What Would You Like To See From Our Rivian Test? - Out of Spec

[godfodder0901]

I'll add to the roof question. Rivian customer service previously said the pano glass roof would get darker in direct sunlight. Is the glass roof photochromic, or fixed tint?

Seems fixed to me.

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[godfodder0901]

• how much content can their Spotify client buffer when out of cell range?

Similar to what your phone would do, seems like 1 or 2 songs from a playlist

• is there a setting that automatically lowers the suspension all the way down (kneel mode) when parked? if so, how practical is it (ie, how long does it take to lower upon parking and raise upon driving)?

No. There is no kneel mode that I can find.

• is the vehicle ready to drive as soon as you are seated and have fastened your seat belt or is there a "bootup" delay?

It's ready before you even get in the car. You'll never wait for it to boot.

• similarly, if I hop in the car, fasten my seatbelt, and put the vehicle in reverse, how long does it take for the rear view camera to pop up?

Less time than it will take you to move your line of sight from the instrument cluster to the dash. And you can have the cameras up at any time, in any mode, and in fwd or rev.

• what is the range of phone-as-key?

Seems to be about 30 feet over BLE, but you can control over Wi-Fi as well.

• are there settings to maintain climate while parked such as when the family remains in the car while I run into a store for a few minutes?

As long as you don't lock it, it will maintain indefinitely as you chill.

• if my wife and I both use phone-as-key, does the vehicle transition to her key if I leave the vehicle while she remains inside? What happens when I get back to the car? What is the impact on climate-hold, driver settings, etc during these kinds of transitions?

Great question. I was planning to test this myself. I'll let you know what I find out.

 

[hroussel]

Hi all

We will be testing a Rivian R1T very soon and want to cover the topics that mean the most to you! Of course we'll have our standard range / charging / road trip coverage but I want to test what you all think will demystify the truck a bit.

As you can imagine we have nearly a full content plan with the R1T and we'll try and incorporate as much as you are looking for during our coverage.

Thanks!
Kyle

Road noise compared to model S and X, since quite a few people, including me, currently have a Tesla.

And what about a "regen" test to see how much energy is recovered when going down a mountain. TFL had gotten very little energy back in their IKE Gauntlet test on the way down. And I know that in some early drives people had mentioned the regen was limited after a short while.

Thanks again for your great work. Can't wait to see the range test!

 

[electruck]

As long as you don't lock it, it will maintain indefinitely as you chill.

Thanks for all the great answers @godfodder0901. This answer in particular raises an additional question. When using phone-as-key, how do you lock the vehicle? Will it auto-lock when you walk away (if so then this adds to the multiple phones-as-key scenarios) or do you have to open the app and do it manually?

 

[godfodder0901]

Thanks for all the great answers @godfodder0901. This answer in particular raises an additional question. When using phone-as-key, how do you lock the vehicle? Will it auto-lock when you walk away (if so then this adds to the multiple phones-as-key scenarios) or do you have to open the app and do it manually?

Either or, depending on if you have the option to auto-lock enabled.

 

[AllInev]

Compare "All purpose" to "Conserve" mode.

That is, drive something like a 50 mile route in both modes and tell us the difference.

Many on the forum are giving up 10%-15% of mileage by picking the 20" wheels (AT tires). If "Conserve" mode can give us back 5%-10%, that would be great to know.

 

[AllInev]

Similar to what your phone would do, seems like 1 or 2 songs from a playlist

No. There is no kneel mode that I can find.

It's ready before you even get in the car. You'll never wait for it to boot.

Less time than it will take you to move your line of sight from the instrument cluster to the dash. And you can have the cameras up at any time, in any mode, and in fwd or rev.

Seems to be about 30 feet over BLE, but you can control over Wi-Fi as well.

As long as you don't lock it, it will maintain indefinitely as you chill.

Great question. I was planning to test this myself. I'll let you know what I find out.

Thanks @godfodder0901 for helping answer all these questions!!!

 

[godfodder0901]

Thanks @godfodder0901 for helping answer all these questions!!!

Happy to do so!

 

[SeaGeo]

Gravel Road Range Test - In addition to all the other range tests, it would be interesting to see consumption figures for off road driving. I know a majority of miles will be on road, but since this is an off road capable EV it would be good to know range in these conditions. No extended rock crawling, mud, or snow, just a loop through the mountains on a gravel forest service type road. Something you would do 10-30mph on.

That would be an absurdly long drive and really hard to standardize, and would be hard to time for driving to near zero.

pulling the average efficiency over like 10 miles would be great though!

 

[zefram47]

And what about a "regen" test to see how much energy is recovered when going down a mountain. TFL had gotten very little energy back in their IKE Gauntlet test on the way down. And I know that in some early drives people had mentioned the regen was limited after a short while.

So this is kind of a weird one. I did a mountain canyon road route in my MINI for kicks. Wound up being 95 miles total starting near Golden, CO (around 5.5k ft) and going up to 10k ft to Echo Lake on Squaw Pass. To get to the lake I got down to 50% SoC, but when I got back to Golden I *still* had 50% SoC. So it's not so much that you gain energy under regen in the mountains...you can, just not much...it's that you don't really use anything overall coming back down. My average consumption going up is usually 2-2.5 mi/kWh with a spirited drive and then something 5+ mi/kWh coming back down.

 

[timesinks]

Road noise compared to model S and X, since quite a few people, including me, currently have a Tesla.

And what about a "regen" test to see how much energy is recovered when going down a mountain. TFL had gotten very little energy back in their IKE Gauntlet test on the way down. And I know that in some early drives people had mentioned the regen was limited after a short while.

Thanks again for your great work. Can't wait to see the range test!

So this is kind of a weird one. I did a mountain canyon road route in my MINI for kicks. Wound up being 95 miles total starting near Golden, CO (around 5.5k ft) and going up to 10k ft to Echo Lake on Squaw Pass. To get to the lake I got down to 50% SoC, but when I got back to Golden I *still* had 50% SoC. So it's not so much that you gain energy under regen in the mountains...you can, just not much...it's that you don't really use anything overall coming back down. My average consumption going up is usually 2-2.5 mi/kWh with a spirited drive and then something 5+ mi/kWh coming back down.

It's not really a question of "how good" the R1T's regen is. It'll come fully to a stop without applying the brake pedal. Regen is plenty strong to capture excess energy.

The physics just aren't in your favor. You have the force of gravity pulling you down the hill, but you also have friction in the form of wind and rolling resistance trying to slow you down -- and both are higher when towing. Any given slope and tow configuration is going to have a speed with equilibrium. If you want to exceed that speed, you'll consume energy from your battery. If you want to go slower than that speed, you'll recapture energy into your battery.

 

[SeaGeo]

It's not really a question of "how good" the R1T's regen is. It'll come fully to a stop without applying the brake pedal. Regen is plenty strong to capture excess energy.

The physics just aren't in your favor. You have the force of gravity pulling you down the hill, but you also have friction in the form of wind and rolling resistance trying to slow you down -- and both are higher when towing. Any given slope and tow configuration is going to have a speed with equilibrium. If you want to exceed that speed, you'll consume energy from your battery. If you want to go slower than that speed, you'll recapture energy into your battery.

And how aggressive the trailer break was acting…

 

[sub]

As long as you don't lock it, it will maintain indefinitely as you chill.

What if you do lock it? Is there a way to tell it to keep the heat/AC running with the doors locked? I don't want to leave the doors unlocked when I go into a store, but I do like to keep the heat on.

 

[timesinks]

What if you do lock it? Is there a way to tell it to keep the heat/AC running with the doors locked? I don't want to leave the doors unlocked when I go into a store, but I do like to keep the heat on.

The phone app will let you enable climate remotely. I think, for now, you'd have to walk away, let it lock, then flip it back on with the app. I'm sure they'll streamline this use case eventually.

 

[R1T7777]

I'd love a thorough review of the nav system. Like, how well does it do in traffic with ETA vs Google Maps and Waze. How reliable and quick is it to navigate to locations by voice? Can you add a waypoint/stop to an existing route by voice? Is there a way to send a location or route from Google Maps on your phone to the nav?

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