Mystery Bumper Wires!

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

I wonder how snarky Rivian Assistant will become when asked questions like that over and over...

Seriously though, why call someone a jerk for suggesting to read the manual? The fact they asked the original question implies they will likely have other similar questions and having them look at the owner's manual might, just might, answer their quesitons before they form...

And I didn't say "read the fucking manual", which I could have. What I said was there are lots of mysteries waiting to be dispelled if any owner would just take a little time to flip through it, instead of dismissing it. It's called the Owner Guide for a reason, instead of Someone Else's Guide. Who is the owner of your car? Who bears responsibility for your relationship with your car? me or "you"?

But, hey, people who choose to be offended... Well, that's their choice (and their consequence). Good luck getting any help at all with that hyper-defensive outlook.

These wires have been in the Owner Guide since it was first published back in late '21. And if the wires were live, don't you think it would have shorted, triggered all sorts of errors and caused power drain long ago? None of this occurred, right? And could Rivian, with all of their engineers and highly educated minds, be that irresponsible?

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[Dave Cundiff]

I wonder how snarky Rivian Assistant will become when asked questions like that over and over...

It turns out that in healthcare, AI gets high marks for empathy, which we think of as a human characteristic.

For accuracy, AI has a long way to go. But to fake the appearance of empathy, it's already there. As of 2026, AI agents seem to have leapfrogged the "Turing Test."

And I didn't say "read the fucking manual", which I could have.

The First Law of Excavation: When I'm in a hole that I didn't plan to be in, I stop digging....

Best to all!

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

The First Law of Excavation: When I'm in a hole that I didn't plan to be in, I stop digging....

Best to all!

Meant to point out overreaction from someone who is consistently hyper-defensive. Look at past threads.

 

[LivingInKaos]

And if the wires were live, don't you think it would have shorted, triggered all sorts of errors and caused power drain long ago?

Actually - vehicles before the first refresh, the wires are live and have caps on them. It was only at the refresh that they diode protected the lines.

Just some edification for folks in case maybe someone gets a used '22 early '23 and comes by this post.

Obviously that is not the case for the OP with a '25 model.

 

[Hereforthesnacks]

Or you can look at the manual and learn much more than what you didn't know and could have know... if you knew to help yourself to a collection of knowledge you've had all along, on three different platforms (in case one doesn't know that too).

Or you can read/see everything as a personal affront and reject every bit of knowledge that could help you.

Your feelings. Your choice. Your problem.

Makes no difference to me.

You seem pretty invested lol. Seems like it matters a ton to you.

You don’t have to comment on everything. If you would rather not answer a question that has been asked before, then don’t. Telling someone to read the manual and then pointing out the three places it’s available, isn’t exactly imparting “knowledge” lol

 

[Rivian Owner]

Maybe Rivian can write some code to pop up the owner's manual on both screens when the charging cable is plugged in? AI can help pick the section to display; for example when one tire starts getting low pressure, they could pop up everything you wanted to know about tire maintenance and jacking the vehicle, or when you have a trailer attached they could pop up everything having to do with the hitch and what is around the hitch. It would be fun and educational while waiting for the vehicle to charge! Kinda like seatbelt warnings, only better.

 

[Seattleite]

Slightly off-topic, but does anyone know what equipment Rivian Service uses to energise these cables - the car wants a continuous 15V @ 30A, which is beyond any jump-start packs I own...

 

[Rivian Owner]

Slightly off-topic, but does anyone know what equipment Rivian Service uses to energise these cables - the car wants a continuous 15V @ 30A, which is beyond any jump-start packs I own...

Most jump packs will work as long as they have the ability to put out 30 amps. Your lead acid cells may be listed for 12v but when fully charged they are closer to 14v. A lithium jumper pack should work fine.

 

[LivingInKaos]

You seem pretty invested lol. Seems like it matters a ton to you.

You don’t have to comment on everything. If you would rather not answer a question that has been asked before, then don’t. Telling someone to read the manual and then pointing out the three places it’s available, isn’t exactly imparting “knowledge” lol

Why reinvent the wheel over and over. Rivian spent a bit of time putting together and maintaining an "owner's guide" with all sorts of useful information. Guiding people to that rather than answering one specific question might impart WAYYYYyyyy more wisdom than just that simple answer.

The part that frustrates people into not wanting to answer every little question is that most of these things can be found with a simple search.... which for this takes you right to this exact question that was asked previously....

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

Maybe Rivian can write some code to pop up the owner's manual on both screens when the charging cable is plugged in? AI can help pick the section to display; for example when one tire starts getting low pressure, they could pop up everything you wanted to know about tire maintenance and jacking the vehicle, or when you have a trailer attached they could pop up everything having to do with the hitch and what is around the hitch. It would be fun and educational while waiting for the vehicle to charge! Kinda like seatbelt warnings, only better.

Or they could create an in-car LLM AI assistant that could answer naturally spoken questions? Oh, wait, they just did. And it's been more than a full year since they rolled out the in-mobile-app text-based version?

 

[usulio]

Really enjoying this forum feature.

 

[LivingInKaos]

Really enjoying this forum feature.

What's the point? You obviously aren't ignoring them if you are quoting them ???? Find another soap box, that one has holes.

 

[SwaziCAR]

Slightly off-topic, but does anyone know what equipment Rivian Service uses to energise these cables - the car wants a continuous 15V @ 30A, which is beyond any jump-start packs I own...

FWIW, when a mobile tech jumped my vehicle before replacing the 12-volt battery, he asserted that this pack is the only Rivian-"approved" pack:

Schumacher Electric DSR165 ProSeries 2200-Amp 12-Volt Portable Car Battery Jump Starter with Digital Display DSR165

Although he used the word, "approved," my guess is he meant it's the one mobile techs use. He also said there's some sort of jump-related difference between Gen 1 and Gen 2 vehicles, and that this pack is known to work for both.

 

[LivingInKaos]

Schumacher Electric DSR165 ProSeries 2200-Amp 12-Volt Portable Car Battery Jump Starter with Digital Display DSR165

That's the one they used to sell on the rivianservicetools website. They've since removed it for some reason.

I can vouch for the need of a very heavy duty unit to actually jump the R1's. At our autoshow in Feb, the fire marshall was a little clueless when it came to ev's and had the intake crew pull the HV loops on all the ev's. Of course, this killed the R1T we had in and the Tesla next to it. When I got there opening morning, I found what they did and explained we needed to jump it. They brought out several different jump packs, none of them were enough- even the one that looked like it could jumps start a tank. It took so long that the 12v was completely dead and there was no jumping it so I had to have the SC guys come over and swap the battery. Expensive mistake for the fire marshall to make. The Tesla was worse off because they actually pulled a connector below the HV loop - wrong thing to do. The tech was there for over 24 hrs fixing it because apparently it caused a cascade of failures that needed to reflash multiple systems.

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