Did something change in the Halo (scroll) wheels?

[svend76]

I sat in a pre-production R2 in Miami about a month ago and spent some time playing with the Halo wheels and they felt great; easy to manipulate and they had a heavy positive feel rather like the volume knob on a high end audio system.

Last night I passed by the Miami location and there was what I assume was a production R2 in the showroom. The Halo wheels felt totally different, and not in a good way. They felt light, plasticky, and I found them rather hard to work with.

I'm not sure if my memory of them is faulty, or perhaps there was some sort of change from pre-production? I noticed how early reviews were positive, but current reviews from forum members are mixed.

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[RomanMF]

They’re too hard to press in a single direction without triggering an action for another direction. You pull them up to you and end up scrolling up a few notches. You pull them to left and end up scrolling down a bit. There needs to be software tuning to the deadzones.

 

[TheWebMedic]

It would be great if they allowed a user sensitivity adjustment.

 

[Eric9610]

I agree with the OP. I thought the felt less substantial and plasticky.

 

[dleepnw]

Hmmm. I'm beginning to think there was some change done from pre-production to production. Which happens to all vehicles across various materials, designs, and features but, it'll be a huge miss if they went cheap on the halo wheels. Lots of people are commenting on SM how they are surprised and disappointed in the wheels. On my demo drive it definitely felt plasticky and not premium. It was tricky to click left-right, without accidentally scrolling up-down, though it might get easier over time.

Whats interesting is there was a live IG earlier this week with RJ and his leadership team, including design chief Jeff. At one point when they were talking about the interior design choices, RJ mentioned the halo wheels and how he and Jeff had differing opinions on them. I wonder if between the prototype and production design there was some tradeoff made to go cheaper?

 

[cwq93r]

It would be great if they allowed a user sensitivity adjustment.

That’s what the EV9 does with its Touch Sensitive dash buttons

 

[TheLTrain]

I would disagree, on my test drive I had zero problems with the wheels. I found them to be responsive and intuitive. Just another data point.

 

[vbaker]

I did find using the wheels to be a bit challenging but I think I could get used to them quickly. One thing I did notice was you change features on the right wheel by clicking left or right. On the left wheel you have to pull the wheel toward you to get a set of feature windows to scroll through and choose. Seemed somewhat counter-intuitive but again I think I would get used to it quickly.

 

[LevelHeaded]

I do wish they felt more high quality. Rivian really needs to realize that the touch points, the things that people touch and press and pull and click, should be the things you invest the pennys in making feel good. They’ve improved some of these touch points on the R2 vs the R1, but I’m surprised with these wheels

 

[elektrode]

Having only watched videos before, I was sure these would feel or be metal. Disappointing to hear they feel like or are plastic.

 

[Dark-Fx]

The amount of effort is tuneable. I would be surprised to hear they aren't collecting data on usage and wouldn't have a way to to determine accidental extraneous effects from use.

 

[runwithscissors]

Kyle from out of spec said the same thing, felt plasticky and even he had some issues with control. I think the average person will probably struggle with them. I sat in the pre-prod version of the R2 and they felt pretty good but haven't done a test drive to tell the difference.

 

[GraniteWatt]

I think it was mentioned somewhere that they had to go with a lighter material to ensure the haptics could be felt.

 

[rodhx]

My biggest issue with them during our test drive was the significant response lag in adjusting the stereo volume. Everything else looks to be a learning curve to figure out just what they actually do.

 

[Utah-Jay]

Many have said the wheels feel different driving then they did at showrooms. Please remember if you are just sitting in a vehicle at a showroom it is very different than while driving. Just sitting you are not task saturated in an unfamiliar vehicle. Of course the feel is going to be different. After a week of driving the haptic wheels will totally natural is my guess.

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