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A comment on Rivian Unveils Custom Silicon, R2 Lidar Roadmap, and Universal Hands Free. Parent comment

Re:Rivian Unveils Custom Silicon, R2 Lidar Roadmap, and Univ... by bobthepanda on Friday December 12, 2025 @02:17AM (#46241663)
Bundling a real product with a financial institution is a time tested strategy.

Airlines with their credit cards are basically banks that happen to fly planes. Starbucks' mobile app is a bank that happens to sell coffee. Auto companies have long had financing arms; if anything, providing insurance on top of a lease is the natural extension of that.

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Re:Rivian Unveils Custom Silicon, R2 Lidar Roadmap, and Univ... by SideburnsOfDoom on Friday December 12, 2025 @03:13AM (#46241963)
> Auto companies have long had financing arms

I have in fact heard it said that VW group is a financing company with a automobile arm. From some points of view, that seems correct.

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Re:Rivian Unveils Custom Silicon, R2 Lidar Roadmap, and Univ... by ghaff on Friday December 12, 2025 @07:27PM (#46250724)
Auto companies, yes. As I understand it, airline credit cards are mostly just co-branded cards with existing banks like Chase.
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Re:Rivian Unveils Custom Silicon, R2 Lidar Roadmap, and Univ... by bobthepanda on Friday December 12, 2025 @08:03PM (#46250945)
Frequent flyer programs are basically banks if you consider miles/points are currency.
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Re:Rivian Unveils Custom Silicon, R2 Lidar Roadmap, and Univ... by ghaff on Friday December 12, 2025 @09:11PM (#46251338)
That's different from the credit cards themselves--given the points degrade in value. (And which I should really start to use more.)
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