Flypony53
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Rodney
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2023
- Threads
- 6
- Messages
- 56
- Reaction score
- 40
- Location
- Cypress, TX
- Vehicles
- Model Y Performance, F150 Lightning Platinum
- Thread starter
- #1
TLDR;;
RIP Led Tasso (The name of our R1S, for Ted Lasso fans, this pays homage to the more agressive, angry version of Ted - somewhat how we felt with the performance of the R1S, just a beast).
So, first let me start with everyone is ok with no injuries and no other vehicles damaged. With that, let me start. My wife was on a longer drive that requires 99-100% of battery to get round trip we take this every few weeks to visit her parents in a small east Texas town. There is only 1 charger along the route, and it is very hit or miss, so if we keep it calm and drive in conserve, her R1S will make the trip with a few miles remaining. Not really for the faint of heart, but definitely doable.
Fast forward to last week, my wife was driving home at night at highway speeds when an 18 wheeler came over on top of her. As she went to swerve, her front wheel struck an unusual curb on the small bridge she was crossing, blowing out both driver side tires. Effectively causing her to lose control. and spinning out in the grass median and slamming into the center divider. All of the side curtain airbags went off, but the front air bags did not deploy. Looking at the damage after the event, cannot tell what is broken yet, insurance has initially told us it will be totaled, but still pending final outcome. Of course, all of this happened while I was literally half way around the world on a business trip.
Lots of battery warnings went off, car shut off, nothing usable. Could not open the frunk, center console, hatch, etc. Only the door handles on the driver side are extended. Fast forward a bit over a week after I returned and was able to access the vehicle. No power at all to the vehicle. I was able to get the frunk open after hunting for the manual release which is not labled or easy to find (which I guess is really good for safety/security, but sucked for laying on the ground in the salvage yard searching). I had to break the center console to get it to open and recover the flash drive, which brings me to my next issue. Flash drive stopped recoring back in December, with no footage since 12/30. Very disappointed as there was plenty of capacity on the drive, nothing told me it was disconnected, just seems like it just stopped recording, so no ability to go after the truck's insurance since they had not stopped and no one got the plate information. Only good news is there were witnesses who stopped, she was clearly not at fault, but still a hit on the insurance. Good news for me is I had added new car replacement to my coverage policy as my price was at the pre price increase prices. Looking forward to the battle over value with the insurance company.
Now I am searching for the replacement. She had been a Tesla driver prior to the Rivian. She was an early adopter of the Model Y. Her big complaint on the Rivian is the charging infrastructure. In her Tesla, she never had an issue with road trips on her own. With a customer site visit in San Antonio or Austin, visiting our Daughter in Ft Worth, she was fully comfortable taking the trip by herself. With the Rivian, she has been very frustrated as the charging stations are hit an miss causing unnecessary angst and frustration.
She is trying to decide if she just goes back to an ICE vehicle so she is not beholden to a state of charge when she might need to make a long trip last minute as her parents are aging. Tesla is a good car, but not sure she wants another Model Y as they are everywhere (we never had an issue with build quality, our Model Y was solid). If we are not doing another Rivian, she is not a fan of going to any CCS vehicle. We are also both concerned about when Tesla network opens up, what issues are we going to see at Tesla stations? I witness ignorance at every CCS location I stop at with highly uneducated drivers. To be fair, Tesla has many of the same, but i feel the software helps lead people to better understand what to expect. And, just pulling up, plugging in and it working 99+% of the time with no need for an app/credit card/etc is far simpler.
We are a majority EV family with 3 out of 4 of our cars being EVs (My wife's Rivian R1S, Model Y my daughter inherited when the R1S was delivered, and my F150 Lighting), so we are all in. But, I see why there is a slow down in adoption. I am a fan and understand the additional planning, but when you reach plan C for a drive and still have to wait an hour to add 10 miles of range to make it home because it is 35 outside, I question if it is all worth it.
Did not intend to rant for so long. If you read this far, I advise you to get off the forum and go drive your Rivian, we never know how long they will be with us and every moment is precious.
RIP Led Tasso (The name of our R1S, for Ted Lasso fans, this pays homage to the more agressive, angry version of Ted - somewhat how we felt with the performance of the R1S, just a beast).
So, first let me start with everyone is ok with no injuries and no other vehicles damaged. With that, let me start. My wife was on a longer drive that requires 99-100% of battery to get round trip we take this every few weeks to visit her parents in a small east Texas town. There is only 1 charger along the route, and it is very hit or miss, so if we keep it calm and drive in conserve, her R1S will make the trip with a few miles remaining. Not really for the faint of heart, but definitely doable.
Fast forward to last week, my wife was driving home at night at highway speeds when an 18 wheeler came over on top of her. As she went to swerve, her front wheel struck an unusual curb on the small bridge she was crossing, blowing out both driver side tires. Effectively causing her to lose control. and spinning out in the grass median and slamming into the center divider. All of the side curtain airbags went off, but the front air bags did not deploy. Looking at the damage after the event, cannot tell what is broken yet, insurance has initially told us it will be totaled, but still pending final outcome. Of course, all of this happened while I was literally half way around the world on a business trip.
Lots of battery warnings went off, car shut off, nothing usable. Could not open the frunk, center console, hatch, etc. Only the door handles on the driver side are extended. Fast forward a bit over a week after I returned and was able to access the vehicle. No power at all to the vehicle. I was able to get the frunk open after hunting for the manual release which is not labled or easy to find (which I guess is really good for safety/security, but sucked for laying on the ground in the salvage yard searching). I had to break the center console to get it to open and recover the flash drive, which brings me to my next issue. Flash drive stopped recoring back in December, with no footage since 12/30. Very disappointed as there was plenty of capacity on the drive, nothing told me it was disconnected, just seems like it just stopped recording, so no ability to go after the truck's insurance since they had not stopped and no one got the plate information. Only good news is there were witnesses who stopped, she was clearly not at fault, but still a hit on the insurance. Good news for me is I had added new car replacement to my coverage policy as my price was at the pre price increase prices. Looking forward to the battle over value with the insurance company.
Now I am searching for the replacement. She had been a Tesla driver prior to the Rivian. She was an early adopter of the Model Y. Her big complaint on the Rivian is the charging infrastructure. In her Tesla, she never had an issue with road trips on her own. With a customer site visit in San Antonio or Austin, visiting our Daughter in Ft Worth, she was fully comfortable taking the trip by herself. With the Rivian, she has been very frustrated as the charging stations are hit an miss causing unnecessary angst and frustration.
She is trying to decide if she just goes back to an ICE vehicle so she is not beholden to a state of charge when she might need to make a long trip last minute as her parents are aging. Tesla is a good car, but not sure she wants another Model Y as they are everywhere (we never had an issue with build quality, our Model Y was solid). If we are not doing another Rivian, she is not a fan of going to any CCS vehicle. We are also both concerned about when Tesla network opens up, what issues are we going to see at Tesla stations? I witness ignorance at every CCS location I stop at with highly uneducated drivers. To be fair, Tesla has many of the same, but i feel the software helps lead people to better understand what to expect. And, just pulling up, plugging in and it working 99+% of the time with no need for an app/credit card/etc is far simpler.
We are a majority EV family with 3 out of 4 of our cars being EVs (My wife's Rivian R1S, Model Y my daughter inherited when the R1S was delivered, and my F150 Lighting), so we are all in. But, I see why there is a slow down in adoption. I am a fan and understand the additional planning, but when you reach plan C for a drive and still have to wait an hour to add 10 miles of range to make it home because it is 35 outside, I question if it is all worth it.
Did not intend to rant for so long. If you read this far, I advise you to get off the forum and go drive your Rivian, we never know how long they will be with us and every moment is precious.
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I'm glad to hear she's ok. Hopefully the state of charging infrastructure will get better once we have access to Tesla SC later this year.
