Rivian's 2025.38 "Spooky Swamp" Software Update Brings Plug & Charge and Halloween Fun
Rivian's October 2025 software update delivers Plug & Charge support, 12V battery health alerts, and seasonal Halloween theming for R1 vehicles.
When Rivian pushed its 2025.38 “Spooky Swamp” software update to owners in mid-October 2025, the company delivered more than seasonal decorations. The update — which began rolling out October 21 — brought Plug & Charge capability for both Electrify America and IONNA networks, improved 12V battery health detection with in-app notifications, and a refreshed climate control interface that owners had been requesting for months.
The update also marked the return of Rivian’s Halloween theme, complete with a “Happy Haunting” animation and seasonal graphics on the driver’s display. For the R1T and R1S, the car could “dress up” as K.I.T.T. from Knight Rider or the DeLorean Time Machine — a fun easter egg that showed up in forums within days of the rollout.
More Than a Halloween Stunt
While the spooky skin grabbed attention on social media, the real story was under the hood. Plug & Charge means owners can pull up to a compatible Electrify America station, plug in, and charge — no apps, no cards, no fumbling. The car handles authentication automatically using the charging standard. For highway road trips, it’s a meaningful quality-of-life improvement.
The 12V battery fix was arguably more important for long-term reliability. Rivian’s R1 vehicles have had 12V battery drain issues reported in forums — the new notification system alerts owners through both the in-vehicle display and the mobile app before the battery gets critically low. That’s the kind of proactive update that prevents stranded vehicles.
Climate improvements included more granular seat heater controls and a revised auto mode algorithm that better predicts cabin conditioning needs. Rivian said it used owner feedback data from the previous 2025.34 release to shape the changes.
What’s Next: 2025.46
By late October, Rivian was already teasing the next major release. The 2025.46 “Wide Open” update followed in December, bringing further performance tuning and expanded driver-assist features. The Halloween update essentially served as a bridge release — lighter on new features, heavier on reliability fixes and usability.
For current Rivian owners, the 2025.38 update represented the company’s most stable release in months. Forum threads that had been filled with complaints about bugs and battery drain saw a marked reduction in activity after the rollout.
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