Cascade passes day trip, range, charging, and driver+ reports in R1T

[rraj2k81]

@timesinks Thanks for this update and for doing this. We finally have a real-world charging data point.

Question about the Driver+. When you are on secondary highways, does Driver+ disable Lane Centering with just adaptive cruise control, or do you still have lane centering?

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[SeaGeo]

I talked to one of the engineers at the Denver event yesterday and asked him specifically about the OBD port. The sense I got which jived with intuition is that while it is there (i believe required by law) it probably isn't going to be much help with damn near anything. OBD is from a different era and really not suited to do any sort of diagnostics on software governed hardware like these cars.

That would be by their choosing then, and what you are trying to get from the EV. You can definitely pull current power, battery temperature, SoC, speed, etc with it on a lot of EVs. That's also the only way to get live data to abrp for many cars.

I wouldn't just assume that because people pull data from their Tesla the way they do, that that will work on the Rivian. Hopefully Rivian provides an app to access the data, but in guessing that will be a way down the road.

 

[moosehead]

Well done @timesinks, both your pics and write up are tremendous. Thank you. Keep hoping that curve gets updated.

Love Snoqualmie and Stevens Passes and central WA, beautiful area for a drive.

 

[Gator42]

Only half kidding but what did the dogs think? Back in the day we had a pup that refused to ride in our Explorer. We suspected it was tire noise. Did they seem okay with it?

 

[Inkedsphynx]

In regards to ride comfort and potholes - which suspension setting were you in? Raising/lowering the height of the truck should have very little difference to ride quality on surface streets in regards to bumpiness - it will affect aerodynamics and sway and other things.

Were you in stiff mode? I did my test drive in stiff+sport and found some of the I-5 potholes a little jarring, but when not in stiff mode the suspension soaks up a TON more and really improves the ride quality.

 

[Scoiatael]

I agree is sounds like the disappointment could be on EA's side- it sure looks like the typical issues. It would be nice if improvement comes in an OTA but I wouldn't hold my breath...

Typically if the charging session starts slow or not at all, then it's a problem with the EA charger. If it hits a good peak and then goes down, then it's the vehicles software. This curve points heavily to Rivian's software.

 

[timesinks]

Wait... Huh? The Rivian website claims Driver+ is hands-free. Are you saying Driver+ is not a hands-free system?

They do have the camera for it, but right now, it's a capacitive wheel sensor. I suspect it's taking them longer than they'd hoped to code the facial recognition software that ensures the driver is looking at the road.

@timesinks. Thanks. Wondering if I can get my 100 lb dog in there.haha. He's a weenie and waits for me to lift his back legs up so he can enter the back seat in my Volt. Don't think I can do that in the R1T unless I want a back injury soon.

It's a big jump in standard ride heights. Our 11 year old can still make the jump, but I usually spot and lift his back end to make sure he doesn't come up short. We'll probably find some kind of step stool to stash on the floor in the back seat.

Climate for you - or did you try leaving the dogs alone? Interesting to see your rear-seat setup...I switched back to the R1S in December because we were expecting another dog (a 5yo Samoyed - just got back from picking her up in Oregon yesterday!) and I wasn't sure the rear seat in the R1T would work out.

And if climate for you...did you find you have to keep the fan on all the time? When we did our first mile drive...3 of us (me, wife, guide)...dry conditions...the windows misted up pretty quickly. I thought I read that the default is no fan...so curious to hear how the HVAC did on your trip (particularly when it got rainy).

Just climate on in general. We were near the truck taking photos. The dogs were in and out. They're both just about 85 pounds and actually have room to spare with the hammock setup.

The climate is pretty well done. Mostly just leave it on auto and don't think about it. The fan is on just generally low. I also keep the ventilated seat on most of the time, and it's wonderful. After the dogs had gotten wet, we did need to turn on the defog which also worked well.

@timesinks - what an awesome writeup. Thank you!!!!

For those of us new to all of this EV stuff, what exactly does one see (in the vehicle and on the charging post) that indicates what the charge rate is (66 kW vs 152kW)? Or is that part of the problem, there isn't a good indication so you just have to wait for the charging to happen to figure out how long it's going to take?

Also, did you have to plot your charge curve manually, or is that part of the R1T's software (in vehicle and/or on your phone)?

Thanks a ton!!

LE R1S LG/OC - March-April ?

The charger pedestal and vehicle software generally both report the current charge speed and a session completion ETA. The charger is generally clearly labeled with its max output (the one we used was 350kW). But many people experience problems actually getting the max speeds their vehicles are capable of. Because it's pretty complicated, both the charger and vehicle manufacturer typically try to blame each other, and neither tends to freely make data about the session available that could be used to figure it out.

For the plot I shared, we just snapped a bunch of pictures when we noticed changes in the numbers then logged that into a spreadsheet when we got home.

@timesinks Thanks for this update and for doing this. We finally have a real-world charging data point.

Question about the Driver+. When you are on secondary highways, does Driver+ disable Lane Centering with just adaptive cruise control, or do you still have lane centering?

Adaptive cruise control does not steer.

Only half kidding but what did the dogs think? Back in the day we had a pup that refused to ride in our Explorer. We suspected it was tire noise. Did they seem okay with it?

I think this is their favorite ride yet. Our older dog got to ride around in the Tundra we had a while back. We enjoyed having him on the flat floor under the fold up seat -- his bed fit there and everything. But I'm not sure he appreciated being deprived of good window views. Here, the bench area with the hammock is expansive enough for both of them to move around and actually even change positions without stepping on each other. And they can see. They love it ?

The hum of the ATs is generally the loudest sound inside the cab. We are noticing some wind noise likely from a weather stripping problem on the front passenger door. And when the AC compressor kicks on to full, it's actually quite loud and vibrates the floor under our feet. In most cars, you wouldn't hear/feel it over the ICE and it's positioned further away from you (and probably not as large as this one needs to handle battery conditioning too). But generally comfortably quiet and pleasant.

In regards to ride comfort and potholes - which suspension setting were you in? Raising/lowering the height of the truck should have very little difference to ride quality on surface streets in regards to bumpiness - it will affect aerodynamics and sway and other things.

Were you in stiff mode? I did my test drive in stiff+sport and found some of the I-5 potholes a little jarring, but when not in stiff mode the suspension soaks up a TON more and really improves the ride quality.

Conserve defaulted to soft ride, lowest height. This was unpleasant. We think the reduced travel may be why. Staying in conserve with soft ride but raising to standard height was much more comfortable.

The all-purpose defaults are great for city pot holes. Floats right over them.

 

[lostpacket]

Drive Modes

A big miss in drive modes is that there isn't a snow mode with low- and no-regen options on throttle lift. It would be nice if the off-road modes also had low- and no- options. I wouldn't want these options in all-purpose by any means, but there are road conditions where they would be warranted.

100% agree and I would love to hear more about this. I live in the icy mountains of Vermont and on a steep icy hill with a steep icy driveway. Icy.


I am pretty concerned about the weight and how it handles sliding in snow/ice on a mountain.

 

[Taycanfrank]

Thanks for the great writeup!!

The range seems to line up with about what I get in my Taycan 4S on 20" winters this time of year, maybe even a bit better, which is about what I expected and is a good amount of range for even road trips.

The charging is definitely the biggest cause of concern for the Rivian so far. As @SeaGeo pointed out, we don't know how much of that was the charger, some of the EA chargers around here can't sustain 100 kWh under any circumstance. Colder weather can also be tricky on charging, so I'm eager to see summer numbers.

If you ever are out that way the Ellensburg Taco Bell chargers are the best I've used. They are super fast, once got 80% battery in under 20 minutes there. ?

 

[cheffie]

They do have the camera for it, but right now, it's a capacitive wheel sensor. I suspect it's taking them longer than they'd hoped to code the facial recognition software that ensures the driver is looking at the road.



It's a big jump in standard ride heights. Our 11 year old can still make the jump, but I usually spot and lift his back end to make sure he doesn't come up short. We'll probably find some kind of step stool to stash on the floor in the back seat.



Just climate on in general. We were near the truck taking photos. The dogs were in and out. They're both just about 85 pounds and actually have room to spare with the hammock setup.

The climate is pretty well done. Mostly just leave it on auto and don't think about it. The fan is on just generally low. I also keep the ventilated seat on most of the time, and it's wonderful. After the dogs had gotten wet, we did need to turn on the defog which also worked well.



The charger pedestal and vehicle software generally both report the current charge speed and a session completion ETA. The charger is generally clearly labeled with its max output (the one we used was 350kW). But many people experience problems actually getting the max speeds their vehicles are capable of. Because it's pretty complicated, both the charger and vehicle manufacturer typically try to blame each other, and neither tends to freely make data about the session available that could be used to figure it out.

For the plot I shared, we just snapped a bunch of pictures when we noticed changes in the numbers then logged that into a spreadsheet when we got home.



Adaptive cruise control does not steer.



I think this is their favorite ride yet. Our older dog got to ride around in the Tundra we had a while back. We enjoyed having him on the flat floor under the fold up seat -- his bed fit there and everything. But I'm not sure he appreciated being deprived of good window views. Here, the bench area with the hammock is expansive enough for both of them to move around and actually even change positions without stepping on each other. And they can see. They love it ?

The hum of the ATs is generally the loudest sound inside the cab. We are noticing some wind noise likely from a weather stripping problem on the front passenger door. And when the AC compressor kicks on to full, it's actually quite loud and vibrates the floor under our feet. In most cars, you wouldn't hear/feel it over the ICE and it's positioned further away from you (and probably not as large as this one needs to handle battery conditioning too). But generally comfortably quiet and pleasant.



Conserve defaulted to soft ride, lowest height. This was unpleasant. We think the reduced travel may be why. Staying in conserve with soft ride but raising to standard height was much more comfortable.

The all-purpose defaults are great for city pot holes. Floats right over them.

Interesting that conserve defaults to lowest height immediately. Ride height would really be an efficiency factor until the car reaches higher speeds.

If the ride quality is effected that much at the lowest setting, might be better if it defaulted to standard and lowered itself at highway speeds.

Is the ride poor on a bumpy highway at the lowest height too? The R1Ts I see on the highway in SoCal are usually really low (probably on conserve).

 

[timesinks]

Interesting that conserve defaults to lowest height immediately. Ride height would really be an efficiency factor until the car reaches higher speeds.

If the ride quality is effected that much at the lowest setting, might be better if it defaulted to standard and lowered itself at highway speeds.

Is the ride poor on a bumpy highway at the lowest height too? The R1Ts I see on the highway in SoCal are usually really low (probably on conserve).

Chief complaint in conserve is rough highways.

 

[rraj2k81]

Adaptive cruise control does not steer.

Ah OK. Looks like Driver+ has a long way to go in comparison to Autopilot or Polestar's Pilot Assist.

How about the Stop and Go / Traffic Jam functionality of Driver+?
Does it perform proper Stop and Go with lane centering?
Does it require manual intervention during Stop and Go when it comes to a Stop?

 

[cheffie]

Chief complaint in conserve is rough highways.

Bummer. Having to choose between aerodynamics and ride quality isn’t ideal.

Thanks again for this and all other replies!

 

[timesinks]

Ah OK. Looks like Driver+ has a long way to go in comparison to Autopilot or Polestar's Pilot Assist.

How about the Stop and Go / Traffic Jam functionality of Driver+?
Does it perform proper Stop and Go with lane centering?
Does it require manual intervention during Stop and Go when it comes to a Stop?

We haven't had much true stop and go to test in. I've had one ride while a Model X was driving -- I hated it in stop and go. I find it very unpleasant when the car guns it for two seconds because there's a gap then immediately slams on its brakes. The R1T was more natural, but still pretty much responding only to the gap immediately ahead rather than responding to whether the wave ahead is compressing or spreading out.

From a stop, I believe it will proceed within some defined period of time.

 

[SeaGeo]

Ah OK. Looks like Driver+ has a long way to go in comparison to Autopilot or Polestar's Pilot Assist.

How about the Stop and Go / Traffic Jam functionality of Driver+?
Does it perform proper Stop and Go with lane centering?
Does it require manual intervention during Stop and Go when it comes to a Stop?

I'm bummed that it's location gated for regular lane centering. I get that they are/were doing that for full hands free, but it's pretty odd not having it enabled for any random road when it's "hands on" like very other manufacturer.

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