Rivian (driver) blamed for death of a teen hit in school parking lot

[Dave Cundiff]

Rivian's collision avoidance systems are excellent, but everything (and especially everything complicated) can fail sometime.

I can't remember NOT feeling comfortable with one-pedal driving. I don't remember how long it took to get used to it.

Every new vehicle has a little bit different pedal feel. Rivians are more different than most.

I expect we'll learn something from the investigation, though the news media may have moved on to fresher topics by the time the investigation report is done.

Even that assumes that the lawyers don't bury the investigation report -- there are no parties that are "natural allies" of disclosure here.

Best wishes!

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[s4wrxttcs]

While I agree with what everyone is saying, I am with the OP in that it seems VERY odd to name the Rivian but not the other car involved. It has nothing to do with anything. Something tragic happened but whoever wrote the article clearly wanted to at least insinuate the Rivian was at least partially at fault.

I'm not seeing any issue with the article.

The title is "Teenage boy killed, 5 others hurt in parking lot crash at L.A School"

The only parts in the article that even mentions Rivian is "When the driver of a green 2025 Rivian SUV struck a 15 year old boy as he was walking between vehicles."

Then later in the article it says speculation is the driver may have inadvertently hit the gas pedal instead of the vehicles brakes".

 

[eRacer]

I believe reading comprehension is the key here....

Are they blaming Rivian for the incident or the driver?

If you read and comprehend the article, it stats that the DRIVER is responsible. NOT Rivian.

That is the error in the original title of this post.

Nowhere in the linked article is Rivian being blamed for the accient. They only mentioned Rivian to DESCRIBE the vehicle involved. They were very specific about the vehicle as it was the primary vehicle involved in the incident.

 

[ohseedee]

This is terrible and a bit chilling as I'm in these sorts of school pickup/drop off lines daily not too far away from this school. Looks like the white SUV made contact with the car in front of it, so the Rivian hit with significant force. What likely happened is Rivian driver was feet off all peddles in hold mode (I certainly do that in the school line) while the line wasn't moving. Then probably the student walked in front of the car and the Rivian driver went for the brakes hard but hit the accelerator. I assume this is what happen in that Alan Ruck story too. While there are plenty of stories with ICE cars driving through store fronts by hitting the wrong peddle, I feel like this could be solvable with software. Like the first hard stomp of the accelerator from hold doesn't do anything and requires a double tap within a couple seconds before it engages (in case you actually do need to go).

 

[s4wrxttcs]

It’s a tragedy but has nothing to do with the vehicle involved being a Rivian.

It really comes down to whether the vehicle involved should be mentioned in a new article about a tragic accident.

I would argue that the vehicle type should be mentioned. That in itself its just information about what was involved.

We know a few things from the vehicle type and year.

That its 2025 Vehicle so its likely the driver doesn't have that much experience with the vehicle
That it's an SUV so it sits higher
That it's an EV which can accelerate extremely quickly

Beyond that the vehicle type is only useful if unintended accelerations happen a lot with this vehicle.

Toyota has settled hundreds of cases of unintended acceleration with no real proof of them being liable. Things like floor mats trapping the pedal. Audi had faced recalls and decrease in sales due to intended acceleration likely due to the pedals being close together.

 

[CosmicRivian]

To try and get clarification on things, I emailed the source (KTLA). Below is my email inquiry to the byline reporter (Josh DuBose) with a CC to the Director of Digital Content, Marc Sternfield:

Josh,

I am reaching out because your story, “Teenage boy killed, 5 others hurt in parking lot crash at L.A. school,” has generated significant discussion on a popular Rivian Forum.

A key question among readers and posters is why the Rivian was identified by make and model, while other vehicles involved were not. This has led to speculation that the report might be subtly implying the Rivian itself, beyond driver error, was somehow at fault for the tragic accident.

Based on your reporting, do you have any information to suggest that vehicle malfunction contributed to the accident that left a teen boy dead and 5 others injured? If not, what was the journalistic reason for identifying the Rivian but not the other cars? (I realize that it was the driver of the Rivian who caused the tragic accident, but the decision to identify the car seems intentional, which is why I am asking.)

Here is the story in question. Also, here is the Rivian Forum post thread.

Relatedly, in a story posted last month, “Road rage driver’s new arrest a ‘failure of the system,’ California victims say,” journalist Marc Sternfield (CC’d on this email) identifies a Tesla as the car used by the assailing driver, although the Tesla’s involvement/identification was unessential to the story itself (a point repeatedly made on Reddit posts involving electric vehicles).

Although the article repeatedly mentions "Tesla," the actual events described – reckless driving, road rage, and the driver's history of legal issues – could just as easily have occurred with the driver behind the wheel of a Toyota Camry or any other make and model of car.

Can you please speak to your newsroom’s policy on the decision to repeatedly reference the Tesla because the specific identification of the car as a Tesla is largely incidental and not a substantive fact to the core narrative of the story.

Here is the story involving the road rage incident in which the Tesla is repeatedly referenced.

Thanks for responding to this inquiry. I appreciate your time.

-Eric

And here is the reply from Marc Sternfield, with his permission to post here in its entirety:

Eric,

Thank you for writing us. News organization generally err on the side of sharing more information vs. less. If you search any major auto manufacturer’s name (e.g., Honda, Infiniti, Toyota) on KTLA.com, you will find countless articles where the make of a vehicle is included.
Here are a few recent examples:

https://ktla.com/news/local-news/1-killed-in-multi-vehicle-long-beach-crash/
https://ktla.com/news/local-news/2-...-with-kids-in-vehicle-crashes-during-pursuit/
https://ktla.com/news/local-news/woman-confronts-catalytic-converter-thieves-in-santa-clarita/

Re: the Tesla driver, this was a notorious case involving several road rage attacks. The driver’s vehicle was central to our audience’s understanding of the story and how the cases were connected.

I hope this helps.

Marc Sternfield
Director of Digital Content

 

[s4wrxttcs]

This is terrible and a bit chilling as I'm in these sorts of school pickup/drop off lines daily not too far away from this school. Looks like the white SUV made contact with the car in front of it, so the Rivian hit with significant force. What likely happened is Rivian driver was feet off all peddles in hold mode (I certainly do that in the school line) while the line wasn't moving. Then probably the student walked in front of the car and the Rivian driver went for the brakes hard but hit the accelerator. I assume this is what happen in that Alan Ruck story too. While there are plenty of stories with ICE cars driving through store fronts by hitting the wrong peddle, I feel like this could be solvable with software. Like the first hard stomp of the accelerator from hold doesn't do anything and requires a double tap within a couple seconds before it engages (in case you actually do need to go).

The 2025 Rivian is a Gen 2 model so it should be capable of obstacle-aware acceleration that greatly reduces acceleration if it detects an object in front of the car particularly at low speeds.

I will say that I turned this feature off when I had a Tesla that supported this. I did because I didn't want the nanny.

But, if I came across an article like this I would rethink my decision.

 

[s4wrxttcs]

To try and get clarification on things, I emailed the source (KTLA). Below is my email inquiry to the byline reporter (Josh DuBose) with a CC to the Director of Digital Content, Marc Sternfield:

Josh,

I am reaching out because your story, “Teenage boy killed, 5 others hurt in parking lot crash at L.A. school,” has generated significant discussion on a popular Rivian Forum.

A key question among readers and posters is why the Rivian was identified by make and model, while other vehicles involved were not. This has led to speculation that the report might be subtly implying the Rivian itself, beyond driver error, was somehow at fault for the tragic accident.

Based on your reporting, do you have any information to suggest that vehicle malfunction contributed to the accident that left a teen boy dead and 5 others injured? If not, what was the journalistic reason for identifying the Rivian but not the other cars? (I realize that it was the driver of the Rivian who caused the tragic accident, but the decision to identify the car seems intentional, which is why I am asking.)

Here is the story in question. Also, here is the Rivian Forum post thread.

Relatedly, in a story posted last month, “Road rage driver’s new arrest a ‘failure of the system,’ California victims say,” journalist Marc Sternfield (CC’d on this email) identifies a Tesla as the car used by the assailing driver, although the Tesla’s involvement/identification was unessential to the story itself (a point repeatedly made on Reddit posts involving electric vehicles).

Although the article repeatedly mentions "Tesla," the actual events described – reckless driving, road rage, and the driver's history of legal issues – could just as easily have occurred with the driver behind the wheel of a Toyota Camry or any other make and model of car.

Can you please speak to your newsroom’s policy on the decision to repeatedly reference the Tesla because the specific identification of the car as a Tesla is largely incidental and not a substantive fact to the core narrative of the story.

Here is the story involving the road rage incident in which the Tesla is repeatedly referenced.

Thanks for responding to this inquiry. I appreciate your time.

-Eric

And here is the reply from Marc Sternfield, with his permission to post here in its entirety:

Eric,

Thank you for writing us. News organization generally err on the side of sharing more information vs. less. If you search any major auto manufacturer’s name (e.g., Honda, Infiniti, Toyota) on KTLA.com, you will find countless articles where the make of a vehicle is included.
Here are a few recent examples:

https://ktla.com/news/local-news/1-killed-in-multi-vehicle-long-beach-crash/
https://ktla.com/news/local-news/2-...-with-kids-in-vehicle-crashes-during-pursuit/
https://ktla.com/news/local-news/woman-confronts-catalytic-converter-thieves-in-santa-clarita/

Re: the Tesla driver, this was a notorious case involving several road rage attacks. The driver’s vehicle was central to our audience’s understanding of the story and how the cases were connected.

I hope this helps.

Marc Sternfield
Director of Digital Content

Perhaps instead of writing them you could write Rivian to ask them why their collision avoidance didn't prevent this kind of tragic accident. Can efforts be made with the Gen2 ADAS system to prevent this incident?

In cases like this a vehicles UX and safety systems play a significant role.

One good example of this is an Actor awhile back was crushed by his SUV (A Jeep) where the parking brake wasn't applied. It wasn't because of a UX design related issue. It wasn't necessarily Jeeps fault, but the design of it made it less then straight forwards for people to engage the parking brake.

 

[CosmicRivian]

Perhaps instead of writing them you could write Rivian to ask them why their collision avoidance didn't prevent this kind of tragic accident. Can efforts be made with the Gen2 ADAS system to prevent this incident?

In cases like this a vehicles UX and safety systems play a significant role.

One good example of this is an Actor awhile back was crushed by his SUV (A Jeep) where the parking brake wasn't applied. It wasn't because of a UX design related issue. It wasn't necessarily Jeeps fault, but the design of it made it less then straight forwards for people to engage the parking brake.

I think that’s a great question and you should definitely ask Rivian yourself (although I pride myself on being a good writer, you don’t need me for this). Let me know what you learn.

As for why I reached out to KTLA, I found myself speculating about a news story, so I decided rather than endlessly speculate, I’d go straight to the source (and then share my findings with everyone here given all of the other speculation).

If you learn anything from a discussion with Rivian, please post what you discover.

As all of these cars become more technologically advanced, I hope tragedies like this one can be avoided.

 

[ohseedee]

by the way, I watched this video, The Grille Trend that Kills 509 People per Year, the other day and found it very interesting and entertaining by FortNine, a popular motorcycle channel. Explains how the front-end design of modern vehicles in the US are leading to more pedestrian deaths. I'm not advocating for any sort of change to this design, just saying it's possible the outcome may have been different in a differently designed vehicle.

 

[Ecupip]

It’s very tragic. It’s just my opinion, but the school and parents shouldn’t allow kids to walk out in front of moving vehicles.

 

[Gen(R3)Xer]

Horrible and unfortunate news of a young man struck and killed.

The news article calls Rivian out specifically. https://ktla.com/news/local-news/teenage-boy-gravely-injured-in-parking-lot-of-l-a-school/

This is terrible, especially because it happened to someone so young. That kid really shouldn’t have been passing in between vehicles like that, although the driver might have been distracted as well.

So they call out the Rivian by brand, but not the white SUV in front of it? Clearly everyone at the school is going to know who the Rivian driver is. I’m surprised they didn’t say it was an EV with all of the negative press EVs get.

On a related note, I thought Rivians had cameras and sensors to prevent this sort of thing from happening? Seems strange.

 

[lefkonj]

I have to say HS drop off/pick up is one of the most dangerous things I have done. Kids running through the parking lot, drivers in a rush, not enough space all around. I hated doing that and did it for 7 years, 2 kids.

 

[mkhuffman]

Imagine what people would write if the driver had been in a Cybertruck instead.

 

[Acoustic71]

Hard to image.

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