What is the biggest glaring "miss" you see with the R1x?

[MXA121]

Say you don’t understand CarPlay without saying you don’t understand CarPlay.

I understand Carplay's existence is a stop gap until Automakers can do it right themselves. You can cling to it forever if you want, but I'm willing to move to Rivian and Tesla style interfaces.

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[the long way downunder]

For me, it's a power running board. I feel like this should have been an extremely high priority on a luxury, ultimate off-roader. In terms of practicality it boggles my mind how they could be futsing about with camp kitchens and whatnot while there's still like a 12" clearence at the lowest ride height from the door sill.

It's also a cool "techy" feature that already exists and is kind of the best way to do a running board. I feel like Rivian could have easily built something into the molding even to maintain aerodynamics.

I'd want this 10x more than a powered cover over a manual one, for instance.



Completely unforgivable to have a car of this quality, this capable, this expensive and not have this thought through better.

I'll hit on two misses: partners and software.

Rivian has missed the Jeep business model. Ford didn't. They took their (beloved) Bronco brand and first shot, hit a bullseye on the ownership experience of a neo–cult vehicle. From factory cool stuff and a laundry list of options to customization and aftermarket upgrades. OK, that's easy for Ford, I don't expect it of Rivian, except … Rivian was deeply into partnership with Ford and could easily have said "we're too small to do this, you've got billions invested in our success, so could you open up your deep bench of players and have all those cool features, options and aftermarket products and services ready for the R1T?")

It's hard to draw the "glaring" line. Their position is a defensible "we brought the product to market, ahead of our competitors and we're still arguably the best in class when they arrive" rather than postpone (even longer …) to finish various "nice to have" features.

So I'd say the glaring miss is that they still don't have partners and aftermarket. Yes, they have a few, but not the kind of stuff, even the basics, that Jeep and Bronco, Toyota, Land Rover, Subaru and Lada Niva owners can click on any web site and have installed at a local 4wheelparts, etc.

It's most of four years … keeping in mind, this was a 2018 debut at which time they could have already had a more complete ownership proposition.

Rivian is slow on the software. It has still not implemented Tank Turn Mode as advertised from "day one" of the R1T in I think 2018. It's great to have pet mode before tank turn and improves to parasitic loss of charge are a "given," but now we're getting froufrou stuff (Rivian is talking about games and other Tesla stuff that I couldn't care less about in our X and 3) instead of the meat and potatoes (and I'm vegan, so let's say "pea protein burger and leafy greens with an apple cider vinaigrette" … : ) like diff-lock equivalent drive mode … straightforward lock up all four motors in synchronous … instead we get a sand mode that looks like fun but a heavy vehicle still gets buried to the belly in soft sand without airing down to 15 psi regardless of coding genius. Where is Rivian on Tesla's cash cow marketing of FSD? Why is Rivian's self-steering less functional than Ford OvalCruise or GM BowtieCruise? Where's autopark (working really well on my 2021 F-150 Hybrid, which also self-drives, hands-off for any length of freeway, no fuss) and why is the phone app brain dead and slow?

Where is Tank Turn Mode?

Even a Ford has a little button to do a "dig" … sheesh. A $30K Bronco (if you can find one to buy) has a little button on the dash to dig a sharper turn than a Rivian. : )

That said, anyone with an R1T could sell it for a huge profit over what they paid, but mostly we're all not selling. So Rivian made the right decision to go to market with a good product, not a perfect product. I want to just about go out and sit in the R1T and anthropomorphically console it to say I don't mean all these harsh words and I don't think it's a "swing and miss" … : )

p.s. I do really want tank turn, even if I hardly ever use it.

 

[LevelHeaded]

R1T rear seat flipping up to reveal a flat floor

 

[the long way downunder]

Say you don’t understand CarPlay without saying you don’t understand CarPlay.

I don't understand CarPlay. What does it do that is most useful and uniquely more useful than a vehicle without CarPlay and just has an Apple or Google phone on the dash?

 

[CommodoreAmiga]

I don't understand CarPlay. What does it do that is most useful and uniquely more useful than a vehicle without CarPlay and just has an Apple or Google phone on the dash?

That’s a bit of a loaded question, no?

The point is that CarPlay does more than the car offers and it doesn’t require suction-cupping a phone to the dash (which I think is always ugly and often unsafe).

 

[astonius]

I understand Carplay's existence is a stop gap until Automakers can do it right themselves. You can cling to it forever if you want, but I'm willing to move to Rivian and Tesla style interfaces.

Wrong, but thanks for playing.

 

[astonius]

I don't understand CarPlay. What does it do that is most useful and uniquely more useful than a vehicle without CarPlay and just has an Apple or Google phone on the dash?

It provides a fully-integrated interface for using your phone and its associated apps and services safely in the car. The entire impetus for its existence was to prevent phone use while driving.

 

[MXA121]

Wrong, but thanks for playing.

Lol your a crabby little guy

 

[Singletracker]

Not a rant. I asked. You answered. Regarding the RTT, I would have assumed the crossbars would work well, considering Rivian is selling a RTT. Or do you want to use a different tent that requires different spacing? Specific to the R1S, there are three different mounting points for the crossbars…. Are you saying the front too are too close together but the front and rear are too far apart?

You are exactly right, on my RTT spacing!!! The crossbars will work, IF you use a tent that is roughly the same folded footprint as the one Rivian offers. Any longer footprint and there could be problems.

Again, the crossbars are great and will serve the intended purpose for many. I get that. But, they are very limiting for others. With a better mounting point design, they could accommodate a much broader range of options in what one chooses to mount, either on the T or S . I wonder if Rivian didn’t get so mesmerized by how slick those crossbars were that they completely ignored their limitations. Oh, well??

 

[bgmaxey]

You are exactly right, on my RTT spacing!!! The crossbars will work, IF you use a tent that is roughly the same folded footprint as the one Rivian offers. Any longer footprint and there could be problems.

Again, the crossbars are great and will serve the intended purpose for many. I get that. But, they are very limiting for others. With a better mounting point design, they could accommodate a much broader range of options in what one chooses to mount, either on the T or S . I wonder if Rivian didn’t get so mesmerized by how slick those crossbars were that they completely ignored their limitations. Oh, well??

I couldn't agree with this more. There are many, many good rack solutions out there and on a truck, I don't want to be taking them on and off. I would like a solid cab-height rack for kayaks, lumber - like the Xsporter or Overhaul/Outpost. Proprietary systems are only great if they work for all purposes. I have stared at the mounting points, which are interestingly both recessed and protrude above the bed rail. My first thought was to u-bolt a track on and work from there, but the protrusion makes that hard. And I am not confident that would work anyway.

 

[Singletracker]

I couldn't agree with this more. There are many, many good rack solutions out there and on a truck, I don't want to be taking them on and off. I would like a solid cab-height rack for kayaks, lumber - like the Xsporter or Overhaul/Outpost. Proprietary systems are only great if they work for all purposes. I have stared at the mounting points, which are interestingly both recessed and protrude above the bed rail. My first thought was to u-bolt a track on and work from there, but the protrusion makes that hard. And I am not confident that would work anyway.

Yeah. I’ve often wondered if that portal could be removed and something bolted in its place, but I don’t have an R1 to play with.

 

[R1T-USN]

I have two - lack of android auto, which could be fixed later, and I'm not a big fan of the motorized charge port door, I worry about that failing.

actually a couple weeks ago I was on the careers page on the Rivian website and they had a listing for software engineer- android

so hopefully in OTA push in 2023

 

[R1T-USN]

Rear view mirror with a camera would be sweet. My boss has one in his Defender and it's really nice

having moved on from a 2020 Defender - ClearSight - was a great idea, however, send the signal to the navigation screen with usable enlarged real estate.

 

[photontorque]

I don't have a vehicle yet, so here are my arm chair observations.

In terms of glaring misses, an auto company should not release a vehicle that has risks to health a safety of its driver, passengers, or the surrounding general population -- be they other drivers, pedestrians, cyclists, mimes, whatever.

Based on forum posts so far, there are a few things that haven't caused human harm yet, but look like they have the potential to do so:

CV joint - several posts/threads on this topic.

Fragile glass roof - also several posts/threads on this topic. There are differences of opinion about what's reasonable, which is fine, but I think the hard line is the health and safety of people. No one has been hurt yet, but the spontaneous cracking reported by at least two forum members -- no extra weight, jolt, or impact applied -- is a concern. As many have pointed out, this is an adventure vehicle (relentlessly marketed as such), and a not unreasonable expectation for an adventure vehicle is that one doesn't have to worry about the roof spontaneously cracking. Or in the event of an actual impact from a tree branch, or rock, or something else, experiencing a more catastrophic failure.

Using a touch screen for what were previously purely tactile controls. I am glad to see I am not alone at the palm-on-forehead reaction to putting vent controls in a touchscreen that requires taking eyes off the road. There is a reason that texting while driving is illegal in 48 states. Eyes should be on the road. Using a touchscreen takes eyes off the road.

(This is separate from the -- to me -- totally inexplicable logic for using a touchscreen+motor-driven vent system from a design perspective.
Manager: gimme a run down of the options for air vents.
Engineer: we have one option that has been in use for decades, is reliable, is safe, is cheaper to implement, inherently way more robust, and in the event something actually does break, super easy to fix. We have a second option that costs way more to implement (design cost, test cost, s/w development cost, manufacturing cost, parts cost), way more expensive to repair, and is way more dangerous.
Manager: I'll take option two!!
Just think about how much effort Rivian is [eventually!] going to have to put into these blasted vents vs. implementing other improvements related to efficiency, vampire drain, etc. They could have saved themselves one item on the debug list by just. using. manual. vents. Gah.)

And, as a throwback to one of my favorite topics, privacy. Rivians collect an incredible amount of data about the vehicles . . . and the drivers. Not just the drivers, but the families of the drivers, friends, unsuspecting passerbys, etc. This data can be used for good, and it can be used for really, really bad stuff. I know this isn't unique to Rivian, but they are propagating the problem. Their current privacy policy makes no mention of anonymization, user control of what Rivian collects, or the ability to opt out. In this world it's not just a matter of if someone will hack Rivian's data stash, it's a question of when. Then these ne'erdowells will have a lot of information for identify theft, old-fashioned break ins (because they know when you're most likely to be out), what medical offices you visit, etc. If Rivian is going to collect all this information that puts their customers at risk, then Rivian's commitment to the health and safety of the customers must extend from the physical vehicle to the digital world.

 

[the long way downunder]

That’s a bit of a loaded question, no?

The point is that CarPlay does more than the car offers and it doesn’t require suction-cupping a phone to the dash (which I think is always ugly and often unsafe).

Well, the assertion is carplay and android auto do "more" and don't require (illegally, unsafely) handling a phone. But what "more" is it specifically?
Maybe CarPlay is better than Android Auto. I've found AA to be clunky when trying to switch from Maps to Spotify or switch from any audio source in the phone to FM in the. It can be finicky about opening and playing spotify before connecting to the car and it can get confused if I plug the phone into USB-C to charge instead of using the (slow/hot) wireless charger. Maybe the Ford implementation (their latest Sync 4) isn't as good as other manufacturers.
Some say the streaming of music is "easier" and some say the nav is "easier" which is fine – my F-150 has both apple and android integration wirelessly and wirelessly charges the phone. I used it for a while and never found it all that compelling. I prefer using google maps for nav instead of the ford system (which tends to make mistakes in route selection, but does a great job of indicating the correct lane to handle unfamiliar situations like airports or freeway interchanges.)
What I've noticed is CP and AA are popular with people driving older vehicles that have dated entertainment and nav with a small screen (still bigger than a phone display, but dinky by modern expectations of 10+ inch touchscreens.)
For me, CP and AA are no safer than leaving the phone in the charger and using bluetooth without CP/AA. So "easier" is a pretty thin margin of functionality though the strongest advocates seem to make it a "dealbreaker" that Rivian doesn't have it.

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