Joe schmoe
Well-Known Member
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- #1
Yesterday I picked up my R1S, ordered 10/6/2019. It wasn't -exactly- the truck I ordered, but my guide offered it to me If I was willing to travel to pick it up. My preorder was for LA Silver on 20" AT and this truck is Glacier White but otherwise identical. I'd waffled between GW, Limestone and LA Silver anyway, so I'm happy with the color.
I'm tired this morning after a long day of travel, but will post some brief thoughts. I'm happy to expand later if anyone is interested.
Observations in no particular order:
I'm delighted with the vehicle overall, and like others impressed with what Rivian has accomplished in a relatively short time. My criticisms are mostly "nit-picking" and overall I'm very satisfied.
I picked the truck up at the Detroit, MI service center. If you look on Rivian's website as of yesterday, there doesn't seem to be one there (just "coming soon") but I can assure you it is there and looks busy. 13250 N Haggerty road in Plymouth.
The only downsides of picking up there were that I live 800 miles away in Memphis, TN, and my delivery appointment coincided with a winter storm warning threatening high winds and 4-6" of snow.
I brought a friend to share driving/navigating chores. We rushed through the delivery a bit (our request) to make it out ahead of the worst of the weather, but they made it clear that they were happy to spend as much time as we wanted to explain things. The process was smooth, and they loaded us up with water bottles and snacks for the trip.
Overall build quality seems good, although it was cold, drizzling, and -very- windy so I haven't yet spent a lot of time going over everything. Panel gaps mostly good except for the rear hatch which really doesn't fit very well. The compressor hose won't fit on the nipple because the hole in the plastic trim isn't centered (others have reported this as well).
I was pleased to find a 12V outlet in the frunk, and two magnets for those keeping score.
We left about 9:30 local under ominous looking skies with the wind howling out of the east. 90% charge and 16 miles on the odometer.
First leg was to the EA chargers in Dayton, OH in a gusty crosswind and extremely heavy rain. First stall could only manage 40 or so kw, the second about 130kw, so we were stuck there a bit. The EA app and charger interface was buggy and took several attempts to work, which was annoying with rain, temps in the 30s, and way too much wind to use an umbrella.
Others have written about this, but the EA network needs help, and public charging needs to improve for more widespread EV adoption. My friend and I are both long term Tesla owners and tech savvy. We had only one charging session in 800 miles that worked exactly as it should. the others required restarting, moving between stalls, and we only got full rated charge half the time.
The remaining stops were in Louisville KY (good session), Nashville, TN (started OK for 5 minutes, then dropped to 60 kw, we left after getting enough to get to Jackson, TN. The stop in Jackson was only necessary because we didn't charge past 60% in Nashville at the slow rate. Jackson worked fine, but the "350kw" EA charger maxed out at about 130kw.
We never charged to more than 90%, and were able to make 200+ mile legs in occasionally very heavy rain and winds. For at least 5-6 hours the wind was almost directly on the nose. We were tracking the weather reports (METARS) at local airports, and the worst we saw was directly on the nose at 37 gusting 53.
Most driving was in the mid 70s, but traffic and visibility often slowed us into the 30s and occasionally traffic came to a dead stop. There were a couple of slowdowns due to wrecks, floods lanes, and trees down.
It was definitely an adventure, with few pictures because weather really wasn't cooperating, but I'm very happy to have it tucked safely into my garage. It looks positively enormous next to ny wife's GLC43.
A few more observations:
I like the headlights a lot. Great beam pattern and the auto high beams work well. Auto wipers too, and I like the way the rear wiper is implemented.
The internet connectivity/mobile hotspot worked very well. My friend works as a software engineer, and spent much of the trip in the right seat working remotely with a stable ssh connection into his server at work. He was impressed, and it was much more stable than the hotspot on his Android phone.
The Spotify App is buggy, but we eventually got it working. Phone Bluetooth works well, USB would be better, as others have noted.
CarPlay or Android Auto would be great. The Rivian Nav is way worse than Apple Maps, Google Maps, or even the system in my wife's 2020 Mercedes. I think the latest OTA update addresses this somewhat, but my car is still a couple of iterations behind.
Another couple of observations: We saw two F150 lightnings that had been picked up that day at different chargers, not another Rivian except at the service center.
The Rivian Nav and app are -years- behind Tesla. Simply awful in comparison. I know they will improve, but we were using phone apps.
The Rivian Highway Assist is as good IMHO as Tesla AP1, with the exception of only working on mapped roads, and the lack of lane changes. It is better (again with the exception of lane changes and "mapped roads") than the system in my wife's 2020 Mercedes.
I'm tired this morning after a long day of travel, but will post some brief thoughts. I'm happy to expand later if anyone is interested.
Observations in no particular order:
I'm delighted with the vehicle overall, and like others impressed with what Rivian has accomplished in a relatively short time. My criticisms are mostly "nit-picking" and overall I'm very satisfied.
I picked the truck up at the Detroit, MI service center. If you look on Rivian's website as of yesterday, there doesn't seem to be one there (just "coming soon") but I can assure you it is there and looks busy. 13250 N Haggerty road in Plymouth.
The only downsides of picking up there were that I live 800 miles away in Memphis, TN, and my delivery appointment coincided with a winter storm warning threatening high winds and 4-6" of snow.
I brought a friend to share driving/navigating chores. We rushed through the delivery a bit (our request) to make it out ahead of the worst of the weather, but they made it clear that they were happy to spend as much time as we wanted to explain things. The process was smooth, and they loaded us up with water bottles and snacks for the trip.
Overall build quality seems good, although it was cold, drizzling, and -very- windy so I haven't yet spent a lot of time going over everything. Panel gaps mostly good except for the rear hatch which really doesn't fit very well. The compressor hose won't fit on the nipple because the hole in the plastic trim isn't centered (others have reported this as well).
I was pleased to find a 12V outlet in the frunk, and two magnets for those keeping score.
We left about 9:30 local under ominous looking skies with the wind howling out of the east. 90% charge and 16 miles on the odometer.
First leg was to the EA chargers in Dayton, OH in a gusty crosswind and extremely heavy rain. First stall could only manage 40 or so kw, the second about 130kw, so we were stuck there a bit. The EA app and charger interface was buggy and took several attempts to work, which was annoying with rain, temps in the 30s, and way too much wind to use an umbrella.
Others have written about this, but the EA network needs help, and public charging needs to improve for more widespread EV adoption. My friend and I are both long term Tesla owners and tech savvy. We had only one charging session in 800 miles that worked exactly as it should. the others required restarting, moving between stalls, and we only got full rated charge half the time.
The remaining stops were in Louisville KY (good session), Nashville, TN (started OK for 5 minutes, then dropped to 60 kw, we left after getting enough to get to Jackson, TN. The stop in Jackson was only necessary because we didn't charge past 60% in Nashville at the slow rate. Jackson worked fine, but the "350kw" EA charger maxed out at about 130kw.
We never charged to more than 90%, and were able to make 200+ mile legs in occasionally very heavy rain and winds. For at least 5-6 hours the wind was almost directly on the nose. We were tracking the weather reports (METARS) at local airports, and the worst we saw was directly on the nose at 37 gusting 53.
Most driving was in the mid 70s, but traffic and visibility often slowed us into the 30s and occasionally traffic came to a dead stop. There were a couple of slowdowns due to wrecks, floods lanes, and trees down.
It was definitely an adventure, with few pictures because weather really wasn't cooperating, but I'm very happy to have it tucked safely into my garage. It looks positively enormous next to ny wife's GLC43.
A few more observations:
I like the headlights a lot. Great beam pattern and the auto high beams work well. Auto wipers too, and I like the way the rear wiper is implemented.
The internet connectivity/mobile hotspot worked very well. My friend works as a software engineer, and spent much of the trip in the right seat working remotely with a stable ssh connection into his server at work. He was impressed, and it was much more stable than the hotspot on his Android phone.
The Spotify App is buggy, but we eventually got it working. Phone Bluetooth works well, USB would be better, as others have noted.
CarPlay or Android Auto would be great. The Rivian Nav is way worse than Apple Maps, Google Maps, or even the system in my wife's 2020 Mercedes. I think the latest OTA update addresses this somewhat, but my car is still a couple of iterations behind.
Another couple of observations: We saw two F150 lightnings that had been picked up that day at different chargers, not another Rivian except at the service center.
The Rivian Nav and app are -years- behind Tesla. Simply awful in comparison. I know they will improve, but we were using phone apps.
The Rivian Highway Assist is as good IMHO as Tesla AP1, with the exception of only working on mapped roads, and the lack of lane changes. It is better (again with the exception of lane changes and "mapped roads") than the system in my wife's 2020 Mercedes.
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