This week the trend is Rivian

This week the trend is Rivian’s new R2 and R3 electric vehicles. The R2 is a mid-sized SUV that seats five. The R3 is a smaller cross-over in the same class as something like the Toyota RAV4 or Honda CR-V.

On the surface, a new SUV that starts at $45,000 isn't that exciting. On the other hand, I think the R2 will get a lot more people interested in owning an EV. I've driven an electric vehicle for the last six years and our household completely ditched gas cars in 2019.

It's so nice to skip the stops at gas stations and fill up at home, overnight. The torque on EVs is really helpful for merging onto the freeway. And, even if less important, getting rid of engine rumbling noise is so great.

Beyond the lower price and ~300-mile range, here are some finer details of why I'm high on Rivian's supply.

• Two displays. There's one for the driver and a bigger general-purpose console. The driver one isn't necessary, but it's nice.
• Compact footprint. It's about the same width and about an inch shorter than the Model Y.
• More emphasis on physical controls on the steering wheel controls while not adding more buttons.
• Unique storage. There are two gloveboxes, a front trunk, and a spacious rear trunk. More interesting is that even the driver and passenger seats fold flat—to make room for a camping air mattress.
• NACS. The more ubiquitous NACS charging port (the one Tesla uses) is built in for use of any Supercharger around the U.S.

Personally, I love the way the R3 looks, but I know it's probably not for everyone. But a hatchback-looking EV is just fun. The biggest problem with the R2 and R3 is that they won't get here until 2026.

Other things I’m thinking about this week

I went into Dune: Part II excited about a visually fascinating epic adventure, but was instead reminded about how terrible the movie-going experience has become.

It seems crazy that advertised movie start times aren't when movies actually start. It's when the trailers and commercials start. A long, 2.75-hour movie becomes an even longer 3.5-hour time suck depending on the commute to and from the theater.

Shouldn’t theaters try to do everything in their power to get people in and out as timely as possible? Have fancy food and a bar area for people who want to gather. But make the actual time in the theater as efficient as possible.

If revenue is important then shouldn’t they show the trailers on repeat for however long the auditorium is open before the movie starts and then charge advertisers premium for two or three minutes of commercials directly before the movie starts, when people are actually there and watching?

All of this just feels more urgent with the arrival of the Vision Pro. Several times during Dune, I thought, this would look better and be a better experience at home, watching with the headset. Am I the only one that feels this way?

Music

The Marias - "Run Your Mouth"

Bleachers - "Isimo"

These new Bleachers songs are a vibe. I like a lot of the songs individually but haven't had a chance to take it in as a whole yet. I'm interested to see how it plays as a moment.

TV

Manhunt is the Apple TV+ series based on the book about the hunt for John Wilkes Booth after he killed Lincoln. The show comes out on March 15 and it was great.

Admittedly I didn't even realize how little I knew about what happened to John Wilkes Booth until watching the show. There's both a grandeur and a simplicity to the murder that the series really captures. The 7-part series moves quickly while still doing a good job of providing a lot of context for the event.

It was a little weird seeing Hamish Linklater play Lincoln at first, but quickly it became normal—he did a remarkable job of encapsulating a larger-than-life figure.

Movies

Poor Things is now streaming on Hulu and Disney+.

Misc links

• Superlist is a new to-do app. One thing I like is how it connects to Gmail. If you turn the setting on, it can import every starred email as a to-do item. If you pay for its subscription it can import Slack messages as to-dos as well. It's supposed to be your... super list.