Rants and Raves after 2 months of Rivian R1T ownership [DISCLAIMER: Unauthorized feedback from non-owner]

[sierraskier]

My level of patience for my delivery window just increased exponentially.

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[SlaterGS]

It seems like the smarter and more communicative they are, the hungrier they get. I really prefer an actual keys to unlock the door. Unlocking the door physically would wake up the car as well. I would take the wrist band and card as backup but would like an external button to wake up the car in locked mode to enable their use. That way the car does not have to waste juice always listening for commands. I don't mind a little inconvenience to save that 5 mile a day at all. I have nothing against intelligence, the problem is when they are not as smart as they think they are. If I sound like an old geezer, it is because I am one.

I think you nailed it with your first sentence as far as power consumption, but you can rip my key FOB out of my cold dead fingers before I go back to unlocking my door with a physical key ?

 

[cmiller]

Bugs and issues are to be expected with any new vehicle. Hell, ford has been making vehicles for a long time and the new bronco has engine failures with the 2.7. Hopefully they can work the bugs out of the software and that the phantom draining is addressed

 

[Temerarius]

Most of this... actually does not worry me that much. Most of it seems software oriented, which improved over time (and generally is a great deal easier and cheaper to fix versus a hardware issue).

Really, the only thing that caught my eye was "Trim peeling". Panel gaps and alignment actually doesn't bug me much unless it's egregious. However, shit peeling/falling off my $70-$90k truck... is an issue.

I'm kinda glad I am sticking to the Max pack though and am a year away from delivery, gives them lots of time to figure out the fiddly bits.

 

[MountainBikeDude]

One little tidbit I got after just doing another read through of the R1T manual, is that the center console charging pad IS CAPABLE of charging up to two phones simultaneously, or a phone and another item such as wireless headphones etc.

I felt like anytime it was brought up in forums or drive impressions, it was never really touched on, or just assumed by the poster, that it was one at a time charging.

That's my good news hiding in plain sight (sorta) story for the day

 

[astonius]

I think you nailed it with your first sentence as far as power consumption, but you can rip my key FOB out of my cold dead fingers before I go back to unlocking my door with a physical key ?

Aren't keyless entry systems powered by the 12v system anyway?

 

[SANZC02]

That 5 miles a day loss in range is probably not continuous. When I leave my S for an extended period (4 or 5 days), it will drop 3+ miles the first day or so but then goes into something like a hibernate mode and drops maybe 1/2 a mile a day for the rest of the days.

Does take a couple of minutes to get ready to drive after a sitting for a few days so clearly turns off a lot of things. It is a 2016 Model S so no sentry mode on mine.

 

[SeaGeo]

Definitely a lot of concerns to report back on, but some appear to just be user error. We've all seen shots of the efficiency graph on the left side of the driver display so not sure why they haven't found it. Pretty sure auto high beams are included, so also might be user error.

The efficiency graph needs numerical values on the Y-axis. It's also very easy to *not* find as a user.

As others noted, auto high beams are described in the manual. I really like them on my cars, and I swear I remember them working find on my mobile drive.

The phantom breaking is concerning. It doesn't happen on my cars, and it's been something that scares the shit out of me with Teslas.

The battery not preconditioning is my biggest annoyance. I also find it interesting that he's reporting 150kW at 40% and 40kW at 85%. That's slower than I've been told my at least two owners. One said above 150kW for most of his charging curve on a recent road trip, and another told me he was seeing about that much all the way to roughly 80%.

 

[Max]

Aren't keyless entry systems powered by the 12v system anyway?

Aren't 12V batteries topped off by the main pack?

Most of this... actually does not worry me that much. Most of it seems software oriented, which improved over time (and generally is a great deal easier and cheaper to fix versus a hardware issue).

The trick is finding that sweet spot where most of the old bugs are squashed but no new ones are introduced so you can stop updating.

That 5 miles a day loss in range is probably not continuous. When I leave my S for an extended period (4 or 5 days), it will drop 3+ miles the first day or so but then goes into something like a hibernate mode and drops maybe 1/2 a mile a day for the rest of the days.

Does take a couple of minutes to get ready to drive after a sitting for a few days so clearly turns off a lot of things. It is a 2016 Model S so no sentry mode on mine.

From the way the gear guard camera works, it looks like this may not be as smart as Tesla either yet. I think we have a lot of growing pains but I am glad the dude was impressed by power-train and mechanical aspects of the vehicle.

As far as phantom breaking and driving assisting features, unless I can trust them 100%, they will be off. I ain't nobodies guinea pig.

 

[astonius]

Aren't 12V batteries topped off by the main pack?

I'd assume so, but I guess my point is I don't see keyless entry systems providing that much of a drain when idle for weeks. Case in point, I can leave my ICE car parked for weeks, and the keyless entry (the whole 12v system, actually) works fine even without the alternator running for those weeks.

 

[Max]

I'd assume so, but I guess my point is I don't see keyless entry systems providing that much of a drain when idle for weeks. Case in point, I can leave my ICE car parked for weeks, and the keyless entry (the whole 12v system, actually) works fine even without the alternator running for those weeks.

My wife's outback usually dies in 2-3 weeks sitting there without use. It has only remote lock/unlock thing. Granted the battery is not new but I think the design of the system may have some impact on efficiency as well.

 

[messinator]

The software thing actually worries me a touch. Not that it's not fixable but if the quality of the engineering is low then it may always be slow/inefficient/power-hungry. Tesla doesn't pay FAANG level but my perception is that they attract pretty smart folks. Time will tell I guess ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Max]

I think you nailed it with your first sentence as far as power consumption, but you can rip my key FOB out of my cold dead fingers before I go back to unlocking my door with a physical key ?

Just to test the waters, a compromise; What if you never had to pull a key out of your pocket but when you pulled the door handle, it took 1 second before the door unlocked and it took 5 seconds after you sat down for the car to move? I think we have smart enough engineers to make that work.

 

[kurtlikevonnegut]

The software thing actually worries me a touch. Not that it's not fixable but if the quality of the engineering is low then it may always be slow/inefficient/power-hungry. Tesla doesn't pay FAANG level but my perception is that they attract pretty smart folks. Time will tell I guess ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It kinda sucks to say it, but software is iterative. Even the best software providers out there have issues (see Google and the Pixel update in December.) Right now, Rivian needs user feedback to make improvements because frankly, it's nearly impossible to identify every bug or glitch during the coding process without user feedback.

The upswing there is that as long as you have adequate software resources, you can iterate and fix rapidly and significantly reduce the number of issues in a very short period of time with enough feedback. Additionally, the more feedback they get and the more robust their user base is, the faster and more effective that process becomes.

 

[messinator]

It kinda sucks to say it, but software is iterative. Even the best software providers out there have issues (see Google and the Pixel update in December.) Right now, Rivian needs user feedback to make improvements because frankly, it's nearly impossible to identify every bug or glitch during the coding process without user feedback.

The upswing there is that as long as you have adequate software resources, you can iterate and fix rapidly and significantly reduce the number of issues in a very short period of time with enough feedback. Additionally, the more feedback they get and the more robust their user base is, the faster and more effective that process becomes.

This is totally true, but it's way easier to patch bugs on robust foundational infra than something that makes bad assumptions/design choices. A year into one-off patch hacks creates an insane web where they might need to spend a year refactoring everything to make more progress on complicated stuff like nav.

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