Battery problem - R2 died.

[BarbaraG]

We picked up our R2 yesterday and all was good. Drove 150 miles this morning to a weekend getaway - fine, nice trip although developed a rattle behind the front panel. This afternoon drove 2 miles locally and the car literally died. I was barely able to pull over. Fortunately it was a local road, not a highway. The car said Ready but could not put it in gear. The initial message said something was wrong with the airbags, then nothing. Called SOS, and after many minutes of confirming our account finally got a technician.

Meanwhile an R1 happened to be driving by (this in a small tourist town of less than 3,000!). The driver happened to be a Rivian technician vacationing here. He tried the hard reset, then unplugged the 12 volt battery. He also had his work laptop so was able to somehow get the car restarted. The Rivian technician was not helpful, ready to call a tow if our young friend could not solve the problem.

We have a service appointment Tuesday morning and I am terrified to drive the car back the 150 miles on highway. I am ready to ditch this thing!

Another note: the SOS call was from somewhere, not our phone, and kept asking us to press 1 for English. There was no keypad display connected to this phone call so it kept repeating the request, further delaying the response.

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[Shaqdeez]

The Rivian Tech was not helpful? I'm assuming you meant unsuccessful.

 

[mkhuffman]

That sucks. Sorry you were stranded.

You should follow the advice from Rivian. If they think it is safe to drive, go ahead. If they don't, they should be willing to send a tow truck to get it and take it to the service center. Talk to them about that to confirm.

If they refuse, maybe your car insurance will provide the tow? My insurance paid for a 4 hour tow when my previous car died when I was far, far from home.

 

[cwq93r]

The Rivian Tech was not helpful? I'm assuming you meant unsuccessful.

Sounds like the on-site Tech was very helpful. He got the vehicle restarted. Maybe the person on the phone was unhelpful?

 

[Hereforthesnacks]

The Rivian Tech was not helpful? I'm assuming you meant unsuccessful.

I think OP means the tech on the phone via SOS

 

[sparked]

I would call back and see if they will arrange a tow. Explain the failure mode that it randomly died on the road while you were driving. Unfortunately, it seems like some strangely bad luck you found a tech on the road as Rivian would have just towed you right away.

 

[Weekend at Gary’s]

I didn’t think the SOS call center was the same as Rivian technical support? (I.e. SOS is emergency response) Does SOS have the ability to route to tech support? ( maybe useful if you don’t have a phone). Otherwise should call Rivian Tech Assistance:

 

[cmsmith]

So sorry to hear you were stranded. My general rule is strand me once that’s one thing, strand me twice and we’re done. Please keep us posted on what the root cause was. Hope everything is okay.

 

[AndyCasper]

We picked up our R2 yesterday and all was good. Drove 150 miles this morning to a weekend getaway - fine, nice trip although developed a rattle behind the front panel. This afternoon drove 2 miles locally and the car literally died. I was barely able to pull over. Fortunately it was a local road, not a highway. The car said Ready but could not put it in gear. The initial message said something was wrong with the airbags, then nothing. Called SOS, and after many minutes of confirming our account finally got a technician.

Meanwhile an R1 happened to be driving by (this in a small tourist town of less than 3,000!). The driver happened to be a Rivian technician vacationing here. He tried the hard reset, then unplugged the 12 volt battery. He also had his work laptop so was able to somehow get the car restarted. The Rivian technician was not helpful, ready to call a tow if our young friend could not solve the problem.

We have a service appointment Tuesday morning and I am terrified to drive the car back the 150 miles on highway. I am ready to ditch this thing!

Another note: the SOS call was from somewhere, not our phone, and kept asking us to press 1 for English. There was no keypad display connected to this phone call so it kept repeating the request, further delaying the response.

I completely understand your frustration, but calling a tech who's on vacation and goes out of their way to assist you unhelpful seems particularly unkind to say.

Also, where is the battery diagnosis coming from? Nothing about this seems to point to a battery issue. Clearly some kind of problem, but it doesn't really seem like the battery has died at all.

 

[harmonicwaste]

I completely understand your frustration, but calling a tech who's on vacation and goes out of their way to assist you unhelpful seems particularly unkind to say.

Also, where is the battery diagnosis coming from? Nothing about this seems to point to a battery issue. Clearly some kind of problem, but it doesn't really seem like the battery has died at all.

Andy ... pretty sure she was referring to the tech on the phone ..
Not the " young friend" tech who pulled over to help. At this point... maybe a "battery issue " is a simplification? More likely a control signal pathway corruption issue that might be caused by a battery glitch.

 

[AndyCasper]

Maybe so. Whole lot of speculation in this thread.

 

[electruck]

What follows is also 100% pure speculation on my part. Rattle in dash followed by an airbag error message... my guess is there is a loose/faulty airbag connection that prompted the vehicle to shut down because the system thought the airbag was missing. Perhaps not the most graceful way to handle that situation. I'm guessing the roadside tech reset the fault and the vehicle will drive fine until the connection works loose again. In my opinion, best to have it towed until the situation is resolved. I don't think there is anything fundamentally wrong with the vehicle outside of what was likely just sloppy installation of the airbag but that is something that could still leave you stranded on the side of the road.

 

[NY_Rob]

What follows is also 100% pure speculation on my part. Rattle in dash followed by an airbag error message... my guess is there is a loose/faulty airbag connection that prompted the vehicle to shut down because the system thought the airbag was missing. Perhaps not the most graceful way to handle that situation.

If true, that's a terrible way to respond to what may or may not be a fault in the airbag system. You don't brick a vehicle because of a airbag fault.. you may be putting the vehicle occupants and surrounding vehicles at imminent risk by just bricking it regardless of where you might be traveling. Consider our area.. purposely bricking a vehicle in one of the East River or Hudson River tunnels or while on the George Washington bridge.. a complete nightmare!

 

[Shaqdeez]

Is this even a real owner? Story sounds odd.

 

[electruck]

If true, that's a terrible way to respond to what may or may not be a fault in the airbag system. You don't brick a vehicle because of a airbag fault.. you may be putting the vehicle occupants and surrounding vehicles at imminent risk by just bricking it regardless of where you might be traveling. Consider our area.. purposely bricking a vehicle in one of the East River or Hudson River tunnels or while on the George Washington bridge.. a complete nightmare!

I don't disagree. However, having developed software for complex systems for over 30 years, I will also tell you that engineers also fail to anticipate (or sometimes just don't bother to code for) a lot of low frequency edge case scenarios. It would seem a safe assumption that electrical connections should be secure and that this still purely hypothetical airbag fault in this scenario would not be experienced while the vehicle was being driven. Unfortunately, that is not reality. Can't speak to whether this scenario was considered by Rivian and deemed an acceptable risk or if it was just an oversight. Either way, hopefully whatever happened here gets a proper root cause analysis and is addressed by Rivian.

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