Official: RIVIAN MEMBERSHIP Announced [1 year free trial beginning at day of delivery]

[Mjhirsch78]

Unlimited free charging at RAN chargers seems like it will likely require a lot of data of usage to assure it is not a money sink for them.

Other than that, the rest of the features from membership could easily be like full self-driving subscription in a Tesla: monthly for features you use while on the trail or doing certain things for that season.

When they no longer have repairs and service as a major money flow, the companies producing new electric cars have leaned into subscription services. For better or worse, this will assure they have an incentive to keep improving all vehicles.

No reason to get up in arms until we know what the actual features look like and how the system will actually work in our vehicles rather than our imaginations.

Sponsored

 

[PastyPilgrim]

Unlimited free charging at RAN chargers seems like it will likely require a lot of data of usage to assure it is not a money sink for them.

If the service is sufficiently diverse (which it sounds like it is), I suspect that it'd be hard for them to lose money on free RAN in the aggregate. Like including data, drive modes, in-vehicle content, etc. means a lot of Rivian owners will subscribe, but I'd be surprised if most subscribers took advantage of routine RAN charging when charging at home is so much more convenient. Kind of like how Amazon prime would burn a hole in Amazon's pocket if you used the service to it's fullest, but most people only sign up for a few components that are relevant to them.

Besides, isn't Rivian focusing on putting RAN between cities and in adventure locations? Not sure I'd want to climb a mountain just to get free juice, lol. But some lucky souls that live on those mountains will make out like bandits.

 

[Mjhirsch78]

Not sure I'd want to climb a mountain just to get free juice, lol.

“Where you going this weekend?”
“Top of Mount Rainier”
”Cool! Lifelong dream?“
”Nope. Just charging my truck.”

 

[PastyPilgrim]

“Where you going this weekend?”
“Top of Mount Rainier”
”Cool! Lifelong dream?“
”Nope. Just charging my truck.”

That whole month long TAT expedition they did wasn't to put the vehicle through it's paces, that poor MotorTrend reviewer just wanted a free charge ?.

 

[tomis916]

If I can import .GPX tracks I'll subscribe.

I'm not sure how much I'd pay for it, but the ability to load gpx tracks would be nice. Even if you didn't get the SoC info (which I don't find surprising). It sounded like the Rivian engineers loaded the track as a one-off favor for the MotorTrend crew.

 

[crashmtb]

This is also a bit concerning.

Sounds like our $80k trucks may only get partial functionality, unless you pay even more in perpetuity. Literally HATE that kind of business model on vehicles.

Everything is a subscription based service now. Which is why I’m starting a subscription service to manage all your subscription services…

 

[Scott]

I am in your camp for this in the traditional ICE way we have all been in, however, when I talked with RJ...there is a concept of the Rivian "Digital Trail" where you can go to your favorite fishing spot and map that on the Rivian. You can then share that digital trail to your friends or Rivian community, so that your friends or Rivian owners can get to that spot on their own too. That is where the community starts to come into play. Granted you may not want to share your favorite fishing spot, but you may want to share trails that are breathtaking. (and btw, that could be autonomous driving to your spot so you can enjoy the journey)

Another scenario...what if you lost something on your adventure or hunting trip, and wanted to trace back where you have been to try and locate that missing item....the Rivian Navigation/Map would be able to do that pretty well.

Just another way to look at it, and to see, what could come.... OTA and apps/features are endless.

I view that as a separate concern, and it would be a reason to use their provided navigation and subscription. And If i wanted to use that feature I am fine with paying for it. However, I just want the option to use my tethered cell phone for music and navigation. Tesla and Rivian don't exclude carplay because it is a burden to include it or because it would lessen the user experience (although that is what they will claim), they exclude them for 2 reasons:
1. They can make a revenue stream by doing so
2. They want that connection online at all time so they can have access to your data to train AI with, and if they can get you to pay for the connection sending over your data, all the better.


In the end, I prefer choice. They want me to pay extra for a monthly service? Great, make it so good that I WANT to give them that money and not use carplay. But I already have a cell phone and apple music, I would rather use those than pay for yet another set of monthly fees.

Side note, most standalone gps devices can store your route in this manner, and plenty of phone tracking apps also will do that as well (although I don't know if most cell phone gps's are quite accurate enough). So it doesn't have to be a walled garden to support these feature. Also autonomous driving taking you down a community mapped off road trail is a LOOONG way off. It is unlikely that we will still own these first gen Rivians by the time that technology is here.

I will also say, that while these are my first posts on this forum, I am not angry or upset about this. It is just a general trend that I think is bad for the consumer. A few years ago Adobe made photoshop only available via a subscription as well, and I was just as annoyed by that. I much prefer up front payments over monthly fees.

In this case if navigation updates came constantly and worked as well as google maps or the like, and I can stream music from my phone over bluetooth, I also likely won't care. But if I have to pay ANYTHING per month to have basic navigation in my car when it is on my phone for free I will be annoyed.

 

[Craigins]

What scared me with talks of beta updates and 4g lte connection was if Rivian went the Alexa route and suddenly turned each of its vehicles into a LoRa hub.

Thankfully I dug up the fcc post from awhile ago and didn't see the LoRa band mentioned in there.

 

[E.S.]

Sidenote: Now at least it's confirmed ATT 4G as the service provider.

It also opens up the question: Will AT&T provide a (discount or special) program for individuals that will have a Rivan and gravitate towards AT&T for cellular service (or already have one)? I have Sprint and since they got bought out by T-mobile, their service went right to the commode. Been looking to upgrade to AT&T and this would be one heck of an incentive if they have a Rivian - AT&T plan.

 

[Bobthebuilder352]

This is also a bit concerning.

Sounds like our $80k trucks may only get partial functionality, unless you pay even more in perpetuity. Literally HATE that kind of business model on vehicles.

Well Amazon is a large investor so I suppose this was inevitable. Still buying one for now.

 

[Autolycus]

Well Amazon is a large investor so I suppose this was inevitable. Still buying one for now.

You really can't blame Amazon for this. Unfortunately this is just the way of the world now. Any software that regularly provides new features has moved to a subscription model. Even some that don't add new features have gone there if you want basic bug fixes.

 

[dfx]

If the service is sufficiently diverse (which it sounds like it is), I suspect that it'd be hard for them to lose money on free RAN in the aggregate. Like including data, drive modes, in-vehicle content, etc. means a lot of Rivian owners will subscribe, but I'd be surprised if most subscribers took advantage of routine RAN charging when charging at home is so much more convenient. Kind of like how Amazon prime would burn a hole in Amazon's pocket if you used the service to it's fullest, but most people only sign up for a few components that are relevant to them.

Besides, isn't Rivian focusing on putting RAN between cities and in adventure locations? Not sure I'd want to climb a mountain just to get free juice, lol. But some lucky souls that live on those mountains will make out like bandits.

Agree completely. I've had a Model S with unlimited charging for 7 years and have only used Superchargers on trips. The convenience of charging at home is hard to beat

 

[Bumble1978]

Because everyone is still freaking out 11 pages later...

 

[AdamsFan1983]

You really can't blame Amazon for this. Unfortunately this is just the way of the world now. Any software that regularly provides new features has moved to a subscription model. Even some that don't add new features have gone there if you want basic bug fixes.

I would argue that is not the case, since the software that literally wrote the book on over the air updates providing new functionality, iOS, does not employ a subscription model for future updates.

 

[R_1_T]

I would argue that is not the case, since the software that literally wrote the book on over the air updates providing new functionality, iOS, does not employ a subscription model for future updates.

They also don't update devices for the duration of the expected service life of a vehicle. In addition, Apple isn't paying for the cell bandwidth to perform the updates like Rivian would be.

Sponsored