The most annoying thing about my R1T so far

[Guy]

You would still have the bracelet and card to use so you don’t need the physical key either and I would assume you have you wallet with you to drive. Annoying grantee but not as bad as the situation you currently have.

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[Taco]

Does the truck have a depressurizing vent? I know Teslas do.

Might be because in the Teslas they all are frameless doors so the windows are always slightly down when the door shuts then comes up a little more.

 

[Taco]

That's a real bummer that the fob isn't active.

I'm sure give them time to work out things like this. It's important right now as an early owner to provide them feedback. In any typical feedback provide (Problem, reasons why it's a problem AND a possible fix / outcome that would work for you.) This way they can understand multiple point of views, after dealing with developers for years its best to give them fixes / outcomes that work or you'll get a "fix" that bugs you.
(Looking at software right now that has had a "fix" for 4 years now and it STILL bugs me.)

 

[r1vlife]

I've had the exact same problem. I tried turning off Bluetooth but it's not a great solution when the carabiner key doesn't unlock until you're right in front of the driver's door pushing the unlock button.

 

[atlastracer]

Don't have a solution. But just wanted to say: As a non-owner (yet), I can ? understand this being a major frustration. I don't think it's minor at all. Hope they fix it. Have you provided this as feedback and/or raised a service request on it? I know it may be "working as intended" - but it would be great to get them the feedback that it is still a frustration design

 

[bd5400]

Sounds similar to our slightly annoying issue with our Model X. Our X doesn't use our phone as a key, but does have a passive keyfob. If you have the auto-opening door enabled, the door to the car will pop open anytime you're near, including if you're inside certain parts of the house with the car in the garage (or outside in the rain, which is very annoying). Ended up having to disable the automatic door.

Obviously not really an option with the R1T due to how the handles need to present themselves. At least with our Model 3 you had to pull on the door handle before the car would unlock using the phone as a key, but the Model 3 has fully manual door handles compared to the R1T's electronic present/manual release door handles.

 

[Dark-Fx]

If anyone has come up with a better way to deal with this please let me know.

Wrap your phone in aluminum foil to reduce the distance of the bluetooth transmission.

I've already put in a service request that's probably related to this being too aggressive. Maybe they don't have enough triangulation radios in the vehicle to appropriately tell how far away you are. I'd much rather have something I could touch to start the unlock sequence if this is going to be how it performs.

 

[the long way downunder]

Let me start by saying that I love this truck. It's nearly flawless in many way. But it has one massive problem that is very difficult to live with. I know if you don't have the truck yet this is going to seem like a minor thing but living with it is quite another pain in the neck.

I'll have to go play with my R1T keys (any excuse …) because there's some discrepancies between your observations and how I understand my R1 to operate. Also, the wristband doesn't work at all and there's no way to reset/delete it (the menu says "service" has to delete the factory supplied keys.) There's also a limit of two phone keys per driver

I agree the software managing the door locks and keys is … version 1.0 or perhaps beta 0.9 … some hardware issues, too. e.g. there's no physical button to lock/unlock the doors. I have suggested making a single tap or a double tap of the Gear Tunnel button toggle the door locks with a user setting to choose the action assignment for a long press to open the gear tunnel door … really, ALL user functions, all buttons and switches should have some user customization … e.g. reversing the controls for distance-keeping and cruise speed setting.

There are technically 5 keys (Phone, Metal key, 2x card keys, and Bracelet). Of all these the phone is the only passive key. The problem is the phone is proximity based and uses bluetooth. So if you come anywhere near the car it unlocks the car. Ideally you'd have to touch the door handle for this but as it is, every single time I come near the car with my phone it goes through the unlock / lock. This is a huge annoyance as I work in my garage a lot and I always have my phone with me. That means the car unlocks and locks like several hundred times a day this way. That's not even the annoying part. You can't lock the car any other way than to walk away from it. What's worse is you can't prevent it from getting locked when you walk away. So if I go and put one of my kids in the car, and then walk back inside the house to get the other kid, the car locks the first kid in the car. And then the alarm will go off... Then my phone won't unlock the car anymore on approach. It's a serious comedy of events that end up frustrating the heck out of you.

There is one proximity setting and the owner's manual mentions a time-out setting … again, it should all be user-defined and have some simple GPS intelligence to say "relax at home" setting so it doesn't fill Gear Patrol with videos of everyone passing near it in the home garage (and have a "vigilant" setting when you do want it to be hyper-vigilant in the home garage or driveway.

Believe it or not, that's not even the most annoying part. In my 4 days of ownership so far, I've had several hundred unintended lock/unlocks. But when I do approach the car to actually try and get in, about 25% of the time it doesn't register me at all. I have to take the phone out, load the app, wait for it to connect to the car, click unlock, and the wait for it to unlock. This typically happens after it's just locked cause I walked away from the car and then came back.

I find I have to wake my phone (Android) but I don't have to unlock it.

So the alternative is to turn this future off. But that means I won't have any more passive keys. Which means I have to carry the metal key around and I won't have a keyless entry at all anymore. I really wish RIVIAN would have made a touch sensitive part of the door handle like every other manufacturer to unlock and lock the door.

Bingo!
Touch sensitive door locks is the obvious omission … what were they thinking? They've put serious R&D into those door handles … the ex-Tesla people at Rivian know Tesla has no clue on door handles, so they clearly tried to make these great (and I think they're fine) except … the dimple isn't a touch-sensitive button … let alone what it should be is a fingerprint reader …

If anyone has come up with a better way to deal with this please let me know.

Another problem that kind of adds to this is that the doors (especially the rear) and extremely hard to close. You have to slam them. So very often it happens that my kids can't close the door, so the car just stays on for several hours because the door wasn't fully closed. This makes the cooling fans run at high speed for some reason ... anyway, I know this all seems like a minor gripe but when you live with it for a few days you'll get sick of it pretty quickly.

As others have noted, it's a combination of tight air seals and cabin pressure. Tesla has frameless windows. I find after a little encouragement, my family has gone from closing the doors with a "1 of 10 effort" (because the Model X has self-closing doors) to a "11 out of 11" (because the F-150 has big, heavy doors with tight air-seals) and found a "3 out of 10" push will close the rear doors reliably.
I've noticed the front doors on my R1T close more easily than I'd expect and compared to the rears (comparing with another door left open to remove the air pressure factor) and I notice excessive wind noise around the quarter vent window of the front doors near the mirrors, so I'm wondering if there's an updated door seal (mine is a very early build) with better air seals (and harder to close.)

Otherwise, I've not found any quality or defect issues. I'm taking it in this week to look at the wind noise.

 

[SoCal Rob]

This is a huge annoyance as I work in my garage a lot and I always have my phone with me. That means the car unlocks and locks like several hundred times a day this way. That's not even the annoying part. You can't lock the car any other way than to walk away from it. What's worse is you can't prevent it from getting locked when you walk away. So if I go and put one of my kids in the car, and then walk back inside the house to get the other kid, the car locks the first kid in the car. And then the alarm will go off... Then my phone won't unlock the car anymore on approach. It's a serious comedy of events that end up frustrating the heck out of you..

This sounds VERY annoying. A lot of times I use a product and I am forced to wonder how much user testing was done. I find it hard to believe they didn't trip across this when testing camping or party scenarios.

I really wish RIVIAN would have made a touch sensitive part of the door handle like every other manufacturer to unlock and lock the door.

Here's hoping that they have the necessary hardware to detect physical interaction (capacitive touch or pressure) rather than simply relying on proximity. If not, a work-around could be through an app update where a setting could be added to require the phone to be unlocked in order for phone as key to work. Maybe a setting to require a PIN or biometric unlock when within range. I envision turning this setting on so an unlocked phone / TouchID, FaceID, or Android equivalents are required in conjunction with proximity to the vehicle. Less than ideal, but probably better than your current experience.

 

[trez63]

Funny thing is, all of these issues would automatically be resolved if they turned the metal key into a passive key. I can't understand why that key is not passive. But I guess if you don't have a touch capacitive surface then the key would always be pinged so battery on the key would likely run out very quickly.

I just went and disabled the approach feature, and something else occurred to me. You can't leave the car unlocked unless you want it to always be ready to go. Which means it runs all the screens, the HVAC and air suspension is always running if the vehicle is simply unlocked so basically you MUST lock your vehicle because that seems to be the only way to turn all this shit off. I have to agree with Matt Farah's assessment that all EVs should have a ON/OFF button.

A lot of this arises from the idea that EVs should innovate everything. I totally disagree with that. I think cars in general have figured out a lot of things over time for good reason. The whole keyless/go situation has been getting ironed out for the past 20+ years. My Gladiator does an absolutely brilliant job of it including a flawless remote start feature. I think EV companies should only focus on innovating in the areas that are ICE related. And yes, please, innovate the heck out of that. But trying to innovate the way the doors open and close (Model X), and locking, and lighting, is just re-inventing the wheel. Which I'm sure one of the is about to do.

 

[trez63]

I've already put in a service request ...

I'm new to this, how do you put in a service request?

 

[Dark-Fx]

I'm new to this, how do you put in a service request?

Open your Rivian app. Click the Hexagon. "Get something fixed".

 

[ksujeff99]

Funny thing is, all of these issues would automatically be resolved if they turned the metal key into a passive key. I can't understand why that key is not passive. But I guess if you don't have a touch capacitive surface then the key would always be pinged so battery on the key would likely run out very quickly.

I just went and disabled the approach feature, and something else occurred to me. You can't leave the car unlocked unless you want it to always be ready to go. Which means it runs all the screens, the HVAC and air suspension is always running if the vehicle is simply unlocked so basically you MUST lock your vehicle because that seems to be the only way to turn all this shit off. I have to agree with Matt Farah's assessment that all EVs should have a ON/OFF button.

A lot of this arises from the idea that EVs should innovate everything. I totally disagree with that. I think cars in general have figured out a lot of things over time for good reason. The whole keyless/go situation has been getting ironed out for the past 20+ years. My Gladiator does an absolutely brilliant job of it including a flawless remote start feature. I think EV companies should only focus on innovating in the areas that are ICE related. And yes, please, innovate the heck out of that. But trying to innovate the way the doors open and close (Model X), and locking, and lighting, is just re-inventing the wheel. Which I'm sure one of the is about to do.

That scares the heck out of me. What prevents this scenario...

I'm at a family campout.
Phone proximity lock/unlock is enabled.
Truck is unlocked and "ready to go" because I'm only sitting 10 feet away.
My 12 year old nephew surreptitiously gets in the drivers seat, engages drive, and presses the go pedal. Hilarity/tragedy ensues.

A couple other scenarios I'm thinking about

• I drop my kids off at school. They have greeters who open the car door from the outside. Without physical lock/unlock controls, how do I "present" the door handles so they can open the rear passenger door?
• What if I park my truck outside of my garage one night and my bedroom is close enough for the proximity unlock? Will the truck stay unlocked all night?
• Thieves figured out how to intercept Tesla's proximity key signals to steal cars right out of the owner's driveway. We all hear warnings about how bluetooth isn't secure. Is that a worry?
• If I park at the trailhead and go for a run, leaving my phone and wallet inside the truck, how do I lock the truck when I walk away? Is the truck smart enough to realize it's locked with the phone proximity key inside?

 

[jjswan33]

Another problem that kind of adds to this is that the doors (especially the rear) and extremely hard to close. You have to slam them. So very often it happens that my kids can't close the door, so the car just stays on for several hours because the door wasn't fully closed. This makes the cooling fans run at high speed for some reason ... anyway, I know this all seems like a minor gripe but when you live with it for a few days you'll get sick of it pretty quickly.

I agree about the back doors as well, you have to shut them a little harder than you should. They don't close nearly as solidly as the front doors. I have put my dog back there and then went to drive several times before I realized the back door wasn't shut.

The gear tunnel doors are also a little harder to shut but I think this is explained by the fact you have to lift the door to shut it, so requires extra force.

I also have trouble shutting the hatch in the bed, I usually have to slam it several times to shut it.

 

[DaveA]

That scares the heck out of me. What prevents this scenario...

I'm at a family campout.
Phone proximity lock/unlock is enabled.
Truck is unlocked and "ready to go" because I'm only sitting 10 feet away.
My 12 year old nephew surreptitiously gets in the drivers seat, engages drive, and presses the go pedal. Hilarity/tragedy ensues.

A couple other scenarios I'm thinking about

• I drop my kids off at school. They have greeters who open the car door from the outside. Without physical lock/unlock controls, how do I "present" the door handles so they can open the rear passenger door?
• What if I park my truck outside of my garage one night and my bedroom is close enough for the proximity unlock? Will the truck stay unlocked all night?
• Thieves figured out how to intercept Tesla's proximity key signals to steal cars right out of the owner's driveway. We all hear warnings about how bluetooth isn't secure. Is that a worry?
• If I park at the trailhead and go for a run, leaving my phone and wallet inside the truck, how do I lock the truck when I walk away? Is the truck smart enough to realize it's locked with the phone proximity key inside?

1. Put it in park when the greeters come to get the kids. Handles present.
2. Turn off bluetooth at night.
3. No clue on that one. Guess we're all at risk.
4. You leave your phone and wallet in your vehicle in a public place? Probably not a good idea.

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