Has Driver Plus improved a lot since the first vehicles?

[cleex024]

Mileage clearly varies. I've been pleasantly surprised by Driver+ -

Rivian's TACC is unambiguously better than Tesla's in my experience. Less phantom breaking, better smoothing during speed changes, less sloppy rubber-banding. Just a more pleasant experience all around.

Driver+ is not as good as autopilot, but mostly just because it doesn't work in as many places. I've only had a scant few lane keeping problems like others are describing - not materially more often than in my Tesla. And it definitely does better with not being distracted by on/off-ramps in my experience. It does struggle with centering through sharp curves - it seems to manage its speed better than Tesla, but often turns too sharply and unncessarily cuts the inside of the corner, freaking out neighboring drivers.

There's plenty of room to grow, but I think they're clearly invested in it and I certainly don't think it's a reason not to buy a Rivian vs. a Tesla. I very occasionally miss the ability to turn on Autopilot on arbitrary roads (usually small country highways, city roads are a nightmare), but if I'm being honest I hope Rivian is spending their talent on more important problems than that for now.

yes but unlike you I use autopilot all the time...probably about 95% of my drive is in autopilot and that includes 50% city. I also take long work drives and there is not really a time i dont use autopilot then so it is really important to me.

I dont drive as much anymore but i still average probably close to 40k miles per year down from about 80k so you can imagine how important autopilot is to me especially when ive been using it non stop for the last 4 years.

i wont need drivers+ as much and willing to sacrifice it in the city but dont really want to give it up on the highway so hopefully its pretty dependable there...and i hope like the tesla it doesnt just quietly turn off in the middle of a drive like most cars do. tesla really wakes you up when it wants you to take control and still keeps control as long as it can...unlike my wifes x7 where it quietly beeps and turns off immediately.

Sponsored

 

[Joelpro]

How dependent is the driver+ is on road quality / premapping? Could some roads that are mapped lead to much better driving experiences than others that are also mapped?

I have yet to go on a long road trip, but I fairly regularly drive Atlanta to Savannah. 160 miles of this is dead straight on I16 with generally low traffic levels. It would be really great to have a well functioning Driver+ on these super boring drives. As I'm typing this I now wonder if highway I16 has made the Driver+ cut ?

16 made the cut. Used it one the way to and from HHI. (I actually haven't been on an interstate between GA, TN, FL and the Carolinas that didn't). I think it works pretty well, but agree the last update seemed to make a little more confident in curves, a little less scary passing semis on the left, and a little bit more "wobbly" on straight aways. I've driven about 1000 miles since the last update. Probably over half of that with Driver+ enabled.

 

[NY_Rob]

Maybe Rivian should charge $15K for it, then people will start swearing how amazing it is

 

[kylealden]

yes but unlike you I use autopilot all the time...

Uh... I'm interested in where you're getting the data on how I drive. I have over 70,000 miles in Teslas and probably 90+% of that on Autopilot.

I was not making claims about whether I can use it as much in the R1T, I was making points about whether it's qualitatively worse or whether I miss it. In my experience the answer to both is no.

 

[cleex024]

Uh... I'm interested in where you're getting the data on how I drive. I have over 70,000 miles in Teslas and probably 90+% of that on Autopilot.

I was not making claims about whether I can use it as much in the R1T, I was making points about whether it's qualitatively worse or whether I miss it. In my experience the answer to both is no.

sorry about that i think i was getting you and another commenter confused when replying...i didnt mean to say anything negative with that comment either. I was just trying to say that I really do use ap a lot and all the time including city driving...but im sure ill get used to not being able to use it either especially if the driving aspect is so nice as everyone says.

besides autopilot I really dont like my tesla all that much and have been looking to move onto something else for quite awhile but that ap is the only thing keeping me around...really hope drivers plus improves over the next couple years.

 

[kylealden]

besides autopilot I really dont like my tesla all that much and have been looking to move onto something else for quite awhile but that ap is the only thing keeping me around...really hope drivers plus improves over the next couple years.

All fair enough. FWIW I totally sympathize but I really encourage you not to stress about this. First of all, I'm confident Driver+ will continue to approve, although I think "FSD" is a fool's errand and think/hope Rivian knows better than to get too distracted by that rabbit trail. Second, I think you'll find that you miss it less than you think, as long as the basics (good TACC and highway assist) are in place, and it's more than outweighed by the better experience you get everywhere else.

But that's one man's opinion

 

[cjones1130]

Well this all really sucks to hear as I already bought the truck...I really use autopilot 95% of my drives and to not have it would absolutely suck.

I hope they are going to develop it more and not throw it on the back burner...I test drove the Ford lightning and even that was pretty good for the drivers assist stuff

I'm in the exact same boat as you...

 

[rraj2k81]

Reading this thread is a big bummer for me. An industry standard modern ADAS system has become an important requirement for me, especially after driving with Tesla EAP.

I am really hoping Driver+ becomes comparable to current systems at the very least by the time I am ready to take delivery of an R1.

 

[Earlgr3yH0t]

Just wanted to ask the guys with the trucks since the beginning if the drivers plus have improved a lot since the beginning.

I really hope it becomes available in the city soon

I don't use driver+. I used it a few times when I first got the truck but it was sketchy. Every time I used it, it would try to kill me. If it lost sight of a line especially when there was an off ramp on the interstate it would freak out. It would think cars were coming out of nowhere and slam on the brakes. Almost had a couple people rear end me. I'll wait for maybe a couple more updates before I tempt fate again haha

 

[cleex024]

I don't use driver+. I used it a few times when I first got the truck but it was sketchy. Every time I used it, it would try to kill me. If it lost sight of a line especially when there was an off ramp on the interstate it would freak out. It would think cars were coming out of nowhere and slam on the brakes. Almost had a couple people rear end me. I'll wait for maybe a couple more updates before I tempt fate again haha

so ive been driving with drivers+ any time it comes on and so far (3500 miles) its worked pretty well...definitely not as well as the tesla but somewhat trustable on highways that are above 60mph

one thing that bothers me though is on the highways that are more in the city with sharper turns it will just turn off if it cant seem to read the lines...this is a concern because your hand is only slightly on the wheel and if you are in a sharper turn and just turns off it made me almost hit the car next to me.

in future updates i really hope that they fix this where if it cant read the roads just read the cars and keep up while warning me to take control like the tesla would. but to turn off the system completely and track straight into the car next to me is absolutely retarded. with that said again on highways that are at higher speeds like 60mph+ there are no real sharp turns so it hasnt been a problem.

 

[momo3605]

I think it's gotten better over the past few updates. When I got my rivian in June, anytime lane lines would become difficult to read, it would start to swerve around and get confused. That's gotten significantly better, in addition to driving in merge lanes where one line disappears, Driver+ doesn't seem to get confused either and tracks confidently through. One area where Driver+ could do better is mid-curve on freeways, it has a tendency to overcorrect and then undercorrect through the curve. This is something I haven't noticed with my Teslas autopilot.

That being said, Driver+ handles curves way better than other lane centering systems i've used from Honda, Toyota, Volvo, etc.. those just give up in super slight curves

 

[cleex024]

I think it's gotten better over the past few updates. When I got my rivian in June, anytime lane lines would become difficult to read, it would start to swerve around and get confused. That's gotten significantly better, in addition to driving in merge lanes where one line disappears, Driver+ doesn't seem to get confused either and tracks confidently through. One area where Driver+ could do better is mid-curve on freeways, it has a tendency to overcorrect and then undercorrect through the curve. This is something I haven't noticed with my Teslas autopilot.

That being said, Driver+ handles curves way better than other lane centering systems i've used from Honda, Toyota, Volvo, etc.. those just give up in super slight curves

Yes I definitely hate the over and over corrections but I will give it to rivian for following the closest line and not trying to drive in the middle of a merge lol. Also I would love to see a resume because having to constantly adjust the speed after canceling sucks

Sponsored