Many complain about the console cell phone charger...but.....

[Feetdry]

My R1T was born in May and I took delivery of it in July. I have been looking around at all the accessories for this new truck. I see owners complaining and even purchasing phone chargers that plug in and operate on top of our OEM charger. The funny thing is my OEM charger works just fine on both my wife's Google phone and mine. We even have armored cases on our phones and still no problem charging with the OEM charger on the console. Now I'm wondering if some that can't get it to work have other brands of phone. It would be just throwing money away by purchasing an after-market charger.

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[COdogman]

Most of the iPhones with a big camera bump won't work as far as I know. I never use it anyway. I have a dash mount so I don't have a reason to look down at it.

 

[Feetdry]

Most of the iPhones with a big camera bump won't work as far as I know. I never use it anyway. I have a dash mount so I don't have a reason to look down at it.

I use mine a lot. (Good thing we do not have I-phones). I have a Garmin DriveCam76 on the windshield. Cell phone is always on the charger on the console. Leftover from my days of driving 5K per month.

 

[Singletracker]

I have an iPhone 13 Pro with a minimalist case. I was expecting to have charging issues like others have reported. But, honestly, the OEM charging pad seems to work just fine and the phone doesn’t slide around, at all. Maybe, if I was driving around like a mad man, it would move. In normal driving, no problem. I wonder if the type of case, or no case, has something to do with it.

 

[DTown3011]

iPhone 14 Pro, charger never worked for me. Don't have a problem anymore now that I changed to this, which looks significantly better than OEM.

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[VSG]

I've had my R1T for more than a year and I have never had a problem with the charging pad. Ever.

I have tried three models of Android and two models of iPhone - they all work great.

And by "works great" I mean just as well as a normal standard desktop Qi charger without any brand-specific power or other enhancements.

I do understand that if all you've ever used is an Apple "mag-safe" charger, you might find standard Qi chargers underpowered and a little fiddly as far as phone positioning goes. But Rivian's charger is no worse and no better than any baseline charger that strictly conforms to the the Qi standard.

 

[Zoidz]

I have an iPhone 13 Pro in a Urban Armor Gear case with the aluminum ribbed frame. I was expecting the worst but am happily surprised. Charging has been flawless with minimal challenges getting it aligned. It does slide around in moderate cornering and bumps so I have to reposition it. I plan on designing and 3D printing an alignment frame to fix that problem but other priorities have gotten in the way to date.

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

Camera bump is one issue. The other is traction. If your roads are not perfect smooth, no matter how hard you try to place the phone perfectly, the phone will slide out of position and not charge. Just one case of it working as intended, out of overwhelmingly negative user experience, that is a solid fail.

 

[VSG]

Camera bump is one issue. The other is traction. If your roads are not perfect smooth, no matter how hard you try to place the phone perfectly, the phone will slide out of position and not charge. Just on case of it working as intended, out of overwhelmingly negative user experience, that is a solid fail.

The only time my phone has ever slid enough to cause it to stop charging was when I was on a pretty rough washboard road. The sort of road where you hold on to your drink because if you leave it in the cupholder (in ANY vehicle) it will slosh around and spatter all over the place. And in those conditions, sliding around is EXPECTED.

But normal drives of >~50 miles on a variety of highway/local roads/parking lots with speed bumps/etc. ? I never have to touch my phone and when I get to my destination it's charged. I've been doing this for 15k miles, and have no complaints about the charging pad.

 

[R.I.P.]

My R1T was born in May and I took delivery of it in July. I have been looking around at all the accessories for this new truck. I see owners complaining and even purchasing phone chargers that plug in and operate on top of our OEM charger. The funny thing is my OEM charger works just fine on both my wife's Google phone and mine. We even have armored cases on our phones and still no problem charging with the OEM charger on the console. Now I'm wondering if some that can't get it to work have other brands of phone. It would be just throwing money away by purchasing an after-market charger.

It works fine on my Pixel 7.

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

If it wasn’t a problem, RJ wouldn’t have admitted that it’s bad in a Marques Brownlee podcast & vlog. This means he knows it’s not good firsthand. In same session he said it is being redesigned. Do we really need to litigate this?

 

[kozak79]

My 14 pro never charged with a case. My wife's 12 pro only charged sometimes, if you get it perfect. Now using Stow n Charge and very happy with it.

 

[R.I.P.]

Camera bump is one issue. The other is traction. If your roads are not perfect smooth, no matter how hard you try to place the phone perfectly, the phone will slide out of position and not charge. Just one case of it working as intended, out of overwhelmingly negative user experience, that is a solid fail.

This probably has as much to do with the case you are using as anything. I live in Mexico. Anybody think you have rougher roads than we do lol?

I have two cases that get regularly use with my pixel 7. One is a gel style, and it stays exactly where I put it. The other is a leather wallet, and I don't have issues with it staying put either. The phone charges well using either case.

 

[VSG]

If it wasn’t a problem, RJ wouldn’t have admitted that it’s bad in a Marques Brownlee podcast & vlog. This means he knows it’s not good firsthand. In same session he said it is being redesigned. Do we really need to litigate this?

As a good CEO, he can and should validate user concerns. That doesn't mean they are going to change the design. As far as litigating it, the mob consensus is that the charger doesn't work AT ALL and is a piece of shit and you need to spend money to roll your own solution. That isn't the case. And a lot of other people on this thread are saying the same thing. So if by "litigate" you mean you want to find Rivian guilty of incompetence for shipping a "bad" charging pad, then YES, we need to litigate this, because that is not my experience in any way shape or form.

 

[Feetdry]

My wife and I usually just lay our two pixel 7s side by side (in their armored cases) and they really don't slide around while being charged..We like the Rivian charger and can't figure out why others are paying for "extra" charging devices, manufactured for our Rivians.

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