RJ: Camp Mode Beta Testing Video. Rolling out very soon in next OTA update

[Autolycus]

The auto leveling is nice.

But there are so MANY other more important and High Frequency use gremlins out there to fix this just seems ridiculous. How about fixing the Phone as a Key or Allowing my Card to open up the truck without the 5+ second delay, a key FOB that works like a key FOB just for starters. Or upgrading GearGuard...ect.. These are things used by the masses multiple times a day. To me it just seems as if they aren't serious about providing a quality experience for features already in place.

I'm getting disgruntled with my R1T because of this type of misdirection. My streaming stopped working and I'm being told to wait for the update (which I haven't received yet). When I asked about the timeline for me or if they could force it, the answer was I'll get the update in the next 2 weeks to 2 months. My truck continues to have "phantom battery drain" but maybe I'll just have to put in "CAMP MODE" when parking it for the night.

Thank you very much Rivian.

Obviously neither of us have any idea how their software teams are divided or assigned tasks, but it's very likely that the people who programmed auto-leveling would never touch any code related to the remotes or keys. Adding new features like this isn't delaying them fixing the issues you pointed out.

Sponsored

 

[bd5400]

A few observations:

• RJ's R1S appears to be Glacier White, but the display shows a darker R1S. Isn't it supposed to be matching?
• It's 104F wherever he is at, and it sounds like his kids are in the back. I"m guessing the R1S seems to be doing a good job of keeping everyone cool.
• Should there be that much streaking on the front wind shield?

I don’t think it’s GW. All of the Instagram photos RJ posted related to camp mode show that all of the vehicles are incredibly dusty. I think we’re just seeing a dust covered hood like the R1T in the bottom of this photo:

 

[Marchin_MTB]

When I have phantom battery drain I do a vehicle shut down and restart and usually it cures it at least for a day or two. Many times I can hear a small fan running under the hood in the front of the truck when she’s all shut down and locked up and I know it is draining before I even check my mileage, if you haven’t done so I’ll give it a try

What kind of restart (outer two steering wheel buttons or the other one) and what is your level of phantom drain per night if I may ask?

 

[MNLightning]

Shoulda kept the Lightning I guess.

If you are having overnight drain issues and dont have the outlets on, do a reset. They have fixed my problems typically.

The auto-leveling issue is higher on my list than the annoying issues with phone as key. Also most of those seem to get better after a reset...

The auto level is for hard core camper’s imho. Nothing wrong with that but I would guess it’s a pretty small slice of R1T owners using the truck to sleep in.

The overnight drain is more than an annoyance. The truck keeps my cab toasty when not charging overnight and heats up the 3 car garage to 15 over ambient when connected to the charger.

I also think my criticism of known issues that have seen little or no progress is fair.

 

[MNLightning]

Obviously neither of us have any idea how their software teams are divided or assigned tasks, but it's very likely that the people who programmed auto-leveling would never touch any code related to the remotes or keys. Adding new features like this isn't delaying them fixing the issues you pointed out.

I agree that “we don’t know “ but that’s the problem should be all hands on deck fixing high frequency issues.
Also if you don’t know, how do you know it’s not delaying the issues I pointed out ?

 

[mgc0216]

The auto level is for hard core camper’s imho. Nothing wrong with that but I would guess it’s a pretty small slice of R1T owners using the truck to sleep in.

The overnight drain is more than an annoyance. The truck keeps my cab toasty when not charging overnight and heats up the 3 car garage to 15 over ambient when connected to the charger.

I also think my criticism of known issues that have seen little or no progress is fair.

They typically don't sleep in our trucks thet sleep on them in roof top tents.

 

[mgc0216]

I agree that “we don’t know “ but that’s the problem should be all hands on deck fixing high frequency issues.
Also if you don’t know, how do you know it’s not delaying the issues I pointed out ?

I disagree with your take on the priorities, but agree it's all a trade off. An engineer working on auto leveling might not work on battery drain, but that's not to say they couldn't.

SWE assets are fungible to a large degree, and can be redeployed if needs change within reason.

So yes, developing camp mode (which clearly touches a lot of different systems) came at the expense of other features.

That being said i works prioritize it over your list because what you listed to me are features that work but could be improved. The rivian is an adventure vehicle that was not well suited for one of its primary use cases: camping.

If you don't think camping is a primary use case i point you to them offering a tent and kitchen witn a combined cost of $9k. Rivian is serious about that segment.

 

[MNLightning]

They typically don't sleep in our trucks thet sleep on them in roof top tents.

It wasn’t an exclusive comment. Still a small slice of owners imho.

 

[Rivianlover]

What kind of restart (outer two steering wheel buttons or the other one) and what is your level of phantom drain per night if I may ask?

Outer steering wheel button on the left and then the four-way flasher button on the ceiling. Hold it for 10 to 15 seconds until your screens go black, and then it restarts itself will take a few minutes.

Before I do the restart I noticed that my truck has a noise of the fan running under the hood sitting in the garage, and many times the cabin gets extremely hot. I’ve taken a thermometer and put it in my wife’s car that sits next to the truck and the truck will run anywhere from the low 90° to 98° while her car sits at around 78° inside. I just did this yesterday and the drain has stopped .
I had 277 miles available at 7 PM last night, now 11 hours later I have 277 miles available. When the Phantom drain happens I would lose 10 to 12 miles in that amount of time
The drain is about 1 mile an hour I lose.

The reason I know about the restart is one day a few weeks ago I pulled out of the driveway in sport mode and I could only hit 20 miles an hour I thought I accidentally put it in Off-road mode But I have not, I push the button to switch to another mode it didn’t matter 20 miles an hour as I could get out of it, I went right back in the driveway contacted Rivian and a Rivian specialist “Mia” Told me how to restart the vehicle. I’ve probably done a vehicle restart a couple times every week since then to Stop the phantom !

 

[swazi]

The auto leveling is nice.

But there are so MANY other more important and High Frequency use gremlins out there to fix this just seems ridiculous. How about fixing the Phone as a Key or Allowing my Card to open up the truck without the 5+ second delay, a key FOB that works like a key FOB just for starters. Or upgrading GearGuard...ect.. These are things used by the masses multiple times a day. To me it just seems as if they aren't serious about providing a quality experience for features already in place.

I'm getting disgruntled with my R1T because of this type of misdirection. My streaming stopped working and I'm being told to wait for the update (which I haven't received yet). When I asked about the timeline for me or if they could force it, the answer was I'll get the update in the next 2 weeks to 2 months. My truck continues to have "phantom battery drain" but maybe I'll just have to put in "CAMP MODE" when parking it for the night.

Thank you very much Rivian.

I agree, it's all the accumulated "little" things that you deal with every day that grinds on you and eventually start affecting the ownership experience. My number 1 is locking and unlocking (PAK, keycard delay etc.).

 

[JamesPolk24]

This is certainly a unique and great feature to have, but like you all said, the use case and benefit is for a VERY small subset of Rivian owners. I won't use PAK until it's near perfect so rely 100% on the keyfob. Would like for the buttons to work like every other keyfob. When I press a button, it should respond immediately every time. Sometimes it's pretty quick, other times it's a 5-8 second delay. Vampire drain is still a major issue and more needs to be done than incremental 10% improvements. Yesterday the truck was cooling the battery with 80° ambient. Don't understand the need for that. Seems like excessive cooling.

 

[Marchin_MTB]

Outer steering wheel button on the left and then the four-way flasher button on the ceiling. Hold it for 10 to 15 seconds until your screens go black, and then it restarts itself will take a few minutes.

Before I do the restart I noticed that my truck has a noise of the fan running under the hood sitting in the garage, and many times the cabin gets extremely hot. I’ve taken a thermometer and put it in my wife’s car that sits next to the truck and the truck will run anywhere from the low 90° to 98° while her car sits at around 78° inside. I just did this yesterday and the drain has stopped .
I had 277 miles available at 7 PM last night, now 11 hours later I have 277 miles available. When the Phantom drain happens I would lose 10 to 12 miles in that amount of time
The drain is about 1 mile an hour I lose.

The reason I know about the restart is one day a few weeks ago I pulled out of the driveway in sport mode and I could only hit 20 miles an hour I thought I accidentally put it in Off-road mode But I have not, I push the button to switch to another mode it didn’t matter 20 miles an hour as I could get out of it, I went right back in the driveway contacted Rivian and a Rivian specialist “Mia” Told me how to restart the vehicle. I’ve probably done a vehicle restart a couple times every week since then to Stop the phantom !

Thank you. So you were seeing drains of about 3-4% in 11 hours perhaps which is definitely very high. I see about 1% “phantom drain” in a 10-12 hour span which is a value several other folks have reported as well. Others are now reporting drain that is half to a quarter of mine. I’m intrigued by the large span of phantom/vampire drain reported (in seemingly similar conditions).

 

[Arky]

Agree with the sentiment here that they need to fix the simple "this always worked everywhere else why doesn't it now" stuff like the ridiculous idle drain and door locks.

I understand wanting to preserve a battery, but it surely can't be so sensitive that the truck needs to run air conditioning into it when it's sitting idle outside. Unless the battery temp is like over 60-70C at rest it needs to relax.

 

[Dark-Fx]

Agree with the sentiment here that they need to fix the simple "this always worked everywhere else why doesn't it now" stuff like the ridiculous idle drain and door locks.

I understand wanting to preserve a battery, but it surely can't be so sensitive that the truck needs to run air conditioning into it when it's sitting idle outside. Unless the battery temp is like over 60-70C it needs to relax.

60C is typically the upper limit for storage in a situation where the cell was drained to the optimal state of charge...

 

[pc500]

I disagree with your take on the priorities, but agree it's all a trade off. An engineer working on auto leveling might not work on battery drain, but that's not to say they couldn't.

SWE assets are fungible to a large degree, and can be redeployed if needs change within reason.

So yes, developing camp mode (which clearly touches a lot of different systems) came at the expense of other features.

That being said i works prioritize it over your list because what you listed to me are features that work but could be improved. The rivian is an adventure vehicle that was not well suited for one of its primary use cases: camping.

If you don't think camping is a primary use case i point you to them offering a tent and kitchen witn a combined cost of $9k. Rivian is serious about that segment.

Rivian has to sell trucks to stay in business. They'll both get fixed but delaying release cadence of stuff that sells trucks has a business priority that might not match the severity of what appears to be a key issue.

New feature development always tends to get a little more resources over sustaining engineering especially when there's revenue tied to it. And yes you can argue there's some revenue on the other side due to customer satisfaction but the reality is it's more nuanced.

Sponsored