R1S liftgate opened while driving and all luggage fell out! (Drive Cam video added)

[aashpatel_R1S]

Updated with Drive Cam video:

So I pick my wife up at the airport, and it's her first time riding in my R1S. I put her hard top suitcase, her back pack, and her jacket in the back of the R1S. I only opened the top door to do this, and left the bottom back door in the closed position. As I'm leaving the airport, I hit a stretch of straight road, glanced in my rearview mirror, and noticed there were not any cars behind me, so I came to a stop in the road. My wife asked me what I was doing, and I said, "Put your head on the back of the seat because I don't want you to hurt your neck, I'm going to blast off". She does, and I put the pedal to the metal to show off my 835 horsepower, and the zero to 60 thing in 3 seconds.

Well her suitcase was loose in the back of the car, and, as you can imagine, it slams with great force into the back doors when I took off. I wasn't thinking about this at the time, but it is to be expected. What I didn't expect is to notice about a quarter mile later down the road that the back doors were open. I quickly pulled over, and ran to the back of the R1S, when I noticed her suitcase, backpack, and jacket were no longer in the vehicle. I looked back to where we came from, and her stuff was in the middle of the road. Another couple had pulled over to gather my wife's belongings and place them on the side of the road. I rushed back to the scene of the incident, and collected her things.

It infuriated me that this happened, and could have been very dangerous for all your gear to leave your vehicle in front of other drivers, and could have been much worse. There was no messages from the R1S that my tailgate was not latched, but the force of the suitcase hitting the tailgate forced it open, and all items in the back of the R1S were ejected into the roadway. If this doesn't constitute a good reason for a recall, I don't know what does. I'm now scared to punch my accelerator pedal for fear that all my stuff will come flying out the back of the car. Beware, and I will be contacting Rivian Service Center, but hopefully someone important will read this and take action to contact me immediately. This is unacceptable.

in my case, I was driving around 40mph and the lift gate opened up….thought Imust have pressed a button, but that’s not possible in a moving car. Will report it to the service agent, now that I see someone else had an issue. It’s just not my mind playing tricks

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[kenef]

I am had/am having a similar problem with my current R1T. Rear tailgate opened itself on the drive home from picking it up. I've had issues locking it fully and have an appointment in the works. Its more noticeable that its not closed for me (while still outside) due to the lights in the bed triggering off/then back on once I let go of the tailgate after closing it.

Sometimes it latches, sometimes it doesn't. Lately it has been ok- sounds like latch sensors potentially as my tailgate seems OK in terms of fitment. Never had this issue with any of my previous R1Ts.

Definitely worth a ticket to get it checked out- UNLESS it can actually close.

 

[Electrified Outdoors]

My wife takes everything except the kitchen since so I understand the heavy bags. Sounds like something wasn't latched properly. Hopefully service can rectify.

I think we can laugh about this because none of your wife's stuff was damaged for lost right? This could have been much worse though. What if pets were back there?

Next time tie the stuff in before you put the pedal to the metal ?

 

[invernite]

it is good standard practise to secure your load before travel at any speed

great advice for more than just this scenario!

 

[R1S Man]

Just to be clear, the lift gate and tail gate were closed when I left the house. 30 min drive to the airport. No notices from the R1S that the back door was open. I arrived at the airport. Opened the lift gate only. Put my wife's luggage in the back. Closed the lift gate. Drove off. No notices that the back door was open, and never opened the tail gate. Now yes, dumb of me to floor a rocket ship with loose luggage in the back. The luggage hitting the tail gate with great force caused the tail gate to open. Tail gate holds the lift gate, so the lift gate opens as well. Maybe my back door sensor is malfunctioning, and the tail gate was never fully locked, and didn't notify me. I will have service check it out for sure. Definitely user error here, but still not acceptable to me. Yes, funny, but could be much worse for others who might make the same mistake, as some mentioned pets could have fallen out or gear falling out in front of other drivers.

 

[SoCal Rob]

Just to be clear, the lift gate and tail gate were closed when I left the house. 30 min drive to the airport. No notices from the R1S that the back door was open. I arrived at the airport. Opened the lift gate only. Put my wife's luggage in the back. Closed the lift gate. Drove off. No notices that the back door was open, and never opened the tail gate. Now yes, dumb of me to floor a rocket ship with loose luggage in the back. The luggage hitting the tail gate with great force caused the tail gate to open. Tail gate holds the lift gate, so the lift gate opens as well. Maybe my back door sensor is malfunctioning, and the tail gate was never fully locked, and didn't notify me. I will have service check it out for sure. Definitely user error here, but still not acceptable to me. Yes, funny, but could be much worse for others who might make the same mistake, as some mentioned pets could have fallen out or gear falling out in front of other drivers.

When you closed the lift gate, did you use a button so the vehicle closed it for you? I’m asking because my lift gate will not lower itself unless the tail gate is fully latched. If I try it makes the same sound as if trying to lock the vehicle with the frunk, side door(s), or lift gate open. You could do some testing to see if your R1S does that, too. If you have the tail gate fully down or partially latched and the vehicle lowers the lift gate when you press the button then there is probably an issue with the sensor(s) responsible for reporting that the tail gate is latched.

 

[R1S Man]

Good point. I always use the button to close the lift gate. I just tested it. I partially locked the tail gait, so that it's closed, but wiggles. I pressed the button to close the lift gate. Lift gate would not close, lights flash, and makes a sound. So, tail gate must be in the fully locked position for the lift gate to close. Proving that the force of a 40 lb suitcase hitting the tail gate caused it to open while driving.

 

[RandomMcRandomFace]

Good point. I always use the button to close the lift gate. I just tested it. I partially locked the tail gait, so that it's closed, but wiggles. I pressed the button to close the lift gate. Lift gate would not close, lights flash, and makes a sound. So, tail gate must be in the fully locked position for the lift gate to close. Proving that the force of a 40 lb suitcase hitting the tail gate caused it to open while driving.

Wait I am confused. I thought it was clear that the lift gate had to be open given the camera angle, etc.

So which is it? A flaw in tail/lift gate or open the entire time?

 

[R1S Man]

The only time the tail gate was open during the entire trip was when the suitcase hit the tail gate causing it to open. Lift gate was closed with the button after I loaded the luggage. We would have noticed immediately if we were driving with the lift gate open. Both back doors were closed. Suitcase hit the tail gate, causing it to open. Tail gate holds the lift gate, so when the tail gate opened, the lift gate also opened.

 

[RexRemus]

Wait I am confused. I thought it was clear that the lift gate had to be open given the camera angle, etc.

So which is it? A flaw in tail/lift gate or open the entire time?

I think it's been pretty well shown that there's no way the door could have been "forcibly" opened at the moment of acceleration because the camera angle does not change at all when the luggage comes out. And it's also pretty clear that the FOV in OPs video is quite different (as far as "road to sky ratio") than the camera angle if the hatch portion is actually closed.

Bear in mind - the 360 camera view requires the rear (hatch) camera to be able to see the ground DIRECTLY behind the bumper e.g. "looking straight down" - images posted from others have shown that when it is fully closed this is exactly what you see - you get the license plate holder and the rear bumper IN the frame. You also get about 75% road, and 25% sky. In OPs footage, you see NO bumper, NO road directly behind the vehicle, and about 40/60 road/sky

OPs footage - Note the ratio of sky to road and NO license plate/bumper. Also note in the footage that you see the vehicle slow down, and then accelerate - and the camera angle does not change at all. You do not see the bumper and THEN see this ratio of road to sky - it's ALWAYS this angle from start to finish.


Now @sub posted this from his R1S rear cam with the hatch fully closed:

Note the difference in the location of the horizon (road/sky ratio) and the visible license plate and bumper. If the video started this way... and then "flipped up" to the view in OPs footage - there's a viable case to say the liftgate and hatch "popped open" - but there is no such perspective change in the video.

So... that hatch was open. The tailgate might have been disconnected and not fully latched and OP heard an "impact" that knocked it down so things could fall out, but the hatch portion was NOT closed - meaning there was driving for at least some time with the rear of the vehicle wide open.

While I don't have the best view for it right now it was pretty easy to replicate, I just grabbed footage from my rear cam:

Hatch closed, looks just like @sub image, note "horizon" line here is pretty similar to last pic and we see license plate and bumper:

And now hatch open:

No plate, no bumper, and were it not IN my garage, you'd be seeing mostly sky.

It's possible OPs hatch was at some point between these two extremes, not "fully" open... but most certainly "open" while they were leaving the airport. Enough that you would assume a rearview mirror check would look "off" and certainly enough to be letting significant outside noise into the cabin.

This doesn't negate that perhaps the sensors failed and weren't alerting, but there were multiple other indicators that something was amiss. It does call into question how OP verified everything was closed, and their claim that the impact of the luggage popped everything "open" - it was already open.

 

[R1S Man]

I am the OP. I'm pretty impressed with the cameras. No complaints. A slight variation in the installation of the camera will cause major differences of the angle of video taken. Both rear doors were closed as I have explained many times. Even if the lift gate happened to pop open while driving, which it has never done, the tail gate would have kept the luggage inside the vehicle. My main complaint is that the tailgate was closed all the way, and forced open by a suitcase, and then everything in the back of the car was ejected onto the road. Dumb on my part to floor a rocket ship with loose luggage in the back; however, I don't think this should force the tail gate open.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

I am the OP. I'm pretty impressed with the cameras. No complaints. A slight variation in the installation of the camera will cause major differences of the angle of video taken. Both rear doors were closed as I have explained many times. Even if the lift gate happened to pop open while driving, which it has never done, the tail gate would have kept the luggage inside the vehicle. My main complaint is that the tailgate was closed all the way, and forced open by a suitcase, and then everything in the back of the car was ejected onto the road. Dumb on my part to floor a rocket ship with loose luggage in the back; however, I don't think this should force the tail gate open.

No man. I'm calling bullshit. The camera doesn't move in your video, at all. The top latch sits on TOP of the bottom gate so if it was closed all the way it would HAVE to move in order for the bottom gate to open. The top gate latches TO the bottom gate. You may think that it happened the way you say but it's crystal clear it did not and your gate was not latched from the get go.

 

[R1S Man]

OK, I'm not here to argue about what happened. I'm just telling my side of the story from a witness that was there. I don't want to hear a different story about what happened from someone who wasn't there, so I'm going to have to call your post bullshit. I'm sure you can replicate the issue if you want, or just wait for it to happen to someone else.

 

[Count Orlok]

did it flip on its side too?

 

[SoCal Rob]

OK, I'm not here to argue about what happened. I'm just telling my side of the story from a witness that was there. I don't want to hear a different story about what happened from someone who wasn't there, so I'm going to have to call your post bullshit.

Are you able to post video from earlier in the drive, like before you picked up your wife and her luggage through to the point of the launch? This could help all of us understand what happened.

Your comment about the camera alignment being off could cause the different view compared to what others have seen in recorded video. If the camera view before you picked up your wife matches the camera view after you put the luggage in and closed the lift gate then that will show that your camera alignment is off and that’s why others are seeing a different ratio of road to sky in their camera view.

I personally can’t figure out what went wrong without more data to eliminate some variables and I think additional footage will help all of us understand. Thanks!

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