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

[EVfanboy]

Posted this elsewhere but wanted to post again because I’m so excited and honestly shocked how much improvement this software brought

OMG! Thanks a ton, Rivian!! (Has a nice ring to it ) R1S Gen 1 owners rejoice! Rivian shareholders - cork up the champagne. Skeptics - time to leave!
What an update. Completely revamped the driving experience. And I am not exaggerating. I was satisfied with the pre-update ride quality and had made my peace with it that it is “satisfactory” - squarely in the middle, at least better than some harsher Tesla models. But this update? Wow- it’s a different vehicle. Completely in the league of Range Rover and BMW X5/iX/X7. Super comfortable ride. Even on moderate settings, All-purpose. Even sport mode is now awesome. But a lot of other things seem different too
1. Throttle response, so much better. Does feel like a super car now. Prior to the update I really didn’t feel the power
2. Efficiency - better! Or maybe calibration/estimate is better but definitely a change
3. Turn signal camera- awesome. Copied Tesla but who cares.

So I can assure you all this is not a placebo - figment of my imagination kind of thing. There is one patch of road, near our house, where no matter what car we drive in our household, every member feels it. But nope, not today. It was like floating on a cloud.

All of you there waiting for the update, you are in for a treat.

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[R1Tom]

I drove on many different surfaces over the past few days including dirt, clay, breaking apart asphalt, etc... and it is amazing how much the R1T suspension poise has advanced from the early days.

 

[Mousetrap]

There is one patch of road, near our house, where no matter what car we drive in our household, every member feels it. But nope, not today. It was like floating on a cloud.

All of you there waiting for the update, you are in for a treat.

I feel like we already had this conversation somewhere else... I like being "in for a treat" as much as the next guy, but I still don't know where your house is! ?

(agreed, the update is great!)

 

[EVfanboy]

lol.. near the la la land in Sunny SoCal - and that’s how I feel after the update.. haha

I feel like we already had this conversation somewhere else... I like being "in for a treat" as much as the next guy, but I still don't know where your house is! ?

(agreed, the update is great!)
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[Surferdude]

I'm incredibly eager to get the update. The ride quality of my R1S is the most disappointing aspect of the SUV. Good to hear there is a substantial improvement to look forward to.

 

[Wefty]

I wasn't expecting to actually feel a difference but it was noticeable in my T.

 

[EVfanboy]

Wow that’s amazing. R1T is universally praised as having a great ride, from the day it was introduced.

I wasn't expecting to actually feel a difference but it was noticeable in my T.

 

[Zoidz]

I installed the update Sunday night and drove about 30 miles today. With the caveat that ride comfort is VERY subjective, I was almost always using Moderate before the update because soft was completely unusable for me. I noticed some slight improvements in Moderate. I switched to Soft and wow! IMO it's completely different from the previous Soft mode - it's a major improvement and seems close to my wife's BMW X3. I have 400 miles+ of roadtrip driving coming up this week so I am going to switch modes frequently to compare the two. This is a significant ride quality update for us Gen 1-ers.

 

[MidnightRivian]

This new update is what Gen 1 guys have been waiting for.

It’s a much more refined and compliant ride.

Less body roll, soaks up manhole covers and expansion joints.

Soft is actually usable and I no longer need to use firm. Moderate is the sweet spot when I’m alone and soft with family.

Lurching and bucking is reduced.

Pedal is refined as well. Feels more snappy.

I like the potato level turn signal camera it’s better than nothing

I like the yellow theme too. Softer on the eyes.

 

[CrazyOne]

There is a massive bump over a drain along my daily commute. Taking it at 30 mph used to bottoms out the rear suspension. Not very hard, but I could feel the bump stops in both soft and to a lesser extent in medium. After the update, I don't hit the bump stops anymore even in soft. I don't feel like the ride is any harsher, so that's a win.

 

[Wefty]

Wow that’s amazing. R1T is universally praised as having a great ride, from the day it was introduced.

This is going to sound weird but since this is all controlled by software who knows what is going on. I feel like my ride handling had gotten worse compared to when it was new 2 years ago. When accelerating through on-ramps it didn't feel very composed anymore. I was thinking I was crazy until this update. Yes, I tried different ride settings but who cares now that it is feeling better.

 

[JerseyGreens]

Going on a road trip for the fourth and I want the update badly beforehand....nothing yet! Come on Rivian!

 

[Jeep Addict]

Well someone was inevitably going to be the contrarian, I didn't think it was going to be me. My 24 S QM with 22's had a great ride in "Soft". Handled well while maneuvering, no body roll, crappy roads, expansion joints, construction were all no problem. I would describe it as quiet, confident, predictable.

After the update "Soft" is unusable. On the crappy part of my daily commute on I-77 S it now undulates like a porpoise. I now use "Firm", but even firm isn't as good as the old "Soft".

I will echo what others have shared concerning accelerator responsiveness, it is better, especially with garage maneuvering and parking generally.

I tested low regen and it works well too.

I haven't towed since the update, and I haven't pushed the R1S in any spirited runs yet but I miss the old suspension tuning.

 

[Egen]

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.

This is much needed

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.

 

[Rizzian]

You know what would make the suspension feel waaaaay better?
...If they could make the front of the headrest softer. Heads-up aftermarket folks, it would be great if you made a super soft pillow topper that snaps into the decorative recessions on the sides of the headrest.

I'm just bitter because I don't have the update yet.

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