A modest proposal…

[mwexler2]

…apologies to the late Mr. Swift.

On Monday my backup guide told me my truck is in transit, on Wednesday he said it was about to leave the plant in Normal and today he said it was in Transit.
We have multiple stories of owners who have paid for their vehicle and don’t know where it is. Or late deliveries and no way of judging when it would arrive.

When I have a package shipped I can see a record of its travels:

or with my MY:

I
Like the MY the R1T is just a GPS on wheels with a built in internet connection? Why can’t I get really time tracking once it leaves the factory?

Q: Wouldn’t this allow people to track whole train cars or transporters full of vehicles?
A: Potentially but there are a lot of ways to mitigate. You could fuzz the location. You could delay the updates by some periods of time. Or only report whe the vehicle is operating (loading /unloading).

Q:Might the exact location on the Normal or SC parking lot encourage unwanted visits.
A:Use a Geofenxe and just report Factory or SSF SC rather than precise coordinates.

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[R1Sky Business]

Excellent proposal... too complicated for Young Rivian at this time

 

[mwexler2]

Note. I’m thinking of it as an app feature like Tesla that would be useful after delivered also. I don’t think it’s more complicated than many of their other software features but is probably considered lower priority.

 

[ironpig]

I shipped a model S via car carrier from Ohio to California and I could track its progress on the app at some points. And then I think it went to sleep if I recall correctly. I don’t remember why. Maybe it updated when they moved the car to put others on or take off. But it didn’t stay live across the country.

And that was a car I owned and had the app and everything.

I think your request will not be fulfilled any time soon.

 

[Max]

If the same guy that told you it is in transit on Monday is responsible to turn on the gps on wheel function before departure, you will still have a problem. Uncertainty principal: you can never be sure as long as there are humans in the process

 

[moosehead]

But wouldn't that remove much of the opaque, indecisive, contrary, ambiguous, coming soon delivery communication?

Despite my cynicism, OP has a great point, especially once the customer owns the vehicle.

 

[mabowden]

Excellent proposal... too complicated for Young Rivian at this time

Absolutely correct.
UPS makes ~21,000,000 deliveries PER DAY. Their volume alone demands such minute tracking details (They make some very valuable deliveries that they insure). Not sure how many deliveries Rivian completes in a day right now, but they have much bigger fish to fry then detailed tracking instructions.

 

[mwexler2]

It would not make sense to do any of this manually. I’m assuming that once implemented there would be no human intervention other than the buyer regularly opening the app to check the location.

 

[kneebuster]

Your proposal fits with a feature the app needs, the ability to locate your truck if you forget where you parked. I bought a 2022 Hyundai Tucson Plug-In Hybrid from a dealer in Anaheim and had it shipped to me. I was able to track the entire journey through the app using that feature.

 

[crashmtb]

Having tracked the ship my vehicle is on across the ocean multiple times in the past, this sort of tracking would be excruciating. ?

 

[Zoidz]

I like the concept, but it’s the last thing Rivian needs to think about right now. I can see guides getting 10x the calls and e-mails from high anxiety customers. Why did the transporter stop in St Louis for two days? Why has nothing been done - its been at the center for a week and not moved? My truck is offline - did the battery die…or was it stolen?

With all the battery drain issues and the vehicle communicating while being transported, it’s conceivable the batteries could die during shipping. Now they have another issue to deal with at unloading.

Rivian doesn’t need these headaches any time s00n….

 

[Craigins]

Q: Wouldn’t this allow people to track whole train cars or transporters full of vehicles?
A: Potentially but there are a lot of ways to mitigate. You could fuzz the location. You could delay the updates by some periods of time. Or only report whe the vehicle is operating (loading /unloading).

Q:Might the exact location on the Normal or SC parking lot encourage unwanted visits.
A:Use a Geofenxe and just report Factory or SSF SC rather than precise coordinates.

Train transport can take weeks. Once you load the railcar and have the rail company pick up the car, you are at their mercy. There's no easy way to track this.

It mainly comes down to, Rivian does not own the transport assets. If they built and employed their own truck and rail transport assets, then sure they could track them. But that would be a waste of their money.

Your package analogy doesn't make sense either. UPS is not "tracking" the package. UPS is registering scans of barcodes/rfid at their own facilities.

Rivian could do the same, it would tell you 2 steps:
in transit
at service center

That's it. Not a whole lot of useful information in that. And workers can mis-scan barcodes. We've all had packages disappear in transit or be delivered without the tracking info being updated.

There is too much overhead and too much up front development with very little value to the company.

 

[jjswan33]

Not to be cynical but people haven’t even been getting tracking information for accessory shipments, this seems like a big leap for Rivian

 

[mwexler2]

Train transport can take weeks. Once you load the railcar and have the rail company pick up the car, you are at their mercy. There's no easy way to track this.

It mainly comes down to, Rivian does not own the transport assets. If they built and employed their own truck and rail transport assets, then sure they could track them. But that would be a waste of their money.

Your package analogy doesn't make sense either. UPS is not "tracking" the package. UPS is registering scans of barcodes/rfid at their own facilities.

Rivian could do the same, it would tell you 2 steps:
in transit
at service center

That's it. Not a whole lot of useful information in that. And workers can mis-scan barcodes. We've all had packages disappear in transit or be delivered without the tracking info being updated.

There is too much overhead and too much up front development with very little value to the company.

I like the concept, but it’s the last thing Rivian needs to think about right now. I can see guides getting 10x the calls and e-mails from high anxiety customers. Why did the transporter stop in St Louis for two days? Why has nothing been done - its been at the center for a week and not moved? My truck is offline - did the battery die…or was it stolen?

With all the battery drain issues and the vehicle communicating while being transported, it’s conceivable the batteries could die during shipping. Now they have another issue to deal with at unloading.

Rivian doesn’t need these headaches any time s00n….

The battery drain concern can be dealt with by using the existing telemetry that activates when the car is awake. Which it generally is for loading and unloading.
@Craign points out that for rail transport that you would just get a moved to train and then a few weeks later moved off train.
But that is still better than now where on Monday I am told my truck is in transit, on Wednesday that it’s about to leave the plant in normal and that on Friday it’s in transit.
@jjswan33 points out that employees can misscan bar codes, but the point here is there is no manual scanning.

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