Wireless charging Pad (should be renamed the slide around no charge pad)

[Carmelbythesea]

The charging pad is useless. The guy taking me through delivery today at the service center said no one can charge using the mat and to just use a wire. WTF?

So I have purchased a magsafe to USB in black and I am going to try and attach it to the pad for now.

The real killer idea would be a stand that holds the phone at an angle similar to tesla either in landscape or portrait - that slides in the little gap in front of the charging pad and has magsafe built in.

Sponsored

 

[MNLightning]

Lots of real world experience from others in total agreement with that assessment.

Be nice to see the person or persons responsible for this at Rivian have to go into a dunk tank.

 

[Sher]

Yeah, I placed my phone on the charging pad during my First Mile drive. Useless. Wasn’t charging and I pulled off my case, which made it slide around more. Will definitely get a Magsafe - USB.

 

[momo3605]

Has anyone been able to get decent charging speed off of the wireless charger? I have a rubber case that doesn’t slide around and even after an hour, at best it just retains the level it was at. Has never charged up

 

[BrentInCO]

The charging pad is useless. The guy taking me through delivery today at the service center said no one can charge using the mat and to just use a wire. WTF?

So I have purchased a magsafe to USB in black and I am going to try and attach it to the pad for now.

The real killer idea would be a stand that holds the phone at an angle similar to tesla either in landscape or portrait - that slides in the little gap in front of the charging pad and has magsafe built in.

Did you see this?: https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/threads/phone-charge-pad-that-works.5683/

 

[Brwood14608]

The problem is the bump out from the camera on most cases it creates a bigger gap between the phone and the charging pad and between that and the case itself i believe it is not able to connect. If you take off all cases it will charge but then it slides around too much. I agree a mag safe USB charge is needed and to be honest if they arent going to change the charging pad to something that works better just omit it all together and let it be a catch all place without any charger at least then expectations of that space wont be let down.

 

[RayzorBEV]

I purchased a thin silicone mat, cut it to size and place it over the wireless charging pad. Even with my slim TPU case on, it wirelessly charged my phone and the grippy silicone prevents my phone from sliding around. I also used the silicone mat to secure my radar detector on the dashboard : )

 

[dleewla]

was this even tested by Rivian? WTF. $90k vehicle and they should have spent more time on this and dumped the camp speaker and flashlight.

 

[MisterTea]

One thing to keep in mind, don’t plug your phone in and leave it on the wireless pad. My phone overheated in less than five minutes and had to cool off before I could use it again.

 

[PoorPilot]

I guess I'm an oddity- my iphone 11 pro with the standard Apple case charges everytime I put it on the pad and never slides.

 

[timf]

I guess I'm an oddity- my iphone 11 pro with the standard Apple case charges everytime I put it on the pad and never slides.

It makes sense if you were going to design a charging pad and needed a baseline phone to validate it with, you would use the most typical configuration which is an iPhone with the manufacturer's standard case. A proper designer would make sure it works with a variety of configurations, but in the grand scheme of designing a car from scratch the charging pad was likely more of an afterthought. Very few cars seem to get this right without needing aftermarket modifications.

 

[PoorPilot]

It makes sense if you were going to design a charging pad and needed a baseline phone to validate it with, you would use the most typical configuration which is an iPhone with the manufacturer's standard case. A proper designer would make sure it works with a variety of configurations, but in the grand scheme of designing a car from scratch the charging pad was likely more of an afterthought. Very few cars seem to get this right without needing aftermarket modifications.

I agree- you have to start with some type of baseline to get the ball rolling, but it would be physically impossible to make a one-size-fits-all charging pad that will work with everything. I guess that's why they have USB ports in the center console as well as a 12v under the dash. It's not ideal, but it gives you different options.

 

[VHRivian]

My experience is that the switch to a Magsafe phone and Apple Magsafe case caused many of the wireless charging solutions I had used prior to stop working either completely or just not as well. Note that I started with a third-party Magsafe case and that was even worse.

My best example is that I had used a router to create a cavity below the top of a bedside table so that a wireless charger could be used but not seen. It worked great with my old iPhone XR. When I got a new phone I had to replace the standard Qi charger with a Magsafe charger to get it to work.

Pure guess - they designed the charging pad prior to Magsafe being introduced (October 2020) and didn't rework it to ensure proper function after.

 

[Blueassassin]

My experience is that the switch to a Magsafe phone and Apple Magsafe case caused many of the wireless charging solutions I had used prior to stop working either completely or just not as well. Note that I started with a third-party Magsafe case and that was even worse.

My best example is that I had used a router to create a cavity below the top of a bedside table so that a wireless charger could be used but not seen. It worked great with my old iPhone XR. When I got a new phone I had to replace the standard Qi charger with a Magsafe charger to get it to work.

Pure guess - they designed the charging pad prior to Magsafe being introduced (October 2020) and didn't rework it to ensure proper function after.

This makes a lot of sense. I would still rather do a mag safe charging dock that holds the phone somewhere on the dash. I'm really hoping some one designs a replacement for the charging pad area for two good built in cup holders instead.

Sponsored