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All discussion of Rivian Automotive
- Thread starter RobStark
- Start date
OK, mini review of my wife's R1S. Great acceleration, great regen (as much if not more than a 2022 Model X). Has same "hold" capability of newer Teslas, so you can single peddle all the way to a stop. Now that I think about it, I don't recall having touched the brake pedal at all during my two drives (except at start up, when you must press it to move out of Park).
Has several driving modes. After some experimentation, I decided on the "Everyday" settings, "Low" ride height, "Stiff" suspension. If you choose soft suspension, I find it is way too loose to the point of being hard to keep it in a straight line on the freeway without subtle ping ponging due to road imperfections throwing the vehicle balance off. At any rate, stiff works fine.
The interior cabin audio cues are way too low volume. Turn signals are a speaker "pop" kind of sound - very low frequency, and you can barely hear it when driving, and not at all at freeways speeds. There's a reason why alerts are normally high frequency tones, they don't get drowned out in the low frequency road noise. I expect this to get updated in a future software release.
They didn't skimp on the interior cabin. Nice accents, including subtle low lighting for nighttime. Second row seats are heated. Getting into and out of the third row is "fine". My steering wheel isn't centered (others in the forums have mentioned this as a problem too). I'll wait a bit before complaining about this to Rivian to see if anything else pops up.
When you close the doors, you have to give it a bigger than normal shove. It you don't, you'll get a nice door closing sound, but the door will only be partially closed, with the door protruding out 1/2 an inch. All four doors are like this, doesn't seem to be a manufacturing issue, just some kind of design issue.
The frunk is big and the front hood has an electric motor opener, which is nice. The rear hatch is two part. Press a button and the top electrically opens, and then you have to press a button on the short lift gate to open that all the way. I would rather have a single door, but it isn't horrible. All seats fold flat for good storage. Comes with an optional mini spare tire along with the Rivian air compressor (which can inflate both tires and inflatables, has two modes). The Rivian air compressor is quiet and a cool feature. A 1500 W AC outlet is at the back.
My wife is moving from an Infiniti QX80 which is slightly larger, and, man, it drives really comfortably. The Rivian actually feels like a slight step down in terms of suspension and driver comfort (we got the big engine in the QX80, so it has plenty of power), except that the Rivian is an EV, which brings its own plusses to the equation (single peddle driving, more torque, better navigation display/UI, no gas stations).
The car audio shop was able to integrate the XM receiver and tap into the FM antenna/tuner for the car, so that worked out well. I now have a no compromise XM radio which uses the car audio (car sees it as an FM station). They tried to put the small XM tuner controller into the center console, but couldn't figure out how to get access to it properly without taking the seats out, and they didn't want to start throwing fault codes when seats get disconnected, so they just mounted it under the dash console vents, which works fine (small rectangle below).
Rivian thinks the "XM station" is a Spanish music station
Rivian shipped me their Wall Charger about a week ahead of receiving the vehicle, which was nice. Rivian recently raised the price of their Wall Charger to an eye popping $800 (I got it at the old price), so I'd actually recommend buying the Tesla J1772 Wall Charger for future Rivian owners. And I just received the roof cargo rails, which attached easily - they have a single "kit" for both the R1T (which uses 4 of them) and the R1S (which only uses 3), so I've got an extra rail now. Here's the vehicle with the rails installed:
So far so good. We shall see what the range is like when we drive to the local ski hill in the next several weeks.
Has several driving modes. After some experimentation, I decided on the "Everyday" settings, "Low" ride height, "Stiff" suspension. If you choose soft suspension, I find it is way too loose to the point of being hard to keep it in a straight line on the freeway without subtle ping ponging due to road imperfections throwing the vehicle balance off. At any rate, stiff works fine.
The interior cabin audio cues are way too low volume. Turn signals are a speaker "pop" kind of sound - very low frequency, and you can barely hear it when driving, and not at all at freeways speeds. There's a reason why alerts are normally high frequency tones, they don't get drowned out in the low frequency road noise. I expect this to get updated in a future software release.
They didn't skimp on the interior cabin. Nice accents, including subtle low lighting for nighttime. Second row seats are heated. Getting into and out of the third row is "fine". My steering wheel isn't centered (others in the forums have mentioned this as a problem too). I'll wait a bit before complaining about this to Rivian to see if anything else pops up.
When you close the doors, you have to give it a bigger than normal shove. It you don't, you'll get a nice door closing sound, but the door will only be partially closed, with the door protruding out 1/2 an inch. All four doors are like this, doesn't seem to be a manufacturing issue, just some kind of design issue.
The frunk is big and the front hood has an electric motor opener, which is nice. The rear hatch is two part. Press a button and the top electrically opens, and then you have to press a button on the short lift gate to open that all the way. I would rather have a single door, but it isn't horrible. All seats fold flat for good storage. Comes with an optional mini spare tire along with the Rivian air compressor (which can inflate both tires and inflatables, has two modes). The Rivian air compressor is quiet and a cool feature. A 1500 W AC outlet is at the back.
My wife is moving from an Infiniti QX80 which is slightly larger, and, man, it drives really comfortably. The Rivian actually feels like a slight step down in terms of suspension and driver comfort (we got the big engine in the QX80, so it has plenty of power), except that the Rivian is an EV, which brings its own plusses to the equation (single peddle driving, more torque, better navigation display/UI, no gas stations).
The car audio shop was able to integrate the XM receiver and tap into the FM antenna/tuner for the car, so that worked out well. I now have a no compromise XM radio which uses the car audio (car sees it as an FM station). They tried to put the small XM tuner controller into the center console, but couldn't figure out how to get access to it properly without taking the seats out, and they didn't want to start throwing fault codes when seats get disconnected, so they just mounted it under the dash console vents, which works fine (small rectangle below).
Rivian thinks the "XM station" is a Spanish music station
Rivian shipped me their Wall Charger about a week ahead of receiving the vehicle, which was nice. Rivian recently raised the price of their Wall Charger to an eye popping $800 (I got it at the old price), so I'd actually recommend buying the Tesla J1772 Wall Charger for future Rivian owners. And I just received the roof cargo rails, which attached easily - they have a single "kit" for both the R1T (which uses 4 of them) and the R1S (which only uses 3), so I've got an extra rail now. Here's the vehicle with the rails installed:
So far so good. We shall see what the range is like when we drive to the local ski hill in the next several weeks.
Just to add, my feeling is that Rivian is kinda like where Tesla was 10 years ago when they brought out the Model S. They are still figuring a lot of things out. They have small design issues (like unheated headlights) and the suspension could be better (the early Model X suspension was worse). Each software release is making big changes and adding functionality.
But if you are in the market for the Rivian form factors (truck and full sized SUV) then I think they are well worth checking out.
Don’t think that going with an established OEM is going to be any better for an EV. While Rivian and Tesla struggled with normal car design and manufacturing issues, the established OEMs are struggling just as hard if not harder with EV issues like batteries catching fire, range, and OTA updates.
But if you are in the market for the Rivian form factors (truck and full sized SUV) then I think they are well worth checking out.
Don’t think that going with an established OEM is going to be any better for an EV. While Rivian and Tesla struggled with normal car design and manufacturing issues, the established OEMs are struggling just as hard if not harder with EV issues like batteries catching fire, range, and OTA updates.
Huh, turns out my driver sense isn't too bad. I noticed the same thing that Car & Driver noticed in this review of the R1S: 2022 Rivian R1S Has Appeal, but the R1T Pickup Drives Far Better
They said:
Sounds like it could be fixed with a software update.
They said:
Sounds like it could be fixed with a software update.
Update after a couple of weeks. The sounds Rivian has chosen kinda annoy me. The govt mandated low speed warning sounds like some kind of blower, and is too reminiscent of an ICE engine IMHO. Rivian chose it to sound like a waterfall (they missed). Their turn signal sound is a pock-pock low volume sound that I have a hard time hearing, which isn't surprising since it is supposed to be the sound of a raindrop. And finally the external door lock sound is that of a barn swallow ... to which I wonder, European or African Swallow? And while unladen or carrying a coconut?
This is disheartening to hear...I was just shown the one our staff member has (vin 600s) and I love everything about it...except for the software. She never mentioned these repulsive sounds though and she used to have an X....there was so much she was showing me though, so it could have been missed.
The good news is that all the Rivian faults I’ve found so far are software correctable. Hopefully they will get software corrected.
Yeah, from what I have heard their biggest hardware failures are the powered tonneau cover, which they have discontinued until they can redesign one that works for more than a few uses, and the roof glass that will break with flexing of the body or very little weight applied to it.
Early Model S has their share of faults. My car had to get the drivetrain replaced twice. Leaky roof gasket allowing rain water to leak inside. I also got a new battery (they didn't even tell me about that one, they just did it). I didn't mind since I knew Tesla was a brand new manufacturer. As long as they fixed these things, I was good. So far, the Rivian faults have been much more minor for the most part.
Buckminster
Well-Known Member
"Of course it has bugs! Every new car has at least a few bugs in the software. .....wait, you mean actual BED BUGS?!"
jalopnik.com
Bedbugs Have Reportedly Been Found at a Rivian Assembly Plant
Numerous employees told a local newspaper that they'd seen bedbugs on forklifts and other equipment at the Rivian plant in Normal, Illinois.
jalopnik.com
Rivian is having trouble producing in volume for sure. Other start ups like Polestar are doing better at scaling up faster than Rivian.It's almost like production is HARD or something, who knew?
Polestar ‘on track to deliver 50,000 cars this year,’ CEO says
Polestar isn't really a startup. It is a spinoff of Volvo, which is owned by Geely.
Which are quite expert at making BEVs at volume.
European Rivian/ Mercedes Benz van collaboration is reportedly canceled.
