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TheSasquatch

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Hello All.

I have been hesitant to post this story / incident in the forum as I'm not necessarily wanting to stir the negativity pot. Overall, I (like so many) have been largely satisfied and, frankly, impressed with my truck (after 3 weeks).

One week after delivery, I was stepping out of my truck at my office (very grateful that I was in my office parking lot and not on the road) and my toe (I wear a size 14 shoe) caught behind the accelerator pedal. This is NOT uncommon for me --depending on the shoes I'm wearing. My big toe (sole of my shoe) caught just the bottom corner of the pedal and, as I tried to step out, I felt it snag it -- but not with very much force or resistance. With just slight additional force, I pulled my right leg out and felt something give. I thought for a split second that there must just be a rubber cap on the pedal that I had "popped off" or something. But, when I looked down, I could not believe what I was seeing. The pedal had broken off right at the top where the "spring housing" screwed the pedal to the mechanism up under the kick panel.

I picked it up and realized that the spring housing which attaches the pedal to the truck is plastic (and obviously very brittle).

I contacted Rivian and - within 30 minutes - had a flat bed tow truck at my office taking the truck to the service center (Salt Lake City).

The very next morning, I got a call from Rivian letting me know my truck was ready to be picked up and that they were deeply sorry for the inconvenience.

There at definitely some positive elements which you can see from this -- the Rivian customer service team are very concerned and very prompt in their assistance and very much want us to be pleased.

** I am not certain whether they swapped my broken pedal for one on a truck which had not yet been delivered (this is what I assume occurred).

Anyway, you may come across a YouTuber reviewer covering this story this week. I want to make certain that I say that I am pleased with the truck overall. Yes, issues like this can be alarming as it is definitely a safety concern to some degree. Is the brake pedal attached in this same way and with similar / weak plastic? I'm not sure.

Hopefully this was just a fluke and the plastic may have been more brittle (hopefully) due to some manufacturing flaw when molding my pedal bracket.

Thought I would share this.

Rivian R1T R1S MY ACCELERATOR PEDAL BROKE OFF (in Rivian R1T)!! Rivian Accelerator Pedal Broken Issue 1


Rivian R1T R1S MY ACCELERATOR PEDAL BROKE OFF (in Rivian R1T)!! Rivian Accelerator Pedal Broken Issue
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MisterTea

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But in all seriousness, I'm glad this didn't happen to you when driving and that they were quick to respond. Hopefully, this is a one-off issue and not going to become a major issue.

 

crashmtb

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Seems like they handled it in an appropriate fashion, at least
 

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Taycanfrank

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Yikes. That's an embarrassing one for Rivian. Will be interesting to see if they do more tests on it now and potentially start replacing the part when people have their trucks in for service.
 

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It is funny that this guy who claims he is just an unbiased journalist who only reports truth, lies by omission in how he represents how this pedal become broken. He grossly under describes it as a minimum. Not saying it should have broke off....but if you want to get in the weeds, then at least don't underlay the event that lead to the breakage.
 
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TheSasquatch

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It is funny that this guy who claims he is just an unbiased journalist who only reports truth, lies by omission in how he represents how this pedal become broken. He grossly under describes it as a minimum. Not saying it should have broke off....but if you want to get in the weeds, then at least don't underlay the event that lead to the breakage.
Not wanting to get into any debates here but -- I watched the YouTube video and everything he says is accurate.

I wish I could convey appropriately and that everyone would understand how "normally" I pulled my foot out of the truck. I didn't pulled abnormally hard or anything of the sort. I felt my shoe catch on something and assumed I had just bumped past a rubber pedal cover or something (didn't have in my mind at the time what the pedals looked like exactly of course). When I glanced back and saw what was lying on the mat, I was flabbergasted.

Again, I'm not sure whether this would be a safety issue or not. Also, this was the accelerator -- not the brake pedal. Therefore, I'm not presenting this as anything more than an instance of something breaking on the truck -- just as any of us are posting about things we're finding.

I don't think Alex misinterpreted or said anything incorrect in telling the story. I also believe that if someone wanted to test what happened (and could get permission from someone who doesn't care about having to replace their pedal :) they would be able to replicate what I had happen with very little force.
I'm a car enthusiast and go through more cars than I care to admit in public forum but.. I can confidently say that my [current] Bronco, RAM truck, and Tesla would not break-off with the same degree of "normal" force that it took to step out of the car with my foot catching the pedal slightly.
 

dleewla

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maybe a dumb question but why is the accelerator pedal attached from the top and not attached at the floor? i checked and all the vehicles i have its attached at the floor so that this type of "snag" would almost never happen.
 

kurtlikevonnegut

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Not wanting to get into any debates here but -- I watched the YouTube video and everything he says is accurate.

I wish I could convey appropriately and that everyone would understand how "normally" I pulled my foot out of the truck. I didn't pulled abnormally hard or anything of the sort. I felt my shoe catch on something and assumed I had just bumped past a rubber pedal cover or something (didn't have in my mind at the time what the pedals looked like exactly of course). When I glanced back and saw what was lying on the mat, I was flabbergasted.

Again, I'm not sure whether this would be a safety issue or not. Also, this was the accelerator -- not the brake pedal. Therefore, I'm not presenting this as anything more than an instance of something breaking on the truck -- just as any of us are posting about things we're finding.

I don't think Alex misinterpreted or said anything incorrect in telling the story. I also believe that if someone wanted to test what happened (and could get permission from someone who doesn't care about having to replace their pedal :) they would be able to replicate what I had happen with very little force.
I'm a car enthusiast and go through more cars than I care to admit in public forum but.. I can confidently say that my [current] Bronco, RAM truck, and Tesla would not break-off with the same degree of "normal" force that it took to step out of the car with my foot catching the pedal slightly.
I think that alleging a "major defect" on something that has happened, as far as I can tell, 1x out of thousands of delivered trucks is not just a misrepresentation but flagrant sensationalism personally. That's ignoring the fact that holding up under lateral force isn't exactly a major use case for a gas pedal.
 

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CommodoreAmiga

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maybe a dumb question but why is the accelerator pedal attached from the top and not attached at the floor? i checked and all the vehicles i have its attached at the floor so that this type of "snag" would almost never happen.
I think a lot of euro vehicles use a bottom-hinged accelerator pedal. Most Asian vehicles use a top-hinged pedal. I’ve seen US domestics go both ways. Older vans were bottom-hinged, iirc, although most modern stuff is top-hinged.
 
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TheSasquatch

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User name checks out. :)

Definitely something to be aware of. Thanks for the report.

Now THAT was clever & funny. I hadn't even considered the implications of my disposition in this situation. Well Played. :)
 

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Not wanting to get into any debates here but -- I watched the YouTube video and everything he says is accurate.

I wish I could convey appropriately and that everyone would understand how "normally" I pulled my foot out of the truck. I didn't pulled abnormally hard or anything of the sort. I felt my shoe catch on something and assumed I had just bumped past a rubber pedal cover or something (didn't have in my mind at the time what the pedals looked like exactly of course). When I glanced back and saw what was lying on the mat, I was flabbergasted.

Again, I'm not sure whether this would be a safety issue or not. Also, this was the accelerator -- not the brake pedal. Therefore, I'm not presenting this as anything more than an instance of something breaking on the truck -- just as any of us are posting about things we're finding.

I don't think Alex misinterpreted or said anything incorrect in telling the story. I also believe that if someone wanted to test what happened (and could get permission from someone who doesn't care about having to replace their pedal :) they would be able to replicate what I had happen with very little force.
I'm a car enthusiast and go through more cars than I care to admit in public forum but.. I can confidently say that my [current] Bronco, RAM truck, and Tesla would not break-off with the same degree of "normal" force that it took to step out of the car with my foot catching the pedal slightly.
I guess I took how he said "rubber toe of shoe caught and it broke off" as a bit different than you explanation of wearing a 14 shoe and catching the back (which with a 14 shoe creates alot of torque I would say even at a lighter feeling force) and the front of shoe pulled it upward and broke it off. Maybe I was just caught up in all the sensationalism he uses. I am wearing thin on press and the lie by omission and out of context form of reporting that is so common now. My bad. You say he represented you completely and in context...I am good with it.
 

Dark-Fx

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Personally I'd rather the pedal break off than entrap my foot in an accident where the truck is on fire. But maybe I'm alone in that.

Sometimes safety conscience design can look like a potential defect under abuse it wasn't meant to take.
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