My observations from Sonoma Rivian test drive event

[CarterGee]

My partner Nick and my best friend Jess just wrapped up our test drive at the Sonoma Raceway and god damn... this truck is incredible. A couple of my quick observations:

• The sound is outrageously good. We bumped it to 4/5ths max volume and it was crazy good.
• Screen responsiveness was acceptable, and much better than I thought it was going to be. I'll upload a video.
• We hit 81 very quickly even though they only wanted me to go 60 ?
• Space is super good. Much more room than my 2016 4Runner - and in the back according to my copilots.
• They kinda very purposefully didn't have any of the tonneau covers working haha they were blocked by something in the bed on each truck.
• Seat heaters in the back left and right seats surprised my friend.
• The drive was sublime. Honestly. Jesus.

I'll answer questions if you have them! Sold my 4Runner yesterday so crossing my fingers really, really hard that my truck comes by end of November as promised!


Hi. Happy campers here

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[Administrator]

Adding a video (originally posted by @Babbuino) to give everyone a live vicarious view of the experience:

 

[kanundrum]

No Questions, just thanks for the write up as one of the major contributors here/reddit! I am hoping for your Nov Delivery window as well!

 

[SlaterGS]

Remind me how tall you are?

 

[BeanEW]

My wife and I went yesterday and just happened that we were in the same combination that we preordered (R1S)... Forest Green and Ocean Coast. Two things that popped out... the Ocean Coast is not as white; it is like gray which I think it is better for long term... and the center screen was very high def. The funnest part was going down the 35 degree hill.

 

[FLARIVIAN]

I'd like to get your take on the Forest Edge interior.

 

[Bumble1978]

My partner Nick and my best friend Jess just wrapped up our test drive at the Sonoma Raceway and god damn... this truck is incredible. A couple of my quick observations:

• The sound is outrageously good. We bumped it to 4/5ths max volume and it was crazy good.
• Screen responsiveness was acceptable, and much better than I thought it was going to be. I'll upload a video.
• We hit 81 very quickly even though they only wanted me to go 60 ?
• Space is super good. Much more room than my 2016 4Runner - and in the back according to my copilots.
• They kinda very purposefully didn't have any of the tonneau covers working haha they were blocked by something in the bed on each truck.
• Seat heaters in the back left and right seats surprised my friend.
• The drive was sublime. Honestly. Jesus.

I'll answer questions if you have them! Sold my 4Runner yesterday so crossing my fingers really, really hard that my truck comes by end of November as promised!


Hi. Happy campers here

Sounds like quite the religious experience. So stoked you and peeps had an awesome time. ???

 

[mwexler2]

In my earlier post where I showed the spare tire uncovered, I also saw the tonneau closed.
Definitely was working smoothly.

 

[Blur1t]

My partner Nick and my best friend Jess just wrapped up our test drive at the Sonoma Raceway and god damn... this truck is incredible. A couple of my quick observations:

• The sound is outrageously good. We bumped it to 4/5ths max volume and it was crazy good.
• Screen responsiveness was acceptable, and much better than I thought it was going to be. I'll upload a video.
• We hit 81 very quickly even though they only wanted me to go 60 ?
• Space is super good. Much more room than my 2016 4Runner - and in the back according to my copilots.
• They kinda very purposefully didn't have any of the tonneau covers working haha they were blocked by something in the bed on each truck.
• Seat heaters in the back left and right seats surprised my friend.
• The drive was sublime. Honestly. Jesus.

I'll answer questions if you have them! Sold my 4Runner yesterday so crossing my fingers really, really hard that my truck comes by end of November as promised!


Hi. Happy campers here

Great shot of the FE, man that looks completely awesome, I want to do that with Rivian Blue so bad. Thanks again for the info! Glad everyone is still so positive!

 

[Tim-in-CA]

I'd like to get your take on the Forest Edge interior.

I saw the Forest Edge interior on a Forest Green R1T at the Venice Hub. Honestly, it looked fantastic and I immediately changed my R1S from RivBlue/Black to this color combo. The green interior isn't really dark and contrasts nicely with the natural wood accents. Makes the vehicle look more luxurious.

 

[LaunchGreen]

Sold my 4Runner yesterday so crossing my fingers really, really hard that my truck comes by end of November as promised!

Good luck with that! We would all be nearly as excited as you!

And, if it doesn't happen, you'll get to enjoy all the people on here telling you that it wasn't a promise which is a close second, I think.

 

[Shzeph]

Hard to say if it means anything, but it’s week 2 of November and I’ve still not been informed of any delays! So that’s good

 

[LoneStar]

Hard to say if it means anything, but it’s week 2 of November and I’ve still not been informed of any delays! So that’s good

Are you taking the approach of not reaching out to your Guide proactively?
Going with the attitude of not asking may mean they won't change it. I get it. I would to.

 

[Shzeph]

I mean, not specifically? I asked on November 1st (was still on track). I’ll probably inquire again at the end of the week

 

[jffkm]

Was at the same event. Very similar observations.

• I went in worried about UI lag based on other comments but was very surprised. Slow UI's drive me nuts after getting used to modern phones so this would have been a deal breaker for me in a car with so few manual controls. Turns out, it's not bad at all ('17 Model 3 owner). There were only edge cases where it was noticeably slower (i.e. trying to aggressively, and artificially, zoom in and out on the map while scrolling). I think most people will be plenty happy. Worlds better than our chevy bolt, only slightly slower than the M3 in certain interaction situations. I'd give it an 80-85% score vs Tesla which is basically perfect interaction response.
• Acceleration had a different curve vs the M3 (guide didn't let me drop it into sport mode in order to conserve energy for other drivers later in the day). It lagged and then ramped quickly but only after a lot of pedal travel. The M3 is more linear and comes on sooner in pedal travel. They can probably tune this with software very easily (may already be tuned in sport mode). Didn't feel anywhere close to 3 seconds, but I didn't formally launch, this was in general purpose mode with 3 people, and we were going up hill. Still way faster than I'd ever really want to accelerate on a non-closed circuit course, so it's still overkill-fast. Only car that I've driven that felt substantially faster was the M3P and Taycan turbo s (...that was frighteningly fast and should never be driven that fast on a public road.).
• Accelerating in conserve mode is interesting. Still plenty fast but the hood pops up toward the sky so it feels like you're in a boat. They need to stiffen the rear dampers even if the motors are disengaged in these cases, should be a simple fix.
• UI is less intuitive than the M3 but it probably just takes some getting used to. Had to hunt around at different icons that weren't really clear for some controls
• Thank god there is an actual stalk for window wipers...I cannot tell you how bad of a design decision that was on the M3. I know of multiple people, personally, who have gotten in serious traffic accidents trying to poke around on the M3 screen to adjust wiper speed vs. using a stalk.
• Rear seat space was not as big as I had hoped. I'm 5'10" and sit pretty close to the steering wheel for control. My daughter (6) was in the rear seat and said it felt pretty similar to the M3 (as evidenced by the shoeprints left on the back of the seat). For reference, we owned a subaru forester and that had substantially more room in the back seats. It's totally fine for sitting but not even close to an F150-level amount of rear seat room.
• Cameras were really bad/strange but I am guessing this was a bug that will be patched soon (based on other reviewers experiences). For some parts of the drive it was literally 640x480 and i couldn't tell what i was looking at in any level of detail. (think...minecraft, but in the 80's.) Color, contrast, etc. were all very bad. I saw, for a brief moment, that the cameras could do high res with better contrast so I think I just had a bad unit? strange that it would go back and forth between really bad and decent. Some sort of compression issue, likely solvable with software again.
• Fit and finish was way better than the M3.

Overall really liked it. R1S holder and 100% plan on purchasing. It did make me appreciate the M3. Yes, there are fit an finish issues with the M3, but as a vehicle, it has incredible value. The M3 has great acceleration, safety, handling...just squeaks a lot and parts fall off here and there. My M3 came with a set of giant (3/4" diameter) machine bolts that were loosely rolling under my driver seat and the turn indicator didn't work right out of the lot. I took it back and they never could figure out where those bolts came from (hopefully nothing major but they were large so I was afraid it was structural). and the turn signal had to be replaced 3x (still doesn't register sometimes). I love it still in the end. 0 major maintenance. looking forward to the r1s.

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