The definition of vampire drain is energy usage while not in use. The general purpose of a vehicle is to be driven, thus energy used outside of that purpose is vampire drain.
Oh, that energy is absolutely being consumed by the vehicle. But when we talk about "vampire drain", what we're referring to is unnecessary/undesired usage. We're basically stating that Rivian still has some fine tuning to do to minimize power usage when the vehicle is parked and not in use. Some things, such as Gear Guard, are expected to increase the draw on the battery if we choose to use them. That is understood. But we also need a way to force power draw to an absolute minimum for things like extended airport parking and overlanding. Pre-warming/cooling the cabin is another one of those things where, should we choose to enable, we would expect added draw on the battery. The problem we are seeing however is that we do not seem to have adequate control of what is drawing power and when. This may simply be incomplete (minimum viable product) or buggy Rivian software or it may be that Rivian's implementation simply does meet customer expectations. Either way, there is room for improvement in Rivian's power management.
She was locked the entire time. Plus, the latest update was applied over wifi while I was gone, so perhaps that played a role in the extreme battery drain.
I think the crux of the matter is a philosophical one regarding the battery and its health. Rivian (or other EV makers) are not going to hand over complete control to the owner for how the battery health is managed (because we don't have the knowledge or ability to properly do so). That's the new world we live in, vehicles aren't completely under our control anymore.
Rivian also has a vested interest in conservation. I don't disagree with your statement about the consumer not managing battery health but the "vampire drain" issues being reported are in no way related to maintaining battery health. You're entitled to have a different opinion, even if it's wrong.
Certainly the update process would have contributed to some of that consumption. Also possible the update left the climate settings in an undesirable state that caused the truck to continue to maintain cabin temp. Hard to say exactly what might have happened but the update certainly introduces some new possibilities.
Your loss is about in-line with mine. 14 days sounds like a little over 4%per day for 70% to 37 miles of range (depends on your conversion math). I have a fairly consistent 4% drain per day for my 1 month of ownership and have yet to enable gear guard. Outside temperature may have a big impact on this number as I have had a few days in the 6% loss range when near freezing temps, but mostly it's in the 50's and 60's here. I have never had my cabin maintain any temperature unless I unlock the truck. May want to get that part checked out if it continues.
Here's another instance - this was posted on FaceBook today. Seems to me they need, if they are not doing it already, a "super deep sleep" mode. For example, if sleeping for more than X hours, and battery level below a critical X%, shut down EVERYTHING.
My polestar 2 doesn't have a button and doesn't have an issue with vampire drain at all. Sat 2 weeks with some below freezing overnight temps and didn't lose an appreciably amount of energy. They've had two years to work on the software at this point though. Rivian will figure out, I just hope it's soon.
