R1S Unreasonably Fragile Roof Glass

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[NineElectrics]

Sorry to hear that....... but you know it is not covered under warranty because the roof glass is not meant for weight-bearing with an elbow.

My test for reasonable quality: the glass should be able to withstand a young child’s wild soccer ball kick.

Also, an adventure vehicle should be able to withstand serious hail, Christmas trees, and occasional bumping of an accessory mounted on the accessory crossbars.

 

[Rivdog]

It sounds like you were basically just stabilizing yourself which seems like a very common scenario that would occur when loading a roof rack depending on the accessory. I’d expect the glass to hold up perfectly fine in that situation.

 

[Schmidtacular]

It sounds like you were basically just stabilizing yourself which seems like a very common scenario that would occur when loading a roof rack depending on the accessory. I’d expect the glass to hold up perfectly fine in that situation.

Precisely!

 

[sub]

To me the pictures look like unreasonablly delicate glass rather than sloppy assembly.

If the glass had broken to due to uneven support, the cracks would have started at the edge and if there were multiple cracks they would all be roughly parallel to each other.

The star pattern in your picture shows a crack that starts in the center of an impact and spreads out. It looks like it was hit by a baseball (or an elbow). More support around the edges would not have prevented this.

Glass is a pretty heavy material. I'm sure they made it thin to save weight. But it seems like they have taken it too far.

 

[HaveBlue]

I once had to dispose of a set of glass sliding patio doors due to a remodel. Only way to get them disposed was to break the glass panels. I pounded on them for a while with a hammer to break them. I was shocked how strong they were. I've seen people walk into glass doors like that and bounce off with some injury. All these would be tempered glass. Wind shields and apparently the R1 roof is laminated. Those are exceptionally hard to penetrate through to prevent objects from entering the cabin but the layers of glass are not tempered. Side windows are tempered. I've seen ordinary plate glass bow in tornados without breaking. Either way I wasn't willing to order the rack as that roof looks fragile as hell. Actually there was just a rack install video where someone dropped a socket from inches up and broke the roof.

 

[Krusty]

That is unfortunate. I wish Rivian had given owners an option to not have glass at all. I don't mind the glass in the winter (summer is a different story), however my wife doesn't do well in direct sunlight and hates it. I have a sun shade, but honestly given the option, I would have opted for a traditional roof. I hope they'll make a solid pane with insulation as an option because I'd replace my glasses panel with that if it ever cracked.

 

[iansriv]

OP: sorry for your plight. I agree with you that this is an adventure vehicle and should be tougher. Unfortunately, every manufacturer wants to put a glass roof on their cars these days. I ended up with two cars that have glass roofs. I'm very careful around the glass because I've read too many of these types of issues. I've had nothing but good experiences with Rivian but if we see an issue we need to address it with them in a constructive way. I would get a report from a good body shop confirming that it was a mfg issue. Then approach Rivian and give them a chance to do the right thing.

 

[Ric G]

That is unfortunate. I wish Rivian had given owners an option to not have glass at all. I don't mind the glass in the winter (summer is a different story), however my wife doesn't do well in direct sunlight and hates it. I have a sun shade, but honestly given the option, I would have opted for a traditional roof. I hope they'll make a solid pane with insulation as an option because I'd replace my glasses panel with that if it ever cracked.

Hopefully, if not Rivian the aftermarket sees an opportunity to make a replacement panel in steel/fiberglass/carbon-fiber etc. I too as others have said am worried of getting anything too "adventurous" near the glass roof.

 

[runningdenver]

Not doubting the original poster, but if this is something that all of our R1Ss have (and not a case of 1 owner with particularly defective glass roof), then surely there would have been many stories of this after hail storms ? We can get up to baseball sized hail in CO, and I know other parts of the country can as well. If an elbow for balance can do this, I'd imagine reasonable size hail might do the same ?

 

[NY_Rob]

FWIW- our solar panels are glass and when they were being installed I was shocked to see one of the installers walk right on/across one of them... right in the center of the panel, not on the edge. I asked the crew manager if that was okay to do and he replied they do it when they have no choice/no other access to a particular panel, but it does not damage the panel. That was one of the large 400watt 72 cell industrial size panels which is 82" long by 42" wide with no support under the glass except around the frame edge.

If that huge glass solar panel can take someone walking on it, the Rivian roof should at least be able to support an elbow leaning on it. With that said, if Fuyao is indeed the roof glass manufacturer, that explains the poor quality.

 

[dleepnw]

maybe it was just bad luck bro.

 

[Tony R1S]

Is the rooftop glass glazed? I'm concerned it may shatter into million pieces and rain glass all over like the side windows.

 

[Jiji]

Tough crowd here, the glass is definitely flimsier than the glass in my Mustang Mach-E or my old Tesla M3.

i would be careful where I park, just an icicle, tree branch, foul ball, or hail storm from an expensive repair.

 

[Schmidtacular]

Not doubting the original poster, but if this is something that all of our R1Ss have (and not a case of 1 owner with particularly defective glass roof), then surely there would have been many stories of this after hail storms ? We can get up to baseball sized hail in CO, and I know other parts of the country can as well. If an elbow for balance can do this, I'd imagine reasonable size hail might do the same ?

That’s why I strongly suspect it’s an issue with workmanship and not a design defect (whether in the material selection or installation design).

I spoke with the Service Center again today, and the technician said that the glass is installed by ‘robots’ in the factory, so calibration and tolerances are probably a big factor. He assured me since my repair was being done by a person, they will make sure it is seated correctly around the entire edge. I suspect those of us that have had this issue probably had a roof that was installed in such a way that the pane had some flex in it causing a vulnerability in certain areas of the roof.

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