What We Know - Collecting Information Directly From Rivian

[CommodoreAmiga]

Just my opinion, but I enjoy my tesla without CarPlay vs my wife's Yukon with CarPlay. the Yukon is getting the boot once the R1S arrives. While I miss Waze in the Tesla primarily, they've integrated Spotify well at this point. An update last year made a big improvement from their first attempt. OTA updates are so critical for Rivian to work out the inventible bugs in the UI.

Since you use Spotify It works fine for you. But what about people who use a different service? For example, I use Apple Music. Tesla is an awful experience, to people like me, because they don’t work with my chosen services.

CarPlay is a solution that delivers customers choice and high quality, while being easy for the auto manufacturers to implement.

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[Smithery]

Since you use Spotify It works fine for you. But what about people who use a different service? For example, I use Apple Music. Tesla is an awful experience, to people like me, because they don’t work with my chosen services.

CarPlay is a solution that delivers customers choice and high quality, while being easy for the auto manufacturers to implement.

Exactly.

Let me know when I can use Waze, Apple Music, my 3rd party podcast app, and pressing the voice assistant button in the car activates Siri instead of Alexa.

You do all those then I'll stop bitching at you about avoiding CarPlay. That is... until the next favorite app that support CarPlay enters my life. Then you'll be behind again.

It's all just software, but Rivian can either:
1 - Write a little bit of software - once - that let's any user do whatever they want.
2 - Try writing a lot of software to handle all things for all users, but never come anywhere close to succeeding even after putting in non-stop effort.

 

[jimcgov3]

Per my latest chat w/ Rivian, the POWERED tailgate has now been KILLED. It will now be manually operated:

Me: Did Rivian really scrap the POWERED tailgate? Not the 180 tailgate...I knew that was gone...

Rivian: ...Rivian has simplified our offerings to bring the R1T and R1S to market. With that, the powered tailgate did have substantial cost, and complexity and didn't believe it created enough face value for Rivian at the time of launch. Nonetheless there is still a lot to look forward too as we near production in a few short months.

 

[CommodoreAmiga]

Rivian: ...Rivian has simplified our offerings to bring the R1T and R1S to market. With that, the powered tailgate did have substantial cost, and complexity and didn't believe it created enough face value for Rivian at the time of launch. Nonetheless there is still a lot to look forward too as we near production in a few short months.

The R1T is tens of thousands of dollars more than competitors, and they're scrapping features left and right.

I will hold my reservation until we get real information, but each day that goes by I lose confidence that this will be the dream truck I once thought I needed.

 

[DucRider]

The R1T is tens of thousands of dollars more than competitors, and they're scrapping features left and right.

Which competitors? The Hummer EV? Cybertruck? Lordstown? Badger?

Refining the vehicle to make it reliable, cost effective and designed in a way that can be produced in high volume with a high build quality are big plusses in my book.
If someone has other priorities or some of their "must have" features get changed, it may not be the company/vehicle for them.

 

[cohall]

Refining the vehicle to make it reliable, cost effective and designed in a way that can be produced in high volume with a high build quality are big plusses in my book.
If someone has other priorities or some of their "must have" features get changed, it may not be the company/vehicle for them.

I understand your point of view.

My greatest issue is that cumulatively, there's been far more value taken away versus added, ever since we've started learning additional details after they launched.

Rivian has long been touted on these forums and elsewhere as being driven to under-promise and over-deliver. From my perspective, I can not see a single thing that they've under-promised on (maybe the blue-tooth speaker falls into that category...but a great BT speaker is less than $100 anyway).

Instead, I see a long list of items that they have removed as being included or being offered at all.

 

[DucRider]

I can not see a single thing that they've under-promised on

Horsepower and price come to mind.
We've got a 20% bump in horsepower, and the large pack at lower cost than the original price for the small pack.

 

[kanundrum]

Horsepower and price come to mind.
We've got a 20% bump in horsepower, and the large pack at lower cost than the original price for the small pack.

This!

 

[cohall]

Horsepower and price come to mind.
We've got a 20% bump in horsepower, and the large pack at lower cost than the original price for the small pack.

You are correct about HP, and I hadn't thought about that one. Though the practical and usable difference between 750HP and 800+HP is an interesting question for me.

I vehemently disagree with your statement on price, based on what RJ stated and had been published, and what was also stated at several events.

But I don't think we'll ever have the same view on that point. If you simply look at what was printed on the website, then you would be correct.

 

[MReda]

Horsepower and price come to mind.
We've got a 20% bump in horsepower, and the large pack at lower cost than the original price for the small pack.

I definitely agree. I'm not sure what the horsepower is worth because, realistically, it went from a lot to slightly more than a lot, but the battery pack bump is huge. I expected the starting price to be the smallest pack with the least performance, and I expected the incremental packs to be in the order of $10k each. I'm way ahead of where I thought I would be when I paid my deposit.

 

[Canthoney]

Per my latest chat w/ Rivian, the POWERED tailgate has now been KILLED. It will now be manually operated:

Me: Did Rivian really scrap the POWERED tailgate? Not the 180 tailgate...I knew that was gone...

Rivian: ...Rivian has simplified our offerings to bring the R1T and R1S to market. With that, the powered tailgate did have substantial cost, and complexity and didn't believe it created enough face value for Rivian at the time of launch. Nonetheless there is still a lot to look forward too as we near production in a few short months.

Wait, does that mean it’s not damped?

 

[ElectricDan]

You are correct about HP, and I hadn't thought about that one. Though the practical and usable difference between 750HP and 800+HP is an interesting question for me.

I vehemently disagree with your statement on price, based on what RJ stated and had been published, and what was also stated at several events.

But I don't think we'll ever have the same view on that point. If you simply look at what was printed on the website, then you would be correct.

I agree with the price argument.

The analogy I have is as if tesla advertised the model X for 69k, but then when it came time to configure they said well the X that we somewhat advertised is actually 75k, but hey here's the model Y for 67500. Then ppl say hey actually delivered under cost!

I'm not a pre-order customer with a wish list. Im a pre-order customer that wants what was offered to me 6 months ago. The vehicle advertised 6 months ago is VERY different from the vehicle offered today.

 

[jimcgov3]

Wait, does that mean it’s not damped?

It doesn’t open or close at the push of a button

 

[Canthoney]

It doesn’t open or close at the push of a button

I didn’t know they were going to offer that as a feature originally anyways so it doesn’t bother me. As long as it doesn’t slam down when I open it I don’t care if I have to manually open and close it.

 

[JeremyMKE]

It doesn’t open or close at the push of a button

My definition of undamped is it freely opens and closes with no resistance. My Silverado if I pull the handle and let go, it will slam open. Damped would have a gas shock or some other damping effect for a "soft" open.

Here is the definition from FCA's Ram 2021 specs.

FULLY DAMPENED TAILGATE. The aluminum tailgate has an available built-in damper to lower the tailgate slowly without it needing to be held. The damper also assists in closing the tailgate, so less force is needed to raise it.