San Francisco Rivian Event [Updated with impressions, info, photos]

[Keithadams27]

I attended the Mill Valley event yesterday afternoon. Got there around 4pm and the parking a crowds were not that bad. The outsourced valet service was a bit of a mess, but the event was great. This was the first time for my wife and I to see the cars in person. After seeing them, I am more excited than before and will keep my R1T preorder. I talked to a number of folks from Rivian. One being a gentleman that works on the autonomous driving. He said L2 autonomous driving will be released at launch and L3 would come shortly after launch. He made it sound like they are testing now. He described being able to "set it and forget it" on the drive home from Tahoe. He also mentioned another feature called Jurassic Park mode. This feature would in Rivian mapping offroad trails, so that when you engaged the feature the L3 driving would take you through the trail. He did say they were looking to add additional sensors above the door on the "C" pillar to aid in the L3 driving capabilities.

Not much new on the charging front. Got a bunch of responses... "we are working on that" from a lot of the Rivian team. Most of them said be patient until around September as they will have more news available. I did get a chance to lean into and touch a few things in the driver compartment. All materials felt good (not leather good, but acceptable). Seats are soft and I'm guessing going to be comfortable, but I did not sit in the truck. Center console opened easily and the cup holder pop out from the front on the center console. I asked about the vehicle configurator and when it would be released and was told a few months prior to production. They did say that they will be offering a full list of options (RTT, camp kitchen, racks, etc.), so you'll be able to build the complete adventure vehicle.

My sport is rock crawling. I have a purpose built rig that I run through the Rubicon Trail, Fordyce, The Hammers and other local trails. The Rivian wouldn't be an option for that type of offroading, but it certainly appears to be something that I would use for easy to mild offroading. Overall I am looking forward to Rivian's continued success and to the day I get to pickup my R1T.

Here are a few pics....

Thanks for the great pics and the info. Question though - when you commented "... not leather ..." above, can you clarify? Were you refering the the door, the seats, the dash, or all of it? I thought the seats would be leather. Thanks bunch.

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[Lmirafuente]

No leather anywhere in the vehicles. Vegan leather only.

Pricing change is confirmed and will be around bundles of options. The Reuter’s and yahoo article(s)is an example but nothing definite on the options.

Rivian will have store fronts for viewing and test drives as well as service centers and will be centered in areas where most reservation holders are located. Yes charging stations will be built by Rivian in adventure areas and in major metros where reservation holders are concentrated on initially. No specifics on which cities come first.

I did reconfirm electric plugs and compressor will be in the R1S like the R1T even though the model at SF did not show it. The spare will be a blow-up spare which will need the compressor. Also, this is not new but Rivian is having special tires built for better mileage efficiency.

we will see the configuration website by summertime.

 

[BillArnett]

Here’s a bit of what I learned at the Mill Valley event on Sunday.

* the curb weight is close 6000 pounds. Ooof.

* there’s no way to fit larger diameter tires or smaller diameter rims. Bigger tires won’t clear the wheel wells especially when turning. Smaller rims won’t clear the brakes. It MIGHT be possible to fit slightly wider tires but then they would stick out beyond the fenders which is a problem in some jurisdictions. (I’ve had no trouble in that regard so far in CA, UT or CO.) Bottom line: we’re just going to have to live with the little 34” tires.

* the guy I spoke with (who seemed to be very knowledgeable) was very confident about the strength of the underbody protection. From what he said I’m no longer worried about taking a pretty big hit there nor about scraping over a high-center situation. I’m sure one could break it if he tried hard enough but from what I heard that won’t be easy. This is a big load off my mind.

* And even bigger load off my mind is that the plastic stuff underneath the front and rear bumpers can be (optionally) replaced by steel. The approach and departure angles are still not quite up to what I’m used to with my Wrangler but at least with steel bumper protection no serious damage will be done if I have to scrape over something.

* There will be an optional front mounted winch!!

* The tank turn may not work well on surfaces with good traction (like rocks). The problem is not putting too much stress on the drive trains. But this is all controlled by software and we may expect tweaks as time goes on.

* There will be a “hill descent mode” akin to what Jeep and Toyota have. There MAY be a similar mode for uphill or flat roads.

* there will be heated seats. No one knew about cooled seats or a heated steering wheel.

All in all I’m disappointed about the tires but relieved about the underbody and bumpers. I think I can make this work for my kind of off-roaring.

 

[Lmirafuente]

Here’s a bit of what I learned at the Mill Valley event on Sunday.

* the curb weight is close 6000 pounds. Ooof.

* there’s no way to fit larger diameter tires or smaller diameter rims. Bigger tires won’t clear the wheel wells especially when turning. Smaller rims won’t clear the brakes. It MIGHT be possible to fit slightly wider tires but then they would stick out beyond the fenders which is a problem in some jurisdictions. (I’ve had no trouble in that regard so far in CA, UT or CO.) Bottom line: we’re just going to have to live with the little 34” tires.

* the guy I spoke with (who seemed to be very knowledgeable) was very confident about the strength of the underbody protection. From what he said I’m no longer worried about taking a pretty big hit there nor about scraping over a high-center situation. I’m sure one could break it if he tried hard enough but from what I heard that won’t be easy. This is a big load off my mind.

* And even bigger load off my mind is that the plastic stuff underneath the front and rear bumpers can be (optionally) replaced by steel. The approach and departure angles are still not quite up to what I’m used to with my Wrangler but at least with steel bumper protection no serious damage will be done if I have to scrape over something.

* There will be an optional front mounted winch!!

* The tank turn may not work well on surfaces with good traction (like rocks). The problem is not putting too much stress on the drive trains. But this is all controlled by software and we may expect tweaks as time goes on.

* There will be a “hill descent mode” akin to what Jeep and Toyota have. There MAY be a similar mode for uphill or flat roads.

* there will be heated seats. No one knew about cooled seats or a heated steering wheel.

All in all I’m disappointed about the tires but relieved about the underbody and bumpers. I think I can make this work for my kind of off-roaring.

Great info! Adding to the undercarriage protection. I was told that the entire weight of the car can rest on a five inch diameter pole without penetrating the shield, further supporting what you found out!

I would be interested for someone to start a new thread on what tire options for off-reading you would use....I can see having a set for day-to-day and another set for off-road adventures!

 

[hola29]

I was going to post photos, but all of yours (all) are better than mine

No CarPlay is very odd...I use Waze all the time, and listen to music via Spotify....obviously take calls & texts. Not married to CarPlay, and would certainly jump if something better, but to date not much else is better. Hopefully Rivian has a plan...a bad infotainment experience would be a huge problem for me.

 

[skyote]

I would be interested for someone to start a new thread on what tire options for off-reading you would use....I can see having a set for day-to-day and another set for off-road adventures!

Maybe if you used a set of street tires most of the time, then had a set of wheels with mud terrain tires.

I don't see the practical use for all terrain tires on these vehicles, except for looks alone.

Here is a thread about tire options:
http://www.rivianforums.com/threads/tires-all-season-or-all-terrain.378/

 

[Lmirafuente]

To Ethan/hola29....I did want to comment here about who you talked to at the Mill Valley event. There were a lot of new Rivian employees from the "Connected Car" department, Digital Commerce, Finance, HR, etc... I would highly recommend to our Forum Group members attending the Austin event to make sure your find a knowledgeable person that may have been with Rivian for at least six months before you ask technical questions. I also heard from one Rivian representative that CarPlay would be in the Rivian as I asked that question too...I like using Waze, I just switche to Amazon from Spotify, but the point is there may be mobile apps you may want to see on the Rivian.

As a side note: I encountered one person that was nice and friendly but clearly shot from the hip on information, specifically when I asked about the compressor and electric socket for the R1S and the individual said it was not on the R1S and only on the R1T. I respectfully challenged the person asking, "then how do you fill up the spare tire on the R1S? I informed him that I talked to RJ back at the Overland West event where RJ informed me the R1S would have a space saver full tire and the compressor would fill it up. I later spoke to one of the other engineers that I met at Overland West and I asked the same question and I was pleased to hear the R1S will have the electric sockets and compressor. The compressor may have a little different configuration from the R1T, but it will have it.

Just and FYI and looking forward to the members going to Austin for the Fully Charged LIVE event to get more information!!

 

[Lmirafuente]

Maybe if you used a set of street tires most of the time, then had a set of wheels with mud terrain tires.

I don't see the practical use for all terrain tires on these vehicles, except for looks alone.

Here is a thread about tire options:
http://www.rivianforums.com/threads/tires-all-season-or-all-terrain.378/

Thanks Skynote!

 

[EyeOnRivian]

As a side note: I encountered one person that was nice and friendly but clearly shot from the hip on information, specifically when I asked about the compressor and electric socket for the R1S and the individual said it was not on the R1S and only on the R1T. I respectfully challenged the person asking, "then how do you fill up the spare tire on the R1S? I informed him that I talked to RJ back at the Overland West event where RJ informed me the R1S would have a space saver full tire and the compressor would fill it up. I later spoke to one of the other engineers that I met at Overland West and I asked the same question and I was pleased to hear the R1S will have the electric sockets and compressor. The compressor may have a little different configuration from the R1T, but it will have it.

Well, to muddy the waters some ... When I attended the Normal event last October I had spoken with the R1S team lead (with company for years) and I asked about the R1S spare tire. He confirmed not only it will be a full sized spare tire (he also said "how can you not have one with an off-road capable vehicle") but he explained how he had to fight to find every mm and square inch to find room for the full size spare. He also confirmed when I asked if that was, at least in part, why the R1S increased in length by a couple of inches (Rivian website compared to original spec sheet that came out in late 2018) and he said yes.

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