without climate is watching. Climate without video requires trust. Combined, they give an owner both actuation and verification from a distance, with the lock screen as the persistent surface for checking.

Stepping back, that combination is what makes this update practical rather than decorative. It turns the phone owners already carry into a glanceable monitor, keeps the off switch physically in the vehicle, and puts a confirmation step in front of remote climate changes.