OPINION: What to name Rivian Launch Mode?

[kylealden]

Nobody asked for this, but I worked myself up into a good old fashioned soapbox rant.

If the above is a little salty I think it's just because I'm sick of EVs competing on 0-60 times like it's the whole ballgame. I bought a Tesla M3P and I'll admit it was awesome for a while, but the novelty of "fast to 60" wears out fast and you start to realize that most of that is free with the powertrain and a few good design decisions.

Nobody is impressed by your Model 3 at the drag strip; they worked hard to get their times. The R1T or Hummer or whatever else will be the same after a few novelty laps. Nobody did anything besides paying sticker price to achieve those numbers.

So I'm pretty disillusioned by manufacturers catering to the lazy boy racer crowd by dogpiling the low-3s. Yes, it's objectively fast.* But am I supposed to be impressed? Call me when you invented a custom supercapacitor battery pack to break two seconds in your homebuilt EV. Otherwise we're just waving paychecks around and congratulating each other for stomping the "go" pedal.'

(This is all why I'm much more impressed with the R1T's handling chops than the 0-60 number, by the way. It reflects some serious and relatively unprecedented innovation in this segment, not just slapping a big ol' set of motors on it.)

*(So fast that I'm a little scared by how ubiquitous it's getting. I now know parents whose teenagers are learning to drive in sedans with an 11-second quarter mile. Um. And we're not far off from all the other cars coming off the stoplight having a 3-4 second 0-60; I like being able to confidently pull out in front if I'm trying to beat a merge, but it gets dangerous if it's an actual competition.)

Sponsored

 

[ja_kub_sz]

Why do we need a launch mode? Why can't it just give you everything it's got any time you floor it?

If some people want to be able to floor it and not have the vehicle go fast, how about just having configurable max-torque, max-HP, max g-force, and max top speed settings associated with each drive mode? No silly names, numbers with real units: HP, ft-lbs, MPH, G's.

And for bonus points, password protect these settings so vallet / teenager can't have too much fun.

And we think launch modes are bad?

Imagine this! Pay top dollar for 5 seconds at a time. Wonder how long you have to wait to goose out another 5 seconds? Not to me, this is totally unacceptable.

"the Mach-E GT only ever gets 5 consecutive seconds of full-power, which ultimately makes this incredibly disappointing to drive after a while"

 

[jjwolf120]

List of fastest land animals, excluding cheetahs.
Pronghorn
Springbok
Quarterhorse
Wildebeest
Lion
Blackbuck
Hare (maybe tortoise mode also)
Greyhound

 

[mwexler2]

Jack Rabbit Mode?

 

[ironpig]

Nobody asked for this, but I worked myself up into a good old fashioned soapbox rant.

If the above is a little salty I think it's just because I'm sick of EVs competing on 0-60 times like it's the whole ballgame. I bought a Tesla M3P and I'll admit it was awesome for a while, but the novelty of "fast to 60" wears out fast and you start to realize that most of that is free with the powertrain and a few good design decisions.

Nobody is impressed by your Model 3 at the drag strip; they worked hard to get their times. The R1T or Hummer or whatever else will be the same after a few novelty laps. Nobody did anything besides paying sticker price to achieve those numbers.

So I'm pretty disillusioned by manufacturers catering to the lazy boy racer crowd by dogpiling the low-3s. Yes, it's objectively fast.* But am I supposed to be impressed? Call me when you invented a custom supercapacitor battery pack to break two seconds in your homebuilt EV. Otherwise we're just waving paychecks around and congratulating each other for stomping the "go" pedal.'

(This is all why I'm much more impressed with the R1T's handling chops than the 0-60 number, by the way. It reflects some serious and relatively unprecedented innovation in this segment, not just slapping a big ol' set of motors on it.)

*(So fast that I'm a little scared by how ubiquitous it's getting. I now know parents whose teenagers are learning to drive in sedans with an 11-second quarter mile. Um. And we're not far off from all the other cars coming off the stoplight having a 3-4 second 0-60; I like being able to confidently pull out in front if I'm trying to beat a merge, but it gets dangerous if it's an actual competition.)

Couldn't agree more. If you want to slam your head back against your seat over an over you can buy a Plaid Model S, but that wears out real quick. Soon you just want it to turn better and for the suspension to eat potholes nicely.

I would like a "Chill Mode" like my Tesla has. I'm not buying a truck to launch it. I am much more interested in what kind of interesting and efficient driving dynamics they can add via software.

 

[JeremyMKE]

Cmon. I gotta be the first to say it?

"Soon" Mode


FYI I like the idea of a launch mode in that the vehicle can drop certain criteria to make acceleration the priority when I want it to be. In normal driving acceleration is only one factor in the logic of the system.

 

[Jabbahop]

Employees first mode

 

[DuckTruck]

Well on the heels of the Motor Trend truck of the year 2022 news, I was just thinking about in the future for over-the-air updates what do people think the name should be for the Rivian based launch mode for its vehicles?

Tesla has a Cheetah Mode, what would people here on the forums think a good launch mode name would be?

How about "Ready....Jump!" mode. We can just call it "RJ" mode. ?

 

[trmckin1]

Ricky Bobby mode since everyone just wants to go fast...

 

[Greyrm]

But if it makes you "go fast" faster then I'm all for it. ?

But going faster then means setting special modes etc - will be used once when you find an empty road and you first get the truck - no way you want to mess around with all that at lights etc. And the limitations will still be the tires / surface etc. I had a Porsche that did that - used it once and never used it again. My passengers thought it was plenty fast in normal driving ;-)

 

[ja_kub_sz]

How about "Ready....Jump!" mode. We can just call it "RJ" mode. ?

Not bad

 

[Lmirafuente]

We need questions like this to help pass the time to get our R1‘s s00n! Especially for us who have been waiting since 2018…..

so with that:

Warp mode​

”Make it so” mode​

Flash mode​

Mach X mode​

Silly fast mode​

Nitro mode​

Sonic Boom mode​

…​

​

might as well have fun while we are in wait mode….

 

[lefkonj]

Launch mode is perfectly fine for me. that is what every other car company in the world calls it except Tesla. I don't need tricks and gimmicks just a great vehicle delivered to my house (maybe tomorrow, only playing)

 

[cc84]

Allow name change per individual vehicle via User Preference......

Hi-Ho Silver!

 

[Jarico75]

So I'm pretty disillusioned by manufacturers catering to the lazy boy racer crowd by dogpiling the low-3s. Yes, it's objectively fast.* But am I supposed to be impressed? Call me when you invented a custom supercapacitor battery pack to break two seconds in your homebuilt EV. Otherwise we're just waving paychecks around and congratulating each other for stomping the "go" pedal.'

*(So fast that I'm a little scared by how ubiquitous it's getting. I now know parents whose teenagers are learning to drive in sedans with an 11-second quarter mile. Um. And we're not far off from all the other cars coming off the stoplight having a 3-4 second 0-60; I like being able to confidently pull out in front if I'm trying to beat a merge, but it gets dangerous if it's an actual competition.)

I understand where you are coming from, but let's remember that a lot of the people building fast cars for the track are waiving their paychecks around too. It is not an inexpensive hobby and the percentage of racers doing their own work to build out a car is not as high as it used to be.

The teenager thing is real. I have a 15 year old and am terrified of him driving anything. We have a tesla that allows us to set a top speed, but it doesn't have "parental controls" that allow us to throttle acceleration. He'll be getting my Camry hybrid.

Sponsored