Cancelling my Pre-order, thoughts inside from test drive

[CalDriver]

People love to say this, but I've owned a Model Y for 3 years, and it's not any worse than the Rivian when it comes to little rattles. It's pretty solid. The early 3/Y builds circa ~2020 were definitely on the crappy side but by 2023/2024 most of that had been sorted out with continuous improvements, and the refresh for MY 2026 made an even bigger difference.

Yes the Y is a bit more stiffly sprung but even with that, the suspension is quite good. Definitely more composed than the R1 for around-town use.

Tires matter more than anything with road noise. Drive a Rivian with the AT or even the Wrangler "All Seasons" (AT Lite) and it's louder than my Model Y.

I've heard this a lot from Tesla owners actually, they seem to have a fit and finish issue. I haven't owned a Rivian yet (I have an R2 reservation). I do own a 2021 Mach-E and that vehicle has been an absolute tank. I have only like ~34,000 miles on it but literally not a single rattle for a car that is over 5 years old at this point.

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[mkg3]

I have to wonder how much lost marketshare Rivian and other manufacturers estimate from not having AA/CP.

How is V2 of the software, because the stream apps on Gen 1 are a complete broken mess.

Apple Music has no artwork and the YouTube app crashes constantly.

Do significant number of people actually make their purchase decisions based on AA/CP???

I understand people get used to having it and if not available, it is missed. That said, I have 2 vehicles with and 2 without. Really makes no difference one way or another.

 

[Millbarge]

Do significant number of people actually make their purchase decisions based on AA/CP???

I understand people get used to having it and if not available, it is missed. That said, I have 2 vehicles with and 2 without. Really makes no difference one way or another.

+++on "album artwork" displayed....

 

[mkg3]

I've heard this a lot from Tesla owners actually, they seem to have a fit and finish issue....

This must be from older Tesla, especially Model X and early Model 3 owners. The current vehicles are finished and the quality is very good.

 

[mkg3]

+++on "album artwork" displayed....

The question is do you make your vehicle purchase decision based on not having the album artwork being displayed??

 

[Millbarge]

I have to wonder how much lost marketshare Rivian and other manufacturers estimate from not having AA/CP.

If someone wants an EV, and is legitimately interested in the R2, realistically, what comparable EV will they buy to get AA/CP as an alternative?

 

[Millbarge]

The question is do you make your vehicle purchase decision based on not having the album artwork being displayed??

It's a complaint I see verbalized often, but probably no one is actually making a decision based on this.

 

[rvnxyz001]

Do significant number of people actually make their purchase decisions based on AA/CP???

I understand people get used to having it and if not available, it is missed. That said, I have 2 vehicles with and 2 without. Really makes no difference one way or another.

They make this decision if AA/CP is unavailable and the built in navigation or media apps are poor quality. I believe most people use AA/CP only for this. So you are basically buying a car and have to mount a phone to navigate (or play music via bluetooth) like in the old days , which can easily be a dealbreaker for many.

It is not about infotainment in general. You do not use it at all in legacy cars. It usually works like this: you sit in your car, start it, and your phone connects and opens AA/CP with a map. Google Maps or Apple Maps predicts where you want to go, usually very accurately. You press a button and drive, then say, “Hey Google/Siri, play XYZ.” That is it. You do not do anything else.

If the built in infotainment can do the same, it will be fine for most people. The navigation will certainly lag behind native AA/CP apps because you are getting the latest and greatest from Apple, Google, and Spotify, not from Rivian’s small software team. For example, Tesla’s Spotify app is absolute garbage in terms of its interface. It looks like something from the 2000s. The map is similar, with a super dated design compared to recent versions of Apple Maps and Google Maps.

 

[rvnxyz001]

what comparable EV will they buy to get AA/CP as an alternative?

Tesla, once they release Apple CarPlay support (should be there this year)

 

[Millbarge]

They make this decision if AA/CP is unavailable and the built in navigation or media apps are poor quality. I believe most people use AA/CP only for this. So you are basically buying a car and have to mount a phone to navigate like in the old days, which can easily be a dealbreaker for many.

I literally see cars with phones mounted on the dash, even if the car has AA/CP, on a daily basis....

 

[Millbarge]

Tesla, once they release Apple CarPlay support (should there this year)

Holding my breath:

Apple CarPlay is reportedly in active development for Tesla vehicles, though neither company has issued an official public release date. Reports from Bloomberg indicate that integration has been delayed due to technical hurdles—specifically syncing Apple Maps navigation data with Tesla's Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD) systems. Apple introduced a "route sharing" feature in recent iOS updates to resolve these mapping conflicts, clearing the primary technical roadblock, and code hints suggest CarPlay will run inside a dedicated window on the native Tesla interface rather than taking over the entire screen

 

[LevelHeaded]

They make this decision if AA/CP is unavailable and the built in navigation or media apps are poor quality. I believe most people use AA/CP only for this. So you are basically buying a car and have to mount a phone to navigate (or play music via bluetooth) like in the old days , which can easily be a dealbreaker for many.

It is not about infotainment in general. You do not use it at all in legacy cars. It usually works like this: you sit in your car, start it, and your phone connects and opens AA/CP with a map. Google Maps or Apple Maps predicts where you want to go, usually very accurately. You press a button and drive, then say, “Hey Google/Siri, play XYZ.” That is it. You do not do anything else.

If the built in infotainment can do the same, it will be fine for most people. The navigation will certainly lag behind native AA/CP apps because you are getting the latest and greatest from Apple, Google, and Spotify, not from Rivian’s small software team. For example, Tesla’s Spotify app is absolute garbage in terms of its interface. It looks like something from the 2000s. The map is similar, with a super dated design compared to recent versions of Apple Maps and Google Maps.

Not only that but many of us have multiple cars from multiple manufacturers. It’s a lot more streamlined to have your phone as the single source of truth for all of your data and the common UX for infotainment. Versus managing multiple different parallel sources of truth that have differing levels of access/awareness of your phone data, which is by far the most reliable source of that data. And dealing with N disparate UXes for infotainment.

 

[EVtowing]

Interesting that the OP places such a high priority on AA/CP. Tesla owners have also complained about that vociferously for years, and even now it is only possible to have them available through 3rd part add-ons.

As a long time Apple user, after 13 years of driving only Teslas I still don’t care about having CP, nor do I care much about the rest of the OPs list.

Everyone has their own priorities…

 

[rvnxyz001]

I literally see cars with phones mounted on the dash, even if the car has AA/CP, on a daily basis....

Maybe because they need apps that do not work well with AA/CP or do not offer fully featured versions. Like ride sharing/deliver drivers , they need phones anyway

 

[Apprunner]

Interesting that the OP places such a high priority on AA/CP. Tesla owners have also complained about that vociferously for years, and even now it is only possible to have them available through 3rd part add-ons.

As a long time Apple user, after 13 years of driving only Teslas I still don’t care about having CP, nor do I care much about the rest of the OPs list.

Everyone has their own priorities…

I use Carplay a ton but I highly prefer the Tesla native interface....i think its vastly better. I tell Grok where i want to go and it maps it instantly. Also the native interface predicts the battery on arrival perfectly. I'm glad the R2 is sticking to the native interface vs. going to CP which I think is highly overrated (and I use it almost everyday vs. the crappy Kia system).

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