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St Bernard

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Absolutely. Totally agree. I was just venturing to guess as to why they are so "cagey" and lacking openness when so close to pushing those suckers out the door. Some of the disconcerting items might be a benefit at the end of the day, and some just might be items we'll miss or hoped they continued to include.
Lacking openness is never acceptable in business. Launch Green is the top color ordered. RIVIAN knows that yet they have refused to show anyone what the color looks like. Would it really be that hard to paint a Vehicle and photograph it?

Having a live presentation of the Vehicles and answering questions is not very hard. They have thousands of Vehicles Configured and people are looking for answers.

Test drives are being done every day during these troubled times. How hard would it be to have a few teams set up in major cities and let people test drive? If they are going to wait until the Virus is gone we will never have a test drive. RIVIAN is lucky that no one has an R1T equivalent and only Tesla has an SUV. If Tesla had an update to their ModeL X I would buy one rather than waiting 18-24 months for a 400 mile R1S to come out. I guess I’m frustrated with the lack of info.
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Gshenderson

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Absolutely. Totally agree. I was just venturing to guess as to why they are so "cagey" and lacking openness when so close to pushing those suckers out the door. Some of the disconcerting items might be a benefit at the end of the day, and some just might be items we'll miss or hoped they continued to include.
I think one reason could be that they don’t have everything locked down yet. Given the negative backlash on the forums whenever they remove something they previously mentioned, they may have gotten gun shy about saying anything until it’s 100% certain.

The other reason could be that being “cagey” keeps our attention. Just look at how many messages on these boards are people speculating about stuff. If they told us everything, then we wouldn’t be so glued to every “leaked” or in the wild photo/video/comment. It keeps us engaged. If we knew everything, then we’d just go about our lives waiting for the delivery day. So they might be doing it intentionally.
 

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I think one reason could be that they don’t have everything locked down yet. Given the negative backlash on the forums whenever they remove something they previously mentioned, they may have gotten gun shy about saying anything until it’s 100% certain.

The other reason could be that being “cagey” keeps our attention. Just look at how many messages on these boards are people speculating about stuff. If they told us everything, then we wouldn’t be so glued to every “leaked” or in the wild photo/video/comment. It keeps us engaged. If we knew everything, then we’d just go about our lives waiting for the delivery day. So they might be doing it intentionally.
The lack of information reduces interest and participation on the boards. Silence backfires as a marketing strategy, people get bored, however this will end shortly, as we all know, because we are on the cusp of an information deluge that will see this site explode with creative content —pictures, videos, and discussion. 2021 will be different.....
 

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Is there another manufacturer out there who releases full information months before the car launch? Honestly curious how Rivian compares to others.


For example, with Ford’s Mach E it felt like a lot of new information was only released recently when people received review models and posted the info on YouTube.
 

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Lacking openness is never acceptable in business. Launch Green is the top color ordered. RIVIAN knows that yet they have refused to show anyone what the color looks like. Would it really be that hard to paint a Vehicle and photograph it?
Just a few short weeks ago, the forum was screaming "Show us anything! We don't care if the configurator is complete, we just need to see something that tells us what colors will be available and the basic options/pricing. Renderings are fine (like Lucid), but give us something to play with!"

The tune has changed a bit.

Test drives are being done every day during these troubled times. How hard would it be to have a few teams set up in major cities and let people test drive?
Putting on test drive events is not just a matter of showing up in a city with a few vehicles. I've organized EV ride and drive events for 6+ years, and there are all kinds of issues that come up. At auto shows, most manufacturers sub the test drives out to fulfillment companies that specialize in just that, and it costs them many, many thousands of dollars. Think you can show up at the local mall parking lot and host an event? Guess again. Using a very remote lot at a local mall owned by a national management company for the refreshed LEAF rollout cost $10K+ (Nissan picked up the tab for that one). They did throw in some inside signage.
Almost all venues require a COI naming them as an insured - usually for $2M in coverage. Depending on the venue, there may also even need to be breath tests administered before someone can get behind the wheel :party::beer:.
 

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St Bernard

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Just a few short weeks ago, the forum was screaming "Show us anything! We don't care if the configurator is complete, we just need to see something that tells us what colors will be available and the basic options/pricing. Renderings are fine (like Lucid), but give us something to play with!"

The tune has changed a bit.

RIVIAN said they were taking their time with the Configurator because they were going to produce something different. I won’t comment on the quality of what they produced.

Putting on test drive events is not just a matter of showing up in a city with a few vehicles. I've organized EV ride and drive events for 6+ years, and there are all kinds of issues that come up. At auto shows, most manufacturers sub the test drives out to fulfillment companies that specialize in just that, and it costs them many, many thousands of dollars. Think you can show up at the local mall parking lot and host an event? Guess again. Using a very remote lot at a local mall owned by a national management company for the refreshed LEAF rollout cost $10K+ (Nissan picked up the tab for that one). They did throw in some inside signage.
Almost all venues require a COI naming them as an insured - usually for $2M in coverage. Depending on the venue, there may also even need to be breath tests administered before someone can get behind the wheel :party::beer:.
With better advanced planning they could have already opened 5-6 Showrooms. If Lucid, a much smaller company can do it, RIVIAN could have done it. They could have also coordinated it with their future Service Provider. This is a company well financed so spending a few million to provide a Service to their future customers is a small price. The problem right now is the demand exceeds their ability to produce the cars. But in a few years this will change and they will have major competition.
 

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I think one reason could be that they don’t have everything locked down yet. Given the negative backlash on the forums whenever they remove something they previously mentioned, they may have gotten gun shy about saying anything until it’s 100% certain.

The other reason could be that being “cagey” keeps our attention. Just look at how many messages on these boards are people speculating about stuff. If they told us everything, then we wouldn’t be so glued to every “leaked” or in the wild photo/video/comment. It keeps us engaged. If we knew everything, then we’d just go about our lives waiting for the delivery day. So they might be doing it intentionally.

To be fair, they probably care about 1% of what forums think. Forum users are all about 35-50 and represent a very small subset of the buying public. They care about Instagram and twitter reactions. Forums are a very vocal minority; not everyone has an order and they really don't represent the segement as a whole. This goes from car forums to sports talk.

And a new company having this much interaction with people before a launch is unprecedented. I'm happy with what they've shown so far. If they're still being cagey in march/april then yeah, but right now were 6-8 months from launch. Plenty of things change. A well lit holiday video is going to get a lot more buzz than a pneumatic strut discussion.
 

azbill

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Putting on test drive events is not just a matter of showing up in a city with a few vehicles. I've organized EV ride and drive events for 6+ years, and there are all kinds of issues that come up. At auto shows, most manufacturers sub the test drives out to fulfillment companies that specialize in just that, and it costs them many, many thousands of dollars. Think you can show up at the local mall parking lot and host an event? Guess again. Using a very remote lot at a local mall owned by a national management company for the refreshed LEAF rollout cost $10K+ (Nissan picked up the tab for that one). They did throw in some inside signage.
Almost all venues require a COI naming them as an insured - usually for $2M in coverage. Depending on the venue, there may also even need to be breath tests administered before someone can get behind the wheel :party::beer:.
They have stated test drives will be done at your homes, not at some event. It is simple, bring a couple of vehicles to a big metro area and schedule drives. You could provide a lot of test drives over a 1 week period. FYI, no need for any special insurance to pull into my driveway, or to drive on the local streets in my area. I will merrily were a mask, just like I would have to do at a local dealer.
 

electruck

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They have stated test drives will be done at your homes, not at some event.
I could be wrong but I believe RJ mentioned that as a possibility, not as a definitive plan.
 

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Did anybody notice that the outlets were on the passenger side of the bed interior where the air compressor outlet once resided??
Remember that the compressor is not standard on all models. It could be if the offroad package isn't chosen, there are more outlets (or an optional outlet module) in it's place.
 

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Fenwayfan77

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I think one reason could be that they don’t have everything locked down yet. Given the negative backlash on the forums whenever they remove something they previously mentioned, they may have gotten gun shy about saying anything until it’s 100% certain.

The other reason could be that being “cagey” keeps our attention. Just look at how many messages on these boards are people speculating about stuff. If they told us everything, then we wouldn’t be so glued to every “leaked” or in the wild photo/video/comment. It keeps us engaged. If we knew everything, then we’d just go about our lives waiting for the delivery day. So they might be doing it intentionally.
Ha. Pretty much said the same thing as your first paragraph in my earlier post (#28). With respect to your second paragraph, I can get behind that. It's all about "creating the allure"! However, they need to be careful to an extent. Except for the diehards, they don't want to alienate the general population by being overly secretive. Many just might be drawn away to other manufacturers who are more open. But, that being said, Rivian still does have this particular space mostly cornered, for now, so it may not ending up being too detrimental at all. And, i'm sure more info is just around the corner, so this entire point may just end up being moot after all is said and done. Haha. Speaking of diehards, I hope that movie is on this weekend. It is Christmas. Hans Gruber must fall from Nakatomi Plaza!
 

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...Speaking of diehards, I hope that movie is on this weekend. It is Christmas. Hans Gruber must fall from Nakatomi Plaza!
I hope everyone is wearing their commemorative Christmas shirt for the die hard repelling of Gruber's attack 32 years ago today.

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Shzeph

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Forum users are all about 35-50 and represent a very small subset of the buying public.
Excusez-moi, I’ll have you know I am a mere 26 years old, thank you very much.

But you are right about the rest. While we know that Rivian at least keeps an eye on the forums, I highly doubt that our personal bitching and moaning factors very much into their decisions.

Like ultimately, I’ll be completing my purchase regardless of how transparent or opaque they are going forwards. That’s not to say that I wouldn’t appreciate some more info, but if they save it all for the last 3-4 months, I’ll cope.

Somehow.
 

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Remember that the compressor is not standard on all models. It could be if the offroad package isn't chosen, there are more outlets (or an optional outlet module) in it's place.
But if you look at the other pictures I posted from this event that I found on social media, that truck is a Launch Edition. Therefore, it should have an air compressor. My assumption is that they’ve moved it to the driver’s side of the bed. Refer to the thread, https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/threads/real-photos-videos.885/page-6 posts #58, #66, and #79.
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