Snazzy Labs: I Drove the Cybertruck Killer - Rivian R1T First Look Review

[hola29]

You are generally right about software, but pre-release software is something different or even MVP. Getting stuff working and making it easy to debug both without a huge focus on performance can make a huge difference as the code matures.

That honeymoon most likely would end down the road where they start designing for new GPU's/CPU's...

Long way of saying in the short term I am optimistic, but long term, yeah, likely to get dated/laggy like an old computer or iPhone. We'll see!

Great review. Thanks. I tend to agree with pretty much everything.
Most people mention the screen response time is fine, but as a Tesla owner I think everything I've seen shows the Rivian screen looking laggy. So, if I compare to my Subaru, it's great. But Tesla really raised the bar with having a zippy display, at least in newer vehicles. I appreciate Rivian will be adding more software features OTA, however adding more software doesn't usually make existing software run faster. I'm hoping they work on optimizing existing code as well, and get the screen response to Tesla-level without requiring a hardware upgrade. I think they'll do just fine, but putting almost all controls into a display means that display really needs to rock. Sounds like they are aware of it and are working on it so I remain optimistic.

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[rraj2k81]

This is the best review so far for me of all the ones that had come out.

And it addresses some of the questions I have had, that no one else seem to address,

1. The UI - It does look very laggy and choppy, especially the navigation/map window. Even the video feed on the main screen of the front facing cameras, when rock climbing looked very choppy and laggy. He did mentioned the Rivian Engineers are aware of it and are working on it as a priority.
So if they are aware of it then why have they not addressed this till now, in time for the production/launch ?

Which makes me assume one of two scenarios,
the MCU(?)/CPU handling the infotainment was procured 3 years back, and over the last few years of constant development has now heavily utilized the CPU/RAM/GPU that they are trying to optimize the UI/OS
or
due to the chip shortage they had to resort to different/less powerful HW that they are now working on optimizing, and they would perform a retrofit down the line, like Tesla did with their MCU2 upgrades.

Hopefully, they are working on this and eventually get that UI polished, after all, these are mostly ex Tesla Engineers who are working on the UI.

2. Driver + - This looks like a very early version of Tesla's Autopilot, which is a dynamic cruise control with Lane Centering. If this works well I am Ok with. But based on his comments, the lane centering is not very sure of it self. Maybe this is why Rivian will only allow Driver+ to take over on well marked roads.

Based on his comments, the Driver+ system is designed by erring on the side of caution and safety rather than comfort. So I am hoping Rivian would find a good balance for this.

3. The Meridian Sound System - He rates this system as just fine, even after tweaking the sound controls. I know this is very subjective and personal, but I would have hoped he would have compared it to some of the existing higher end car audio systems. Hopefully there would be more reviews about this.

 

[MountainBikeDude]

One of my favorite of the recent ones, he spends a lot of times showing the features, and confirms that the gear guard is 'sentry mode 'like as well as showing the cable system, and the four (!) key options you get.

One of my favourite reviews. Still looking forward to TFL finally getting their hands on one and doing towing tests etc.

Also, "trekkie" as in Star Trek? If so right on haha

 

[Friscorays]

Bummer about March 1, 2022.

 

[hed]

Yep. Caught that too. Also said they are confident they’ll deliver all of their (40K) preorders by EOY 22. ?

I've been saying all summer they would not get the pre-orders done until 2022-2023. If it was evident to me surely others picked up on this as well.

I just wish Rivian could've/would've communicated it better. They were terrible at setting delivery expectations and worse, they were self imposed and overly optimistic release dates. Talk about being your own worst enemy.

By June it became evident that not only would they not meet these stated dates, but now they basically implied that when a customer reserved would be less important then where they live when it came to LE delivery.

The good news is, they look to have developed an extremely compelling vehicle, which is why these critiques/complaints will be meaningless in the long run.

Now we just have to decide between silver, LE green or FE

 

[Pherdnut]

You can't kill what's not there yet. I wish people would knock it off with the EV pickup truck war headlines.

 

[Attesan997]

You can't kill what's not there yet. I wish people would knock it off with the EV pickup truck war headlines.

Gasp, won’t anyone think of the clicks!

 

[Gator42]

He also states "...with a bit of EQing I am sure you could get it to sound quite good and I didn't have a ton of time with it."

The Land Rover Meridian sound system has no EQ, only a ‘Meridian’ button to turn Meridian’s vehicle specific balance on/off.

 

[Speedrye]

The Land Rover Meridian sound system has no EQ, only a ‘Meridian’ button to turn Meridian’s vehicle specific balance on/off.

In one of the screen shots on one of the recent video reviews, there was what appeared to be a 9-band EQ. No way I'm going to find that again, but I did take a mental note.

Edit: Found it! 35 seconds in--

 

[tnawara]

You can't kill what's not there yet. I wish people would knock it off with the EV pickup truck war headlines.

I agree that the “Tesla Killer” headlines are annoying, but in this case I think he was specifically talking about how driving the R1T convinced *him* to reserve one because it was a better choice than the Cybertruck for his needs.

(And he was looking for clicks.)

 

[rraj2k81]

He goes on to say "Probably in line with decent luxury sound packages in the same price range."

Other reviewers have talked about the sound system and have been very complementary. In fact, he is the first review that I have seen that discusses the sound system which has not rated it highly.

He also states "...with a bit of EQing I am sure you could get it to sound quite good and I didn't have a ton of time with it."

Sound system is important to me and I'm not particularly worried that it won't be at least up to snuff based on this one outlying opinion; especially when the reviewer admits his opinion is somewhat half-baked.

Yeah the audio system is going to be a subjective thing and I will have to hear it for myself before I can say if it's good or not.

Audio is one of my priorities in a car too, and have a Bang & Olufsen in my Audi right now and the audio quality is amazing, so hopefully the Meridian at the very least will meet the quality of what I have now.

 

[Trekkie]

Also, "trekkie" as in Star Trek? If so right on haha

Yep. Our white model X has the license plate 'Galileo 7'

Still debating what to put on the truck, was thinking maybe one of the runabouts from DS9 like Rio Grande or Orinoco, etc. They were all named after amazon rivers, seems appropriate for an adventure vehicle.

 

[Trekkie]

You can't kill what's not there yet. I wish people would knock it off with the EV pickup truck war headlines.

Yeah I'd much prefer ICE Killer but honestly, it's the way youtube makes them work. The channel Veritasium did some crazy name title changes and Youtube's system seemed to reward the hyperbolic statements vs legit ones.

 

[Pherdnut]

Yeah the audio system is going to be a subjective thing and I will have to hear it for myself before I can say if it's good or not.

Audio is one of my priorities in a car too, and have a Bang & Olufsen in my Audi right now and the audio quality is amazing, so hopefully the Meridian at the very least will meet the quality of what I have now.

I'm not an audiophile, but the sound system sounded damn good to me.

 

[Driveout]

My leaky confirmation bias bucket has been filled. As to the audio system my tinnitus renders the high end aspect moot. The end of 22 is longer than I want to wait... tomorrow is longer than I want to wait. I'm not so wild about TFL getting their hands on one, they seem to be embedded with the ice crowd pretty heavily and pan electric regularly. The fact they weren't invited for the presser says a lot.

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