Front drive unit failure at 40 miles

[the long way downunder]

Dubious analogy here with renters and qualifying for a mortgage. Seems like a strange dig to throw into your commentary on a car. Just like renters can find landlords with low underwriting standards you can also find lenders (non-QM and owner financing) where the underwriting standards will be more flexible for a higher cost. This isn't that uncommon and it's a question of whether someone is willing to pay a premium to "own" when they could rent for much less cash out of pocket and maintain their liquidty. Not sure you understand the market here to be commenting... as you can just as easily be held hostage by the equity in your house (i.e. throwing money into it for repair, maintenance, upgrades, HOA, etc. etc.) vs. renting and having more flexibility on how your cash is being utilized.

Perhaps I don't understand. Perhaps renters are making a liquidity decision, balancing opportunity risk and return on operating capital to optimize return on their diversified portfolio of investments. That might be it. Or …
Or maybe I'm referring to the WEF and the "the great reset" – a policy being enacted globally for the last two or more decades – and drawing a direct analogy between the "right to repair" (Apple and other technology vendors illegally selling products which are planned to fail and designed to prevent the user from repairing products they own.) Tesla and Rivian are selling a vehicle which they appear to think remains their asset and their possession though it is legally, wholly the possession of the purchaser. It's just a matter of years of litigation and policy battles till Rivian and others are compelled to make their vehicles operable and open to the intents and purposes of the owner, not their corporate interests … maybe that's it. : )

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[CommodoreAmiga]

. It's analogous to people being forced to rent because they don't "qualify" to get a mortgage … they can somehow qualify to pay $2000 to rent, but not $2000 to pay a mortgage and eventually own their home … somehow "sentenced" to be in perpetual debt and own nothing. (I'm not the first to observe.) Hopefully Rivian doesn't end up like Tesla.

I am all for home buying programs, and certainly much more can (and should) be done to improve access to affordable housing…. but people can already buy homes with junk credit scores. And looking at the 2008 mortgage crisis there is lots of evidence that mortgages are pushed through that really shouldn’t be. “Qualifying” isn’t the problem. The problem is a supply of affordable homes so people don’t over-extend.

 

[RivianNoob]

As the title says, I had a front drive unit failure at 40 miles. I had driven the truck about 5 miles and my wife probably 10 miles. Fortunately, it died in the driveway and not on the road because it was DRT. After almost 3 weeks, I’ll be getting it back tomorrow.

I had the exact same issue with under 100 miles. Took it off-road on day one, lifted the right front off the ground in off road mode at one crossing. I left the dirt and went into sport mode on a paved road for about 4 miles before stopping at a stop sign. When I pulled out I heard a pop in the front and got both the motor fault and the system fault notifications. The truck entered limp mode (top speed 42 mph, very sluggish) for another 2 miles before telling me to pull over and have it towed. After putting in park, it would not go back into drive or reverse unless I performed a hard reset. Flatbed ride to my service center, 2 days to remote diagnose, 5 more business days to trailer it to another service center with a lift to replace the drive unit. I was given a loaner R1T which I named the RESV (Riven Emotional Support Vehicle). I have mine back now and it seems fine, but makes me a bit nervous to try solo off-road any time soon.

 

[electruck]

And we still don't know specifically what is failing except that they are replacing the front drive unit?

 

[the long way downunder]

I am all for home buying programs, and certainly much more can (and should) be done to improve access to affordable housing…. but people can already buy homes with junk credit scores. And looking at the 2008 mortgage crisis there is lots of evidence that mortgages are pushed through that really shouldn’t be. “Qualifying” isn’t the problem. The problem is a supply of affordable homes so people don’t over-extend.

well, I'm leading us way off topic, so in closing I'll note the "great reset" problem is affordable housing, mostly it's discriminatory and predatory lending, but equally well, it's fair wages, education to work in a career path, not just unskilled labor, small business employers need support, giant corporations need regulation, etc.

 

[the long way downunder]

Whoever designed this message needs to put more thought into it:

This message should basically never happen. Before the truck declares itself dead, it should have offered at least a couple of debug options, the computer should have called home for remote support, the car should offer to call SOS or tech support, then step the driver through a couple of reboots, and ultimately a menu on the touchscreen and a known sequence to force the vehicle to go into drive with whatever it's got and get moving (e.g. foot on brake, hold sos button and hazard button and select Drive five times … if the touchscreen is malfunctioning, you can't rely upon it, so a "with extreme prejudice, just get moving" function must exist.)

 

[Armando]

I Just had a similar problem. Started couple days after I got it. Mine could limp home with very little power and not go over 42mph. Then sometimes it was fine. It happened 5 times in the first week. It got towed off and determined it was a front drive unit that I am waiting for them to replace. Wish they would put in the new 300hp motors.

 

[Arky]

With four motors, I expected software to allow the vehicle to continue with three dead motors and for there to be a dialog on the touch screen showing the fault and allowing the driver to drive the vehicle … "I'm in death valley, no phone signal, just keep going" sort of thing.

The vehicle is owned by the owner, not by the factory. While the factory wants to protect its warranty costs, or continue to debug it's new product as a beta in the hands of the early adopter customers, the owner has the prerogative to keep going even if the "low oil" light might result in further damage or failure … it must be the decision of the driver in control of the vehicle at the time, not the business interests of the corporation.

Yeah you must be new to this whole "EV" company thing, none of them want your car to treat you like you own it.

It would absolutely improve the product to make it capable of running with a motor down but as it stands it seems like we just have 4 points of failure instead of one or two. Hopefully this isn't a common thing.

 

[crashmtb]

Perhaps I don't understand. Perhaps renters are making a liquidity decision, balancing opportunity risk and return on operating capital to optimize return on their diversified portfolio of investments. That might be it. Or …
Or maybe I'm referring to the WEF and the "the great reset" – a policy being enacted globally for the last two or more decades – and drawing a direct analogy between the "right to repair" (Apple and other technology vendors illegally selling products which are planned to fail and designed to prevent the user from repairing products they own.) Tesla and Rivian are selling a vehicle which they appear to think remains their asset and their possession though it is legally, wholly the possession of the purchaser. It's just a matter of years of litigation and policy battles till Rivian and others are compelled to make their vehicles operable and open to the intents and purposes of the owner, not their corporate interests … maybe that's it. : )

Well that went into the weeds quickly. Yes, the world economic forum and the Jews are going to theft everything.

noted economist russell brand has it all figured out too!


The shitting on people who aren’t homeowners is something else.

 

[elektrode]

I may be in this group. My new R1T was not delivered Monday as scheduled because it “threw a bunch of codes” when they were loading it onto the flatbed.

I’m being told “worst case we have to replace the drive”, but that’s all I know. And other scary phrases like “there’s been some back and forth with engineers at Normal”.

Haven’t even seen my truck and already having issues. But trying to be positive, I may have just avoided being stranded and more pissed off.

 

[MountainBikeDude]

I may be in this group. My new R1T was not delivered Monday as scheduled because it “threw a bunch of codes” when they were loading it onto the flatbed.

I’m being told “worst case we have to replace the drive”, but that’s all I know. And other scary phrases like “there’s been some back and forth with engineers at Normal”.

Haven’t even seen my truck and already having issues.

Crappy, but good they caught it ahead of delivery to you. Would have been worse receiving it and having it fail similar to the others in this thread, then scramble to return it etc.

 

[Flabirder]

Mine has also has had the front drive unit failure (after <100 miles and 1 week of ownership). No idea when I'll get my truck back.

 

[seajayseven]

Mine failed today at less than 800 miles.

 

[Prime]

With not that many trucks delivered this is a lot of failures, let alone the people that aren’t on this forum and are having the same issue. Has anyone that got the fix run into another failure?

 

[klkmd]

The motors are Bosch OEM, the rest is Rivian designed.

The failure could be mechanical, electrical or electronic since the drive unit contains everything including the inverters. That's why I was curious about the failure details. Unfortunately, the error message is a bit general.

Charged EV Magazine - VP of Propulsion:
"
Charged: You said that there are symmetrical drive units, so you have four identical sets of motors and drives?

Richard Farquhar: That’s correct – we have four identical motors, left and right, front and rear. Every wheel has the exact same amount of torque and power available to it to maximize performance. We achieve over 14,000 Newton-meters of grounded torque at the wheels combined and 125 miles per hour maximum speed. With the fixed-ratio single-speed gearbox there is no need to change gears, no need for twin speeds. This maximizes efficiency in terms of losses from gear meshing while achieving all of our performance targets.

The inverters are one of the jewels in the crown of this propulsion system, and are fully designed in-house. We designed a dual power inverter device integrated into the drive unit assembly, which allows very efficient control of two electric motors from one inverter assembly. We focused a lot on electrical efficiency from the battery to the inverters to the motors and on to the wheels. Having one dual combined inverter per axle allows us to maximize that electrical efficiency and therefore use the energy to maximize the vehicle’s range.

Charged: Was the motor designed in-house as well?


Richard Farquhar: For the e-machines, we work with a partner to design the core electromagnetics and motor assembly, and then package them into our drive unit. It’s similar to battery modules in that we work with partners to source the cells and then design and develop the modules and pack in-house exactly as we want it.

So, the electric motors are unique to Rivian in terms of how they’re integrated into our drive unit assembly, how they’re mounted, how the inverter connects with them, how the cooling connects with them, and how they’re oriented in our gearbox.

"

My front drive assembly failed at one of the busiest intersections in Los Angeles and Rivian support was less than adequate. The tow company they used took two hours to get there as they contract with a very small company. AAA could have been there in 20 min but Rivian said they were not responsible for any damage from towing by AAA. The Fire Dept had to come and get the truck over to the side of the road. Rivian said the failure was from a sensor and it would not happen again. I asked how do you know that if you don't know what caused the sensor to fail. If I. take it offroad camping and it fails, this could be beyond serious but Rivian did not seem interested in trying to understand the risks that scare those who want to go offroad. Until the cause is known, there is no way to predict or fix this defect. Furthermore, the tow truck operator told me he had told a lot of the Rivians back to the service center. So once it is fixed, the truck is OK but I"m not as I don't know the root cause and Rivian is not saying anything, or doesn't care. This is quite discouraging. Also they did not pay for a rental which they said they would do.

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