New video "Let's Just Drive" & official letter from RJ provides huge update!

[crashmtb]

If you don’t think Tesla is a competitor then I don’t know what to say.

Tesla doesn’t have a comparable SUV, nevermind truck. A couple of crossovers, sure.

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[Mjhirsch78]

Pretty cool stuff. They continue to impress. RJ has his schtuff together. Rivian will be fun to watch grow as a company.

 

[nfrank]

I’m worried they might be trying to tackle too much, too fast. Developing their own cells, multiple vehicles simultaneously, self driving, several manufacturing sites, etc….

At least they dropped the full self driving with lidar and the Ford/Lincoln project, however I would appreciate more focus.

 

[CommodoreAmiga]

Tesla doesn’t have a comparable SUV, nevermind truck. A couple of crossovers, sure.

Your opinion is not shared by everyone. A bet a LOT of Rivian customers cross-shop Tesla.

 

[crashmtb]

Your opinion is not shared by everyone. A bet a LOT of Rivian customers cross-shop Tesla.

people have differing opinions? I’m shocked. SHOCKED.

People cross-shop all sorts of things that are not directly comparable.

 

[SANZC02]

I’m worried they might be trying to tackle too much, too fast. Developing their own cells, multiple vehicles simultaneously, self driving, several manufacturing sites, etc….

At least they dropped the full self driving with lidar and the Ford/Lincoln project, however I would appreciate more focus.

I disagree, all companies have multiple projects going at the same time with different teams responsible for each project.

They certainly are well funded with multiple major backers to be able to spread their resources. As someone looking at their upcoming IPO, this is exactly the kind of forward looking and positioning I am interested in seeing to under stand the value potential the stock will have.

 

[flabyboy]

People are way too hung up in this. The electrical work you’ll need to do to your home will be seriously expensive. Then you won’t be able to have a back up unless you are home. What happens when you’re at work with your truck and your family is home? You need to leave early to get home? Also, what if you need to leave home?

In emergencies I’m all for a generator. By the time you do all the electrical work, just add the generator to take full advantage. Or buy a Tesla powerwall for peak shaving as well.

I also have the opinion buyers of these awesome vehicles don’t care to have them drive themselves. I’ve driven Tesla autopilot and it’s nothing more then a bar trick. Requires more of my attention then just driving.

this is well said. the amount of money that can go into having a standby generator installed can be $$$ and most of that comes from the electrical work that needs to be done, not the actual generator itself. With a house that is finished, I can imagine something like this being very expensive to setup. But the option is there for those who have cash to burn

 

[Gshenderson]

This is like the biggest update they've given. Lets gather the main points from the email and video Q&A:

• V2H capable in the future!
• App coming in early September!!
• Online purchasing will be available next month and will only take around 15 mins. (I'm guessing for only people who have only been contacted by a guide).
• Camp Kitchen can run for weeks (if for some reason you weren't going to drive anywhere for that amount of time), very small power draw.
• Sounds like it will have a form of sentry mode, akin to Tesla, that will be coordinated with their Rivian insurance.
• Has the next generation lithium batteries from LG, and will be developing their own battery cells in house with a whole supply chain end to end to build them.
• The 11 cameras and several sensors will map off road areas that to this point have not been previously mapped. He referred to it as something similar to an off-road Google street view vehicle
• Sounds like they are ready to start producing production vehicle now pending approval, from email: "With all of this, I am excited to report we have started producing vehicles that reflect all of our quality iterations and design refinements."

Am I missing anything?

Telemetry data (cameras, driver+ usage, driver monitoring) will be fed to Rivian insurance. That could be good or bad depending on the situation. I know many folks have privacy concerns with all of this stuff.

 

[kanundrum]

A Honor to have @DuckTruck and that smile on my TV!

 

[Gearhead500]

this is well said. the amount of money that can go into having a standby generator installed can be $$$ and most of that comes from the electrical work that needs to be done, not the actual generator itself. With a house that is finished, I can imagine something like this being very expensive to setup. But the option is there for those who have cash to burn

It’s a box and a manual transfer switch. No? You’re talking $500 if you know what you’re doing or $1500 otherwise.
If anything it also takes away competition feature. Don’t discount things other people want. I’ll find it extremely useful and not spend 10k for a generator while enjoying my awesome truck.

 

[Gearhead500]

Now I’ll contradict myself and use that generator money on a tent and kitchen. ?

 

[crashmtb]

A Honor to have @DuckTruck and that smile on my TV!

#fullbruce

 

[bajadahl]

Telemetry data (cameras, driver+ usage, driver monitoring) will be fed to Rivian insurance. That could be good or bad depending on the situation. I know many folks have privacy concerns with all of this stuff.

I felt like RJ glossed over this a little bit. He talked about the tie in to Insurance but I wanted a little bit more firm answer about being able to view and download videos from the system. Maybe not from an accident.... Say I drive a cool trail and want to grab some footage.... or more of a sentry mode where the car is parked. He talked about an accident but didn't really clarify control of the footage or if it will indeed monitor the car while parked. And I agree it definitely bring's up privacy concerns for some folks if the insurance companies can just grab the data for themselves...

 

[Canthoney]

Telemetry data (cameras, driver+ usage, driver monitoring) will be fed to Rivian insurance. That could be good or bad depending on the situation. I know many folks have privacy concerns with all of this stuff.

Yeah, I could see the concern. I definitely don’t want a nanny cam in the cabin, need to know more about what data they collect. The last thing I need is them calling me saying ““sir, we had to deny your claim because we heard you say right before your accident “hey y’all, watch this!”” ?

 

[crashmtb]

I felt like RJ glossed over this a little bit. He talked about the tie in to Insurance but I wanted a little bit more firm answer about being able to view and download videos from the system. Maybe not from an accident.... Say I drive a cool trail and want to grab some footage.... or more of a sentry mode where the car is parked. He talked about an accident but didn't really clarify control of the footage or if it will indeed monitor the car while parked. And I agree it definitely bring's up privacy concerns for some folks if the insurance companies can just grab the data for themselves...

Yeah he completely sidestepped the privacy question.

i will be interested to see how they handle the stricter privacy rules outside of the US.

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