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

[kylealden]

I'm not discounting the need or reasons to have non-consumer builds. But you have to admit that the delivery of the truck being almost entirely non-consumer builds that are also advertised on social media platforms makes it pretty weird.

Yes that's fair. I chalk this up to it being a totally new product, in an essentially new company, from a brand new company.

I think it was a mistake, or at best confusing, to imply that employee deliveries are "real" deliveries. (This is a bit of a semantic black hole, but it's clear that they're qualitatively different than genpop deliveries, even if they are production vehicles which are bought and paid for.) I know we have at least a small handful of "real" deliveries mixed in, which makes it even more confusing, but it's clearly not a broad release. But that's where we are.

I don't love it, but it helps to remember in ~two months, none of this will matter. Remember how upset we all were last summer about every Thursday that went by without a Stories post or a new set of photos? For like two months folks were convinced the entire interior had been redesigned and then it all just went away.

I'm not defending it, but it's temporary.

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[Dbeglor]

Yes that's fair. I chalk this up to it being a totally new product, in an essentially new company, from a brand new company.

I think it was a mistake, or at best confusing, to imply that employee deliveries are "real" deliveries. I know we have at least a small handful of "real" deliveries mixed in, which makes it even more confusing, but it's clearly not a broad release. But that's where we are.

I don't love it, but it helps to remember in ~two months, none of this will matter. Remember how upset we all were last summer about every Thursday that went by without a Stories post or a new set of photos? For like two months folks were convinced the entire interior had been redesigned and then it all just went away.

I'm not defending it, but it's temporary.

Yes, as I always say, take a breath and "Zoom Out".

 

[SeaGeo]

Yes that's fair. I chalk this up to it being a totally new product, in an essentially new company, from a brand new company.

I think it was a mistake, or at best confusing, to imply that employee deliveries are "real" deliveries. I know we have at least a small handful of "real" deliveries mixed in, which makes it even more confusing, but it's clearly not a broad release. But that's where we are.

I don't love it, but it helps to remember in ~two months, none of this will matter. Remember how upset we all were last summer about every Thursday that went by without a Stories post or a new set of photos? For like two months folks were convinced the entire interior had been redesigned and then it all just went away.

I'm not defending it, but it's temporary.

Oh for sure. Like I said in another post, I'm not mad about it at all (or really worked up personally). The internal rollout has made for an awkward initial delivery phase that seems to have created a lot of misunderstandings and risk for employees. I suspect some of what we're picking up on is something that in hindsight Rivian would probably say they'd do differently as well. For example, maybe they would have protected the employees better by encouraging disclaimers on their social media posts. Or more proactively said that they aren't delivering vehicles to third party customers, and their employees may have various software test that doesn't necessarily reflect the third party customer experience.

 

[Cavalryscout18]

Since I'm in that caption I'll just add at this point I'm more amused with the AA/CP discussion than anything else. It's not hurting anyone so who am I to discourage it. I would never have guess there'd be continued discussion this late in the game, it's been a while since Rivian confirmed it would be an option.

I think it also has to do with the fact that since that initial discussion took place, there are double the reservations so a lot of us who pre-ordered later in 2021 never got to engage in that topic. Curious that it seems from this thread that you either love AA/CP or hate it. I wonder if the Tesla folks who rely on Tesla’s system are in the latter group since (IMO) the system makes it so that AA/CP are unnecessary. I assume Rivian will be similar to Tesla’s system since they did copy quite a few things (if you can’t beat them, copy them).

 

[lostpacket]

 

[AdamsFan1983]

Meanwhile Lucid owners’ rants and raves:

 

[Attesan997]

I think it also has to do with the fact that since that initial discussion took place, there are double the reservations so a lot of us who pre-ordered later in 2021 never got to engage in that topic. Curious that it seems from this thread that you either love AA/CP or hate it. I wonder if the Tesla folks who rely on Tesla’s system are in the latter group since (IMO) the system makes it so that AA/CP are unnecessary. I assume Rivian will be similar to Tesla’s system since they did copy quite a few things (if you can’t beat them, copy them).

I'd consider myself indifferent, definitely not "pro" enough to remove a vehicle like the R1T from consideration without it. I'd agree, having experience with a functional infotainment system means one could be less reliant on AA/CP. I just set Waze to alerts only and carry on with my day on longer trips.

More power to y'all if you can change Rivian's mind on this one, I don't see how but it won't cost me anything for folks to try. They're following Tesla's playbook, one which was written before AA/CP, when the feature debut Tesla outright said its not going to happen. People were annoyed but pretty much moved on. Now there's a ton of 3rd party sellers who'll happily charge 100% more for "Tesla" designed phone mount.

 

[nc10]

Curious that it seems from this thread that you either love AA/CP or hate it.

For me, its not "CarPlay" exactly, but that particular technology/interface does work well enough for me, and most car mfrs that have competition include it because customers want it. CarPlay does have some issues, in-app navigation needs to be much better. But I'm skeptical Rivian can match the full range of features and consistency and ongoing improvements it currently provides.

I do love having a consistent experience between my phone, car, my wife's car, my next car, the next car I rent, etc. Only paying for one "Family" music streaming service, one MLB at bat subscription, etc, knowing which podcasts and audiobooks are downloaded and ready to pick up where I left off as soon as I get in any vehicle I drive, knowing most streaming services I want will be available and up to date and at my fingertips and safely accessible in the car, getting my IM messages safely, my contact list will be current, the maps will be up to date with crowd sourced feedback, show current traffic info, etc. Doesn't have to be CarPlay if there is another way for Rivian to do all that.

 

[astonius]

mfrs

My brain extrapolated this abbreviation a bit differently than "manufacturers"

 

[CommodoreAmiga]

My brain extrapolated this abbreviation a bit differently than "manufacturers"

What you were thinking is basically a synonym, no?

 

[Arky]

With the PS5 analogy it doesn't make sense. Developers don't pay for the units. Employees paid for the car. It's a sale.

Employees did not pay the asking price for the car, we know the units delivered were at a significant discount.

The whole narrative about "short sellers trying to sabotage the company" is overblown and I'm hearing echoes of Tesla paranoia here. *Almost* all of us just want to know that the vehicle we are on a wait list to pay $80k for is going to actually be worth doing so, since this company is realistically asking for our faith that they will deliver it. I've been told 1H 2023, and I'll wait for that if it's good (and all indications are it's still a really cool vehicle), but given how every other timeline has been missed a lot of us are understandably weighing our options. Fortunately for Riv (though not for us) there really aren't any other options in the class right now.

 

[paariv]

Employees did not pay the asking price for the car, we know the units delivered were at a significant discount.

I'm less interested in the discount, more interested in whether they are able to reliably build trucks that are good enough to be delivered to the the general public. If the only difference between an employee's car and mine is the out of pocket cost and access to beta software, it counts as a delivery in my book.

It's not a good sign for production that general public deliveries of the R1T seem to be few and far between this long after "customer" deliveries "started." Nor is it confidence-inspiring that R1S deliveries have apparently been limited to the C-suite.

I'd feel a lot more confident in my May-June R1S delivery date if there were evidence of ongoing general public deliveries or if forum members were at least finalizing orders and getting solid delivery dates. Or, for the R1S, if we were seeing lots of manufacturer vehicles on the road, as we did with the R1T.

Not sure if it's schadenfreude or relief to see that Lucid's having growing pains as well. At least it proves that this stuff is HARD and Rivian's not immune from normal production difficulties.

 

[Dbeglor]

Or, for the R1S, if we were seeing lots of manufacturer vehicles on the road, as we did with the R1T.

I doubt you'll see the same level of testing of mfr R1S vehicles because it's not needed. It's mostly just an R1T with an enclosed bed. The differences are mostly just interior bits and have nothing to do with driving it really. And I think they haven't finalized the design yet, but won't take long to produce once they do. I think RJ and CFO are probably real world testing a possible final design.

 

[mgc0216]

Well, one thing this thread has made clear to me, those that work in a company that builds and releases hardware and software, and those that don't...

As someone who does, I can tell you, there are a litany of reasons to have "non-consumer" builds of software (and even hardware), even on released products.

Some folks on this board understand those reasons, and some... clearly do not.

I worked at Microsoft early in my career and was running a non-released version of Windows, and got an error message that said something like

"nobody should ever see this error message, and if they do they should be terminated with extreme prejudice"

So, yes there are things that aren't for public consumption, and should never be used to evaluate a final released product.

As for deleting the thread, it's not a hill I would die on, but I think it would show goodwill towards Rivian as well as being the right thing to do (since the information was problematic to begin with let alone based on a violation of an NDA)

 

[Gearhead500]

I suspect "proprietary" is just lazy language that the owner used with @CarterGee, and they were really just worried about whatever contract they have in place with Rivian. I didn't see anything proprietary or really unknown from any of their posts other than providing some less filtered feedback.

I do find it really annoying that Rivian doesn't allow 90%+ of their current customer base to share the experience they're having with their truck unless it's entirely positive.

Usually agree with you, but my experience with beta testing hardware and software is that feedback is NOT for public consumption.

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