Gen 1 major ride quality & handling improvement after 2024.19.04 software update - how's your experience?

[JJE]

I have noticed a major overall improvement in the ride and handling of my R1S since the software update. The ride is much more settled on soft - almost all the side to side, and front to rear, pitching and tossing is gone. But beyond that, there is a new fluidity and smoothness to the handling and throttle response that feels much more integrated and nailed down.

I am curious to hear more from others as to their views about the overall change to the car's handling. I have read some of the related threads.

I am driving 20 inch wheels with 275/60/20 AS Pirellis.

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[DaveA]

Agreed. Everything feels more polished. Even with R1T.

 

[ElGuapo]

100% agree. A world of difference. I am on the OEM ATs and even they are super smooth and much more refined, but not a crazy couch on wheels that floats too much.

It’s WAY better than I expected. Awesome.

 

[MidnightRivian]

I’ll post up my review s00n and if it’s anything like what I experienced with Gen 2 demo drive, I’ll be super excited for my next road trip.

 

[onesoil]

I got my update midday today. While I can’t say I love the new font and color choices (not sure yet how I feel about the new graphics—not blown away, but I don’t hate them, and it will probably grow on me with time once the last renderings are a distant memory…), more importantly (for me), so far the suspension seems very noticeably improved on my R1T!

Low speed compression rebound seems much more damped and tame—less pitching through dips and uneven undulations in the road—instead of taking a couple bounces to correct and flatten out the body, it just seems to lock in right away. I would describe soft in all-purpose as feeling more glued to the road, while having better high speed compression characteristics as well (less jarring over road chatter, square-edge bumps, potholes, etc.).

I have only driven a handful of miles on the update, and am very much looking forward to testing my initial impression over harsher dirt roads (I’ve only been on harsh—i.e. normal—VT blacktop). My suspicion is that I will use soft now, where I was almost exclusively in moderate before to tame the poor rebound tuning I felt soft mode had prior—it just didn’t seem very settled and would bounce around more than I like, while not doing a particularly great job of handling harsh square edge impacts. This tune seems to both improve harsh/high speed impact smoothing, while also achieving better composure through larger/slower compressions/rebounds. I may be speaking a little too soon, as I haven’t experienced high speed washboard sections or rutted out roads (conditions in VT are mostly pretty dry/loose/dusty on dirt roads this time of year, but I’m looking forward to testing my first impressions on some more dynamic situations, and really looking forward to seeing how other modes (such as Sport soft and Rally) have been effected, if at all.

The improvement to All Purpose Soft in this update reminds me a bit of what it felt like to go from AP Soft to Rally mode on mid 2022 revisions for most VT dirt roads—it just had a more dialed and more comfortable ride with both more compliance and body pitch/roll characteristics. It seems like they’ve possibly integrated some of this tuning to AP Soft.

I am really excited to play around with the new revision more, but so far I am impressed!

Now, on to the UI/UX things I’d like to see added/changed:

• Please add a simple climate “keep” mode! I shouldn’t have to enter pet mode every time I want to keep the HVAC running if I’m hopping in and out of the car. They should allow you to set a time to keep HVAC running, like the outlet timer, with an estimated battery percentage impact for running climate for X minutes/hours.
• Give us an oscillating fan feature. While I think motorized vents are an unnecessarily complex/expensive feature with minimal upside, this is one thing that could justify their existence, in my opinion—and unfortunately nonexistent thus far!
• Allow us to pick certain outlets to always be on, above a certain (user defined) SOC.
• Give us a red themed night mode for driving—all these bright white elements can be distracting, and red night mode shouldn’t just be reserved for camping. I might not use this all the time, but especially in low visibility conditions it would be nice to have as an option.
• Give us a column of user-selectable custom buttons along the left side of the screen (like the dock on the bottom, but on the left). Some items that come to mind: rear accessory mode, fog lights (which I think should be something you can choose to keep on when headlights are on), surely some other things that aren’t coming to mind right now.
• Move the clock to the center, where it belongs.
• Allow the music mini player to be moved around the screen—if set to left, a swipe from left screen could swap music controls for the quick menu, and then back to music controls with another left swipe.
• Allow multiple locations to be added as “trusted locations” and treated like “home” with the ability to turn off proximity locking, or, the ability to add second homes and/or work locations as places with customizable locking behavior. While I don’t have multiple homes (as I’m sure many Rivian owners do), I sure wish my truck didn’t unlock/lock every time I walk by it at work, and/or not unlock when I go to grab a tool from my bed. This seems like it would be applicable to multiple use cases, with no downside.
  
  Wishlist/far-fetched ideas:
• A weather app with live radar, and an ability to overlay the radar over the navigation map. This one may be a bit far-fetched/dreaming, but it would be cool, useful (to me, at times), and novel.
• Ability to chose from a few different color themes: the yellow in more and more places isn’t really to my taste—live-view torque at each wheel in the drive mode screen used to be blue, for instance, which I preferred.
• Ability to have more than two trip meters, or the ability to “record” and store multiple trips. Say you are wandering around and find a really cool route that you didn’t plan to take and you want to be able to repeat the same drive in the future—this would allow you to save an unplanned route for future re-use. These saved routes could also contain route specific stats such as elevation data, energy used, etc. I could even see this being a dedicated “Adventure” app, with various features such as the ability to star specific locations of interest within saved routes with your own names/notes, and even if tied into the iOS app, photos/videos tied to specific locations along your journey.

 

[MXA121]

SUPER HAPPY WITH THE SUSPENSION UPDATE!

 

[SASSquatch]

?

 

[strykerwsu]

I got my update midday today. While I can’t say I love the new font and color choices (not sure yet how I feel about the new graphics—not blown away, but I don’t hate them, and it will probably grow on me with time once the last renderings are a distant memory…), more importantly (for me), so far the suspension seems very noticeably improved on my R1T!

Low speed compression rebound seems much more damped and tame—less pitching through dips and uneven undulations in the road—instead of taking a couple bounces to correct and flatten out the body, it just seems to lock in right away. I would describe soft in all-purpose as feeling more glued to the road, while having better high speed compression characteristics as well (less jarring over road chatter, square-edge bumps, potholes, etc.).

I have only driven a handful of miles on the update, and am very much looking forward to testing my initial impression over harsher dirt roads (I’ve only been on harsh—i.e. normal—VT blacktop). My suspicion is that I will use soft now, where I was almost exclusively in moderate before to tame the poor rebound tuning I felt soft mode had prior—it just didn’t seem very settled and would bounce around more than I like, while not doing a particularly great job of handling harsh square edge impacts. This tune seems to both improve harsh/high speed impact smoothing, while also achieving better composure through larger/slower compressions/rebounds. I may be speaking a little too soon, as I haven’t experienced high speed washboard sections or rutted out roads (conditions in VT are mostly pretty dry/loose/dusty on dirt roads this time of year, but I’m looking forward to testing my first impressions on some more dynamic situations, and really looking forward to seeing how other modes (such as Sport soft and Rally) have been effected, if at all.

The improvement to All Purpose Soft in this update reminds me a bit of what it felt like to go from AP Soft to Rally mode on mid 2022 revisions for most VT dirt roads—it just had a more dialed and more comfortable ride with both more compliance and body pitch/roll characteristics. It seems like they’ve possibly integrated some of this tuning to AP Soft.

I am really excited to play around with the new revision more, but so far I am impressed!

Now, on to the UI/UX things I’d like to see added/changed:

• Please add a simple climate “keep” mode! I shouldn’t have to enter pet mode every time I want to keep the HVAC running if I’m hopping in and out of the car. They should allow you to set a time to keep HVAC running, like the outlet timer, with an estimated battery percentage impact for running climate for X minutes/hours.
• Give us an oscillating fan feature. While I think motorized vents are an unnecessarily complex/expensive feature with minimal upside, this is one thing that could justify their existence, in my opinion—and unfortunately nonexistent thus far!
• Allow us to pick certain outlets to always be on, above a certain (user defined) SOC.
• Give us a red themed night mode for driving—all these bright white elements can be distracting, and red night mode shouldn’t just be reserved for camping. I might not use this all the time, but especially in low visibility conditions it would be nice to have as an option.
• Give us a column of user-selectable custom buttons along the left side of the screen (like the dock on the bottom, but on the left). Some items that come to mind: rear accessory mode, fog lights (which I think should be something you can choose to keep on when headlights are on), surely some other things that aren’t coming to mind right now.
• Move the clock to the center, where it belongs.
• Allow the music mini player to be moved around the screen—if set to left, a swipe from left screen could swap music controls for the quick menu, and then back to music controls with another left swipe.
• Allow multiple locations to be added as “trusted locations” and treated like “home” with the ability to turn off proximity locking, or, the ability to add second homes and/or work locations as places with customizable locking behavior. While I don’t have multiple homes (as I’m sure many Rivian owners do), I sure wish my truck didn’t unlock/lock every time I walk by it at work, and/or not unlock when I go to grab a tool from my bed. This seems like it would be applicable to multiple use cases, with no downside.
  
  Wishlist/far-fetched ideas:
• A weather app with live radar, and an ability to overlay the radar over the navigation map. This one may be a bit far-fetched/dreaming, but it would be cool, useful (to me, at times), and novel.
• Ability to chose from a few different color themes: the yellow in more and more places isn’t really to my taste—live-view torque at each wheel in the drive mode screen used to be blue, for instance, which I preferred.
• Ability to have more than two trip meters, or the ability to “record” and store multiple trips. Say you are wandering around and find a really cool route that you didn’t plan to take and you want to be able to repeat the same drive in the future—this would allow you to save an unplanned route for future re-use. These saved routes could also contain route specific stats such as elevation data, energy used, etc. I could even see this being a dedicated “Adventure” app, with various features such as the ability to star specific locations of interest within saved routes with your own names/notes, and even if tied into the iOS app, photos/videos tied to specific locations along your journey.

Agree with most. However yellow for the win. Rivian is different and yellow deserves its recognition

 

[Joe Hoffman]

What does “yellow for the win” mean?

 

[daeHelkcunK]

I got my update midday today. While I can’t say I love the new font and color choices (not sure yet how I feel about the new graphics—not blown away, but I don’t hate them, and it will probably grow on me with time once the last renderings are a distant memory…), more importantly (for me), so far the suspension seems very noticeably improved on my R1T!

Low speed compression rebound seems much more damped and tame—less pitching through dips and uneven undulations in the road—instead of taking a couple bounces to correct and flatten out the body, it just seems to lock in right away. I would describe soft in all-purpose as feeling more glued to the road, while having better high speed compression characteristics as well (less jarring over road chatter, square-edge bumps, potholes, etc.).

I have only driven a handful of miles on the update, and am very much looking forward to testing my initial impression over harsher dirt roads (I’ve only been on harsh—i.e. normal—VT blacktop). My suspicion is that I will use soft now, where I was almost exclusively in moderate before to tame the poor rebound tuning I felt soft mode had prior—it just didn’t seem very settled and would bounce around more than I like, while not doing a particularly great job of handling harsh square edge impacts. This tune seems to both improve harsh/high speed impact smoothing, while also achieving better composure through larger/slower compressions/rebounds. I may be speaking a little too soon, as I haven’t experienced high speed washboard sections or rutted out roads (conditions in VT are mostly pretty dry/loose/dusty on dirt roads this time of year, but I’m looking forward to testing my first impressions on some more dynamic situations, and really looking forward to seeing how other modes (such as Sport soft and Rally) have been effected, if at all.

The improvement to All Purpose Soft in this update reminds me a bit of what it felt like to go from AP Soft to Rally mode on mid 2022 revisions for most VT dirt roads—it just had a more dialed and more comfortable ride with both more compliance and body pitch/roll characteristics. It seems like they’ve possibly integrated some of this tuning to AP Soft.

I am really excited to play around with the new revision more, but so far I am impressed!

Now, on to the UI/UX things I’d like to see added/changed:

• Please add a simple climate “keep” mode! I shouldn’t have to enter pet mode every time I want to keep the HVAC running if I’m hopping in and out of the car. They should allow you to set a time to keep HVAC running, like the outlet timer, with an estimated battery percentage impact for running climate for X minutes/hours.
• Give us an oscillating fan feature. While I think motorized vents are an unnecessarily complex/expensive feature with minimal upside, this is one thing that could justify their existence, in my opinion—and unfortunately nonexistent thus far!
• Allow us to pick certain outlets to always be on, above a certain (user defined) SOC.
• Give us a red themed night mode for driving—all these bright white elements can be distracting, and red night mode shouldn’t just be reserved for camping. I might not use this all the time, but especially in low visibility conditions it would be nice to have as an option.
• Give us a column of user-selectable custom buttons along the left side of the screen (like the dock on the bottom, but on the left). Some items that come to mind: rear accessory mode, fog lights (which I think should be something you can choose to keep on when headlights are on), surely some other things that aren’t coming to mind right now.
• Move the clock to the center, where it belongs.
• Allow the music mini player to be moved around the screen—if set to left, a swipe from left screen could swap music controls for the quick menu, and then back to music controls with another left swipe.
• Allow multiple locations to be added as “trusted locations” and treated like “home” with the ability to turn off proximity locking, or, the ability to add second homes and/or work locations as places with customizable locking behavior. While I don’t have multiple homes (as I’m sure many Rivian owners do), I sure wish my truck didn’t unlock/lock every time I walk by it at work, and/or not unlock when I go to grab a tool from my bed. This seems like it would be applicable to multiple use cases, with no downside.
  
  Wishlist/far-fetched ideas:
• A weather app with live radar, and an ability to overlay the radar over the navigation map. This one may be a bit far-fetched/dreaming, but it would be cool, useful (to me, at times), and novel.
• Ability to chose from a few different color themes: the yellow in more and more places isn’t really to my taste—live-view torque at each wheel in the drive mode screen used to be blue, for instance, which I preferred.
• Ability to have more than two trip meters, or the ability to “record” and store multiple trips. Say you are wandering around and find a really cool route that you didn’t plan to take and you want to be able to repeat the same drive in the future—this would allow you to save an unplanned route for future re-use. These saved routes could also contain route specific stats such as elevation data, energy used, etc. I could even see this being a dedicated “Adventure” app, with various features such as the ability to star specific locations of interest within saved routes with your own names/notes, and even if tied into the iOS app, photos/videos tied to specific locations along your journey.

Great thought! A radar based Weather app would be very welcome (MyRadar?)

 

[Biturbowned]

I was very surprised (in a good way) with the suspension update. Taking corners on my favorite road yesterday in “moderate” and the front end felt much more planted and ready to change directions than before, also noticed less fore/aft dive behavior. Overall very impressed.

 

[KYR1SMan]

I got my update midday today. While I can’t say I love the new font and color choices (not sure yet how I feel about the new graphics—not blown away, but I don’t hate them, and it will probably grow on me with time once the last renderings are a distant memory…), more importantly (for me), so far the suspension seems very noticeably improved on my R1T!

Low speed compression rebound seems much more damped and tame—less pitching through dips and uneven undulations in the road—instead of taking a couple bounces to correct and flatten out the body, it just seems to lock in right away. I would describe soft in all-purpose as feeling more glued to the road, while having better high speed compression characteristics as well (less jarring over road chatter, square-edge bumps, potholes, etc.).

I have only driven a handful of miles on the update, and am very much looking forward to testing my initial impression over harsher dirt roads (I’ve only been on harsh—i.e. normal—VT blacktop). My suspicion is that I will use soft now, where I was almost exclusively in moderate before to tame the poor rebound tuning I felt soft mode had prior—it just didn’t seem very settled and would bounce around more than I like, while not doing a particularly great job of handling harsh square edge impacts. This tune seems to both improve harsh/high speed impact smoothing, while also achieving better composure through larger/slower compressions/rebounds. I may be speaking a little too soon, as I haven’t experienced high speed washboard sections or rutted out roads (conditions in VT are mostly pretty dry/loose/dusty on dirt roads this time of year, but I’m looking forward to testing my first impressions on some more dynamic situations, and really looking forward to seeing how other modes (such as Sport soft and Rally) have been effected, if at all.

The improvement to All Purpose Soft in this update reminds me a bit of what it felt like to go from AP Soft to Rally mode on mid 2022 revisions for most VT dirt roads—it just had a more dialed and more comfortable ride with both more compliance and body pitch/roll characteristics. It seems like they’ve possibly integrated some of this tuning to AP Soft.

I am really excited to play around with the new revision more, but so far I am impressed!

Now, on to the UI/UX things I’d like to see added/changed:

• Please add a simple climate “keep” mode! I shouldn’t have to enter pet mode every time I want to keep the HVAC running if I’m hopping in and out of the car. They should allow you to set a time to keep HVAC running, like the outlet timer, with an estimated battery percentage impact for running climate for X minutes/hours.
• Give us an oscillating fan feature. While I think motorized vents are an unnecessarily complex/expensive feature with minimal upside, this is one thing that could justify their existence, in my opinion—and unfortunately nonexistent thus far!
• Allow us to pick certain outlets to always be on, above a certain (user defined) SOC.
• Give us a red themed night mode for driving—all these bright white elements can be distracting, and red night mode shouldn’t just be reserved for camping. I might not use this all the time, but especially in low visibility conditions it would be nice to have as an option.
• Give us a column of user-selectable custom buttons along the left side of the screen (like the dock on the bottom, but on the left). Some items that come to mind: rear accessory mode, fog lights (which I think should be something you can choose to keep on when headlights are on), surely some other things that aren’t coming to mind right now.
• Move the clock to the center, where it belongs.
• Allow the music mini player to be moved around the screen—if set to left, a swipe from left screen could swap music controls for the quick menu, and then back to music controls with another left swipe.
• Allow multiple locations to be added as “trusted locations” and treated like “home” with the ability to turn off proximity locking, or, the ability to add second homes and/or work locations as places with customizable locking behavior. While I don’t have multiple homes (as I’m sure many Rivian owners do), I sure wish my truck didn’t unlock/lock every time I walk by it at work, and/or not unlock when I go to grab a tool from my bed. This seems like it would be applicable to multiple use cases, with no downside.
  
  Wishlist/far-fetched ideas:
• A weather app with live radar, and an ability to overlay the radar over the navigation map. This one may be a bit far-fetched/dreaming, but it would be cool, useful (to me, at times), and novel.
• Ability to chose from a few different color themes: the yellow in more and more places isn’t really to my taste—live-view torque at each wheel in the drive mode screen used to be blue, for instance, which I preferred.
• Ability to have more than two trip meters, or the ability to “record” and store multiple trips. Say you are wandering around and find a really cool route that you didn’t plan to take and you want to be able to repeat the same drive in the future—this would allow you to save an unplanned route for future re-use. These saved routes could also contain route specific stats such as elevation data, energy used, etc. I could even see this being a dedicated “Adventure” app, with various features such as the ability to star specific locations of interest within saved routes with your own names/notes, and even if tied into the iOS app, photos/videos tied to specific locations along your journey.

I personal do not like the new cartoon looking R1S on app now. I like the realistic look

 

[zefram47]

Agreed. R1T and the soft, all-purpose mode seems pretty good. Basically all the small bumps are just gone now...absorbed well. The pitching on railroad tracks / big bumps does seem better controlled. When they first added the soft mode it introduced that horrible pitching motion that wasn't well controlled...glad that's sorted now. I haven't tried moderate/firm yet...just glad that soft appears much improved again.

 

[Batman]

So I normally drive in moderate and maybe I notice a slight improvement. But nothing like the first suspension update they had like 6months ago, that was night and day.

Seems most feedback I see here is from soft mode

 

[RedRaiderRivian]

Great thought! A radar based Weather app would be very welcome (MyRadar?)

Great minds think alike. I proposed this same idea in another thread last week. It would be awesome for when you are driving by yourself and you dont want to be distracted by looking at your phone.

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