Outside temperature fiction

[jwanderson88]

Something I don't get is that nobody seems to care about the outside temperature. The way I understand it, the thermometer is under one of the mirrors. It's a bad location, because you can't get a reading of the temperature of the air. There is a number on the central display that is supposed to be the outside temperature and it is WILDLY inaccurate; lots of times it isn't even close. Other car makers do it. Or maybe I should ask the question, are any car thermometers accurate and is it even possible to get accurate outside air temperature in any vehicle? Can you get the temperature of the air and not something else? One thing I think it is really important to know is when the temperature gets below freezing or maybe close to freezing. That means the road starts icing up. Is there a solution to this, or does anybody even care?

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[rpo]

None will be accurate 1-4 feet above pavement....ever. Even when driving 70 MPH, it will read high because of the heat coming off the road surface during a sunny day.

 

[Cycliste]

Yeah, you can really feel the heat radiating off the road when cycling.

 

[jwanderson88]

Maybe take the number off the display because it is false and misleading and meaningless. Instead replace it with an icy road warning indicator, which is what you need to know anyway, and might actually be somewhat accurate when you get around freezing or below.

 

[bhlackey]

My T is so bad. Even if others are also not accurate, they seem to be a LOT closer than the R1T. It can be 15 degrees higher than reality.

 

[rpo]

My T is so bad. Even if others are also not accurate, they seem to be a LOT closer than the R1T. It can be 15 degrees higher than reality.

Are you parked or not moving when it is 15 degrees high? That's the only explanation that would make sense, and no thermometer will be accurate sitting right above hot pavement in those circumstances.

 

[bhlackey]

It will stay 10 degrees higher even when driving for 15 minutes getting the window blowing.

 

[emoore]

I don’t see much difference than any other car. Reads way high in the summer while parked and then back down closer to normal but still high. If I want yo know the closest actual temp I’ll open up the weather app on my phone. Would be cool if the Rivian map would display local weather.

 

[HeyEllwood]

I remember when I picked our R1S in Texas and at one point it said 127F and I was like “okay cool I guess I’ll bake to death”.

it’s like aggressively false. This may seem kinda craaazzzzy but here is my idea:

The car has 5g or whatever. Why not just link the temp number to a weather application and when I tap the temperate it pops out or drops down like a phone app with a graphic that displays the weather. Can easily edit it/toggle to show 3 or 5 days worth if need be. Or just the day.

Feel like I should mock this up in Photoshop or something and send it to RJ.

it honestly can’t be too hard to make this happen.

 

[supernu8]

There are products out there that will read true road surface temperatures. Salt trucks etc use them during winter maintenance. You could get one and bolt it to your vehicle if you really need to have that precision. For the added cost, there's no reason for an OEM to put them on a normal consumer car.

Instead we get a ambient temp sensor that gives a rough measurement when the vehicle is in motion. Good enough for most people's curiosity.
Rivian could have done better by putting in a better location, I can only speculate that there was some cost or design tradeoff that ended up with this specific design.

 

[jfoonly]

My R1S is also 10-15F above reality, even on dirt roads and/or
cloudy days. After sitting overnight on grass in the mountains, my handhelds said 42 while the car claimed 55.

If it's consistent or easily modelled I guess they could apply a better software calibration. I'm not holding my breath or trusting it though.

 

[JamuJoe]

My T is so bad. Even if others are also not accurate, they seem to be a LOT closer than the R1T. It can be 15 degrees higher than reality.

Check the temp after the truck has been in your garage for several hours, comparing to a good outside thermometer in the same space. Mine is pretty close. Outside, road heat and direct sun on vehicle surfaces will have an effect.

 

[kyunam]

I noticed it's way off since day 1 so I ignored since then.

 

[solaskaze]

...One thing I think it is really important to know is when the temperature gets below freezing or maybe close to freezing.

That is the most likely use, and here most vehicles do just fine: you should see a little snowflake show up warning you about icy conditions, and, it is intentionally premature: this give plenty of margin for things like variation in pavement, altitude (as you drive up the mountain), etc..... before you hit the actual ice.
Pavement temperatures can be 40 to 60 degrees warmer than air temperatures.

 

[Blueassassin]

I would love a weather app/ radar in the car you know how nice that would be on a road trip.

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