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Driver+ Limitations

brianmartin

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not everyone cares as much about driver assist features. i couldn't care less... I'd buy the car if it didn't even include anything except cruise control. to me its a tech gimmick nothing more. i am in control of my vehicle at all times and always will be.
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Scott

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Now that the manual is out, we've got some solid info on what Driver+ can and can't do. The website used to say it would only be available on, "select highways." The manual states, "Highway Assist only functions on certain divided or controlled-access highways." Have a peek at GM's availability map for the similarly limited Super Cruise. Even if Rivian can match GM's system (which has been available since 2017,) you won't be able to use Driver+ for pretty much anything other than a major interstate freeway out West. If you're coming from a Tesla, this is a huge step backwards. I use Autopilot all the time on two lane state roads in our Model X and I don't think I can go back. I feel safer with it active and I arrive more relaxed and rested when using it. Personally, I don't care about Driver+ being hands free. You have to pay attention either way and keeping my hands on the wheel has never felt like a burden when using Autopilot. I'd trade greater availability over hands free in a heartbeat. Rivian has my deposit and I'm not going to cancel my order until we get more info and drive tests but this is the first issue I've seen that might be a deal breaker for me. I also don't want to wait until 2024 (if I'm lucky) to get a Cybertruck. Anybody want to cheerlead here and tell me why this isn't a letdown?
To me the biggest question is if the lane keep assist will keep you centered well outside of areas where Driver+ can be activated. The manual says you can activate it whenever there are clear lane markings. However on most cars lane keep assist only corrects when you get close to a lane line, which makes it very ping pongy. Lane centering is usually the term that is akin to Driver+. Not being able to use true lane centering on long two lane stretches of road will be a big drawback. I often drove up over Mt Hood and down to Bend from Portland. True lane centering + adaptive cruise control makes that much more pleasant.
 

Scoiatael

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I actually want to drive my Rivian. I don't have any interest in the vehicle doing it for me.
When you are driving on a fairly straight road for 3 or 4 hours, driver assist features like this are super helpful.
 

DB-EV

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When you are driving on a fairly straight road for 3 or 4 hours, driver assist features like this are super helpful.
I agree. I am east cost and in winter, hope to be up and back to mountains. Sometimes I take 87 to the Adirondacks. It is a giant straight line on a hwy for 4 hours. I hope that Driver + will work on that; I just want to be able to pay a little less attention in that scenario. I understand, of course, that first I will have to get comfortable with that (or not).

I tend to think it will be available pretty quickly on roads like that, but we'll see. Frankly anything will be an upgrade from my 2011 Honda CRV. I will probably be shocked by the jump. I don't even have a backup camera now. . . .
 

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Remember also that RJ specifically said that they will be using data from customer vehicles to map roads. So hopefully that translates into rapid expansion of all the Driver+ functions as cars get delivered.
 

azbill

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Ford is doing this with BlueCruise as well. But they still have co-pilot 360 as an option on unmapped roads.
My Mach E has the Co-pilot 360, and the OTA for Blue Cruise is due SOON (lol, must be why Ford invested in Rivian). The copilot is usable in stop and go and the lane keeping is fairly good, you just have to keep your hand on the wheel, but there are times it turns off the lane keeping temporarily, such as when there is a missing lane line due to an on or off ramp. Works fine on two lane highways, as well as local roads, and can also recognize speed limit signs for speed control.
 

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The sky is not falling
How dare you imply that the sky is not falling! The sky is falling. Well maybe not the whole sky, but some things in the sky are falling.
 

johnbro23

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I’m optimistic that basic auto steer on all but the most dangerous / hairpin highways will work great in no time - using Tesla as a guide. They rushed into introducing AP1, built functionality on the fly in true Tesla fashion, and had great auto steer functionality in <6 months post releasing cars with the hardware for it. It proved to be a VERY easy engineering problem to solve (relative to the rest of self-driving) and it happens to be the most helpful part because it’s the vast majority of the time spent during a longer trip
 

BigSkies

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Honestly, I’d keep my expectations for Driver+ extremely limited. Remember, this stuff is the cutting edge of software technology, and Rivian is still a baby of a company. They just haven’t had the time or money to invest in this.

I imagine at this point Tesla has invested more in Self Driving than Rivian has raised in total. Ford and GM are also ahead in R&D by hundreds of millions (if not billions) of dollars.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Rivian ends up licensing someone else’s technology for this at some point. And that’s honestly okay, as Rivian can’t specialize in everything.

I think the Rivian will be an amazing vehicle with better software than Ford/GM/Chryslerantis. I just don’t think automated driving will be their focus.
 

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Temerarius

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Considering its going to be integrated with their insurance plans, I'm thinking this will evolve substantially. The sky is not falling
Agreed, Tesla has the better part of a decade lead on Rivian (and everybody else), with tens, if not hundreds of millions of miles of "in world" drive data that give them an unimaginable amount of data points to refine their system every few weeks.

Keep in mind, when Tesla first rolled out, AP (or, it's first incarnations) and FSD were basically glorified cruise control.
 

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adaptive cruise and lane centering is good enough for me, that's all i get with Autopilot in our X. I don't want full self driving, but on the 12 hour drive to get to somewhere fun to drive, I'd like to not be exhausted from constantly having to readjust everything because people can't seem to maintain speed.
 

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adaptive cruise and lane centering is good enough for me, that's all i get with Autopilot in our X. I don't want full self driving, but on the 12 hour drive to get to somewhere fun to drive, I'd like to not be exhausted from constantly having to readjust everything because people can't seem to maintain speed.
100% agreed. Adaptive cruise + lane centering is great. We just don't know if lane centering is available outside of the mapped driver+ area.
 

CommodoreAmiga

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100% agreed. Adaptive cruise + lane centering is great. We just don't know if lane centering is available outside of the mapped driver+ area.
This is a big question for me. ACC with a competent LKAS that has no geographical restrictions is something I use and want to keep using. Everyone else seems to offer this, so hopefully it’s not locked away in Rivian vehicles.
 

Scott

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This is a big question for me. ACC with a competent LKAS that has no geographical restrictions is something I use and want to keep using. Everyone else seems to offer this, so hopefully it’s not locked away in Rivian vehicles.
Agreed. This is currently the biggest thing on my list of unknowns that might make me wait for other options to become available.
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