MKBHD Review: The R1T is an Incredibly Fun Full Electric Pickup

[sevengroove]

It must be a personal threshold, then. When I saw Marcus interacting with the map it definitely looked like a LOT of lag, to me.

Agree - not to mention, this was despite the fact that he was moving around quite slowly on the screen and not making any sudden gestures to trip up the system.

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[Speedrye]

Was a good review, I like how different the focus of all of these reviews are, really gives a broad scope of the trucks features from various perspectives.

[Start Rant ]
Pet peeve for me.... I really don't understand how people can use promise in place of the actual word that should be planned. He uses it for the RAN and many forum users use it for various things that have been on the Rivian web pages and in announcements.

The words promise and plan are not interchangeable, I do not ever recall seeing anything from Rivian that said they promise to do something. They are planning on doing some things and even provide disclaimers that things can change. Just think of it in terms of "I have a 5 year plan", it is certainly something you are striving for and would like to happen but clearly things can change and adjustments can and most likely will happen in that 5 year period.

promise
NOUN
1) a declaration or assurance that one will do a particular thing or that a particular thing will happen.
synonyms: assurance · pledge · vow · guarantee · agreement · commitment · contract · covenant · compact
VERB
1) assure someone that one will definitely do, give, or arrange something; undertake or declare that something will happen.
synonyms: pledge · vow · guarantee · assure

plan [plan]
NOUN
1) a detailed proposal for doing or achieving something.
synonyms: proposal
2) an intention or decision about what one is going to do.
synonyms: intention · aim · idea · intent · goal · target · hope · aspiration

[/ End Rant]

Apologies for those I may have offended, just something I had to get off my chest.

He drives a Tesla. He's been conditioned for promises, not actual plans.

 

[Shzeph]

I mean, assuming the underlying processing power is up to snuff, any sort of UI issues can be fixed/improved via OTA software updates, no?

I’m legit asking, because idk anything about software or whatnot lol

 

[rraj2k81]

This review highlighted what I had been thinking myself.

It's definitely a fun vehicle, when it comes to driving dynamics and off-road capabilities.

But the day to day aspects are still very unpolished or in some kind of development stage. The UI looked very laggy and lacks a lot of entertainment functionality, especially considering it was developed by ex Tesla Engineers. The Driver+ functionality seems to be in a very beta stage (The ADAS system looks very finicky), The charging issues are still present (this has been discussed and there is more to it than Rivian).

Were these issues due to the fact this is a pre-production vehicle, if so why did they not give a production/production-ready-demo vehicle.
If this is a final production ready vehicle then the day to day elements need quite a few upgrades.

 

[mgc0216]

Great review. UI issues are frustrating to see. Let’s hope they get it snappier before deliveries start, or that OTAs fix it quickly.

Deliveries have already started.

<running and ducking>

On a more serious note: I have a friend who is a field rep for Rivian, they said they are getting final training this week and are doing deliveries in the bay area next week.

 

[Diddy123]

Deliveries have already started.

<running and ducking>

Haha! I believe I’ve made my position on this clear

Good to hear about the potential start of deliveries from your friend though! I think November is going to be an exciting month.

 

[Temerarius]

I hope Rivian figures out the powered Tonneau cover. This must be the 15th review of, sorry the bed cover does not work.

Given the Hub videos I've been watching, the tonneau is fixed.

Those poor Hub trucks are just getting the shit kicked out of them (which is a good thing). People moving the power tonneau back and forth, stopping it, re-engaging it, etc... all damn day.

Same with all other aspects of the truck. Those Hub trucks are just getting hammered, and in such a way that you don't do while out in the field, in the backwoods, or cruising up the South American coastline.

I did note that the Hub trucks are also supposed to be progress bars, so I'm thinking he is running on a PPE/Presser build that has been making the rounds, and thus, has not had all of the updates to the features/functions.

 

[Ralph]

This is also more important to me (for R1S though). Marques owns Model S Plaid and still impressed with the driving tells me something about enjoying this drive daily as well

Paraphrasing, "Handles really nice for 21" wheels", blah, blah, blah....

Turns out, he is more correct than he thinks. It would probably handle a tiny bit better with the 21" he thinks it has.

 

[Scoiatael]

I mean, assuming the underlying processing power is up to snuff, any sort of UI page can be fixed/improved via OTA software updates, no?

I’m legit asking, because idk anything about software or whatnot lol

We haven't seen a production truck's ui yet, so we don't know. Its entirely possible the pre-production trucks are using weaker hardware. But optimizations can only get you so far, and its entirely possible Rivian might have to look into beefing up the hardware.

But also keep in mind once you put in your destination and start driving, the map will look smooth enough. Its just when you are playing around with it where its super laggy.

 

[Mjhirsch78]

Was a good review, I like how different the focus of all of these reviews are, really gives a broad scope of the trucks features from various perspectives.

[Start Rant ]
Pet peeve for me.... I really don't understand how people can use promise in place of the actual word that should be planned. He uses it for the RAN and many forum users use it for various things that have been on the Rivian web pages and in announcements.

The words promise and plan are not interchangeable, I do not ever recall seeing anything from Rivian that said they promise to do something. They are planning on doing some things and even provide disclaimers that things can change. Just think of it in terms of "I have a 5 year plan", it is certainly something you are striving for and would like to happen but clearly things can change and adjustments can and most likely will happen in that 5 year period.

promise
NOUN
1) a declaration or assurance that one will do a particular thing or that a particular thing will happen.
synonyms: assurance · pledge · vow · guarantee · agreement · commitment · contract · covenant · compact
VERB
1) assure someone that one will definitely do, give, or arrange something; undertake or declare that something will happen.
synonyms: pledge · vow · guarantee · assure

plan [plan]
NOUN
1) a detailed proposal for doing or achieving something.
synonyms: proposal
2) an intention or decision about what one is going to do.
synonyms: intention · aim · idea · intent · goal · target · hope · aspiration

[/ End Rant]

Apologies for those I may have offended, just something I had to get off my chest.

You made this English teacher smile. Thank you. ?

 

[PastyPilgrim]

We haven't seen a production truck's ui yet, so we don't know. Its entirely possible the pre-production trucks are using weaker hardware. But optimizations can only get you so far, and its entirely possible Rivian might have to look into beefing up the hardware.

But also keep in mind once you put in your destination and start driving, the map will look smooth enough. Its just when you are playing around with it where its super laggy.

Pre-prod trucks using weaker hardware is, in my opinion, a little too much to hope for. They'd be using these trucks to test self-driving, gear guard, etc. so it wouldn't make sense for them to use weaker hardware. In fact, for pre-prod and development hardware, usually it's more powerful because you know the software isn't optimized yet and you're typically running debuggable builds of your software, and debug builds need more memory and compute. Plus there's usually extra processes running for analysis, data gathering, monitoring, etc.

The software being smooth enough to follow navigation only goes so far when that computer acts as the hub for all vehicle input. Which is to say that if it's laggy when you're adjusting wipers/vents/music/modes/etc. then it's potentially dangerous since it needs more of your attention.

My current vehicle's infotainment system has gotten sluggish with age (my theory is that the onboard maps have gotten larger over time and are consuming more memory than they did when I bought the car) and it acts up particularly when it's hot. It's really problematic and distracting, and having buttery smooth software when it's the only input mechanism should be a huge safety priority.

All that said, as a software engineer, I have faith that they can optimize and improve performance, but my hope is that they've overbudgeted on hardware in order to support all of the features and capabilities that they have planned, and it being sluggish now is potentially not a good sign that they've set these vehicles up for software success 3+ years from now.

 

[Shzeph]

Don’t ask to me quote where this came from, but I feel like I read in one of the gajillion reviews that Rivian had mentioned that the processing power was “insane”

So maybe the prepro trucks were just running prepro software?

 

[PastyPilgrim]

So maybe the prepro trucks were just running prepro software?

Oh that's definitely for sure. I expect they'll be running preproduction software for at least a couple of years after they've started delivering, lol. It just comes with the territory when dealing with a new company shipping their very first product; the software is going to be beta-like for a while, which is one of the reasons why AA/CP would've been nice since it could fill in the gaps in the meantime.

 

[aAlpine]

Those poor Hub trucks are just getting the shit kicked out of them (which is a good thing). People moving the power tonneau back and forth, stopping it, re-engaging it, etc... all damn day.

Same with all other aspects of the truck. Those Hub trucks are just getting hammered, and in such a way that you don't do while out in the field, in the backwoods, or cruising up the South American coastline.

I'm not sure I agree with your conclusion. How many years of normal use can a few weekend events represent? 1 year until failure at home? Should I be afraid to open the tonneau? I'm just happy for the 5-year warranty to cover any of these fears (assuming they'll be honoring it reasonably, unlike some unnamed companies...).

 

[hroussel]

I liked the fact that he evaluated the truck more "on road" than "off road" (and really liked it), as this is how I plan to drive my LE R1S also.

One concern though is the charging speed. Hopefully they'll sort the bugs out before release.

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