R1S delivery happening today (to employee)

[R1Sky Business]

I went by there today hoping there might be one on the lot but nothing I could see.

This was the lightest I have seen that in a long time, there were 4 R1Ts in the front and 3 on the side, no clue about the back or inside but the last few times I went by before this there were 24+ vehicles I could see.

Beginning of the 3rd quarter

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[kanundrum]

It was Brian

 

[AFA7886]

My thoughts as well as I’ve been there a couple of times. Another thing I thought was interesting is that when I dropped off my truck on Tuesday I ended up sharing an Uber with a guy that had dropped off his truck as well. Try a out he works in battery tech it HQ in Irvine. I was curious when I picked up my truck and asked my service tech what the percentage of trucks being serviced were employee owned and he said like 80-90%. I was quite shocked as I had thought that deliveries to non employees had increased a lot recently but looks like I may be way off. Hopefully that will change sooner than later for those waiting.

 

[Longhorngirl]

It was Brian

Forest green and the dark sport goes so well together.

 

[R1Sky Business]

Forest green and the dark sport goes so well together.

Well deserving!!!!

 

[Mygrain]

I was curious when I picked up my truck and asked my service tech what the percentage of trucks being serviced were employee owned and he said like 80-90%. I was quite shocked as I had thought that deliveries to non employees had increased a lot recently but looks like I may be way off.

I can believe 80-90%.

When it comes to priority for customer deliveries, living near a Rivian corporate facility (e.g., Irvine or Normal) may work against you. I suspect that the Costa Mesa and Normal service centers are overwhelmed in their service shops, considering the number of employee-owned trucks using those facilities. Employee-owned trucks are early production with more problems. And employees will be at least as fussy about quality problems as the rest of us.

The June 30 emails mention that Service Infrastructure will affect delivery priority. They want to "provide the full ownership experience to Rivian owners from day one." We assume that living hundreds of miles from the nearest SC is a negative factor for delivery priority. But living near Irvine or Normal may be just as negative if 80-90% of service capacity is already committed to employee vehicles.

 

[Zoidz]

I can answer this with an example you may relate to. Grain augers!

I worked for a company that made big red grain augers(and some blue ones), first builds would go to employees and/or hand picked customers for extended testing. Warts and all.

it is a quality improvement/test program disguised as a perk.

Agree, this is quite common on manufacturing startups. It provides quick feedback from people with a vested interest in helping to improve the product.

Over the years, I've been given, or purchased at a huge discount, all sorts of pre or early production products. One memorable one was cases and cases of "the very best" chocolate bars at 10% of retail price. The customer was having problems with the chocolate bars releasing from the mold, and bar wrapping machine problems, so they were blemished, or poorly wrapped. My kids were always asking when I was going back to that plant, lol.

 

[timesinks]

I'd like to understand how the employee-owned vehicles will improve the quality of vehicles for the rest of us.

Is the goal simply to give the factory some practice manufacturing these vehicles? Or is there a system whereby employees can rapidly communicate quality issues to engineers, or the factory floor, or Rivian's suppliers? Is there a system whereby Rivian's analysts and engineers can rapidly interrogate all employee-owners to determine how common or rare a reported issue is? If there are such systems, how are service centers involved in communications?

Or are the employee deliveries really just perks that are being marketed as a quality improvement program?

We got one of the first non-employee R1Ts in March. It had been built in January when they were doing employee deliveries. Somebody overlooked the fact that the employee delivery program welcome letter was left in our frunk.

The letter contained directions for accessing their internal-facing tool to report problems and feedback. (Login protected so not available to us... plus the rules for social media posts, etc.) So yes, it is about identifying problems and hopefully fixing them.

Some things crop up a small percentage of the time and just wouldn't be caught by a tiny pilot run for test drive vehicles. Some problems don't manifest until you start building at scale with the automation.

 

[Matty J]

I can believe 80-90%.

When it comes to priority for customer deliveries, living near a Rivian corporate facility (e.g., Irvine or Normal) may work against you. I suspect that the Costa Mesa and Normal service centers are overwhelmed in their service shops, considering the number of employee-owned trucks using those facilities. Employee-owned trucks are early production with more problems. And employees will be at least as fussy about quality problems as the rest of us.

The June 30 emails mention that Service Infrastructure will affect delivery priority. They want to "provide the full ownership experience to Rivian owners from day one." We assume that living hundreds of miles from the nearest SC is a negative factor for delivery priority. But living near Irvine or Normal may be just as negative if 80-90% of service capacity is already committed to employee vehicles.

I believe this to be the case. We’re in Los Angeles. Originally March/April now October/December. Day one reservation LG.

Most others with later order and later original delivery estimates, now with Aug/Sept are not in SoCal. Guide said it was not config. So I assume it must be that service centers are near capacity and they want to spread out the R1S customer deliveries in less populated areas.

 

[EarlyAdptr]

I went by there today hoping there might be one on the lot but nothing I could see.

This was the lightest I have seen that in a long time, there were 4 R1Ts in the front and 3 on the side, no clue about the back or inside but the last few times I went by before this there were 24+ vehicles I could see.

I also went by my local service center yesterday (Bellevue WA) and like you, it was light on trucks (maybe 15-20) and no R1S' to be seen from the outside.

 

[KeithPleas]

I also went by my local service center yesterday (Bellevue WA) and like you, it was light on trucks (maybe 15-20) and no R1S' to be seen from the outside.

I was there earlier this week to look at colors with my wife (expecting to have to make a quick decision next month for an early R1S). I would say there were quite a few more than 20...did you see the upper lot? There was an Amazon van there - first I've seen. We were allowed to stand at the edge of the back row and saw a Red Canyon about 100' feet away but they wouldn't let us walk down to look at it. We had recently switched to Limestone but...in person...it didn't grab us so I switched to El Cap.

We also got a chance to look at Black Mountain interior in person and...it was dark. Our First Mile was in FE and I had originally wanted OC...had switched to BM in hopes of getting earlier delivery. Service folks said there were lots of FE coming through but they hadn't seen a single OC yet. So I also switched to FE interior.

 

[R1Tims]

I'd like to understand how the employee-owned vehicles will improve the quality of vehicles for the rest of us.

Is the goal simply to give the factory some practice manufacturing these vehicles? Or is there a system whereby employees can rapidly communicate quality issues to engineers, or the factory floor, or Rivian's suppliers? Is there a system whereby Rivian's analysts and engineers can rapidly interrogate all employee-owners to determine how common or rare a reported issue is? If there are such systems, how are service centers involved in communications?

Or are the employee deliveries really just perks that are being marketed as a quality improvement program?

Migrain, The answer is yes to all but your last statement on perks.

• Yes they are making sure builds are good (practice)
• YES, There is a system to provide feedback, to all you mentioned.
• No it is not just an employee "perk".

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