Too complex to use while driving, or parking.

[Donald Stanfield]

Right, but those pins only work on phones, not in car nav or hardware GPS. And when you call in a road hazard, the police don’t want to hear “I‘ll send you a pin via email while I’m driving” they just want the location. I can’t even imagine a busy dispatcher dealing with that, and then having to relay the pin to the dispatched police car.

It would work in the Rivian. I don't care if an odometer is displayed, it wouldn't hurt and I feel like I'm spending too much time trying to defend GPS here when at the end of the day I don't think it much matters either way. Except for your house situation, that absolutely would be better with a shared pin on the end of your driveway.

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[Greg Chick]

As a youth, when someone starts giving me directions that include turns and landmarks I just politely smile and stop listening until they’re done, then say “great! oh, and what’s the address again?” and follow my GPS to it.

30% of the time they’ll caution “don’t use the address, GPS always takes you to the wrong place!” because they tried it once on Mapquest 15 years ago and had a bad experience. I do it anyway, and it works fine.

ODO should be on the dash though - it’s been on the dash since it was invented and it doesn’t take much space.

Wassym has mentioned that they’re working on a multi-use widget area that you can pin various bits of info to. s00n

Yea, if directions were the only use, then I would not say a word. But locations are for some people very not google. As well I lived for 0ver 25 yrs in a place and the last 15 yrs when google existed, it listed a road that was not present except in easement. I even told a google ball camera car guy about it as he drove to that very dead end that was listed as going through, but the error still existed after that.

 

[Greg Chick]

Sounds like you need to stick with an ICE car. Old dogs can't learn new tricks.

So should you stick to video games? Just sayin.

 

[Greg Chick]

Are you by chance taking your Rivian off planet? ?

I live just over 100 miles north of Los Angles and there are even parts of LA county having no Google. Try the San Gaberiel Mountain Ca. route 2 Los Angeles Crest rd. In Los Angles! There is GPS, but not Google and little Cell signal.

 

[R1TS]

I guess if I was geocaching in my truck I would care, but can't remember the last time I cared or focused on a tenth of a mile for going somewhere.
Sorry that it's an issue for you.
Edit: I should say I'm not opposed to the odometer being on the driver screen, but I won't necessarily find value in it.


Put it in park and exit your vehicle and those things will turn off. You may still hear some noises briefly but they'll stop shortly.
When you re-enter everything is how you left it. This might seem weird when you just grab something out of the car, but it will turn right back off.

When your exit is supposed to be 1.5 miles away, you will never know without that odometer reading close to tenths.

 

[ironpig]

I think it makes simple sense to have an odometer visible if people want it.

I disagree that it provides much use in the modern world. If the GPS goes out and/or we lose power for a long period of time in some chaotic event, I'll be in my Land Cruiser anyway.

 

[PBRAZ]

Not sure how often it updates, but the Rivian app displays your odometer pretty clearly.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

When your exit is supposed to be 1.5 miles away, you will never know without that odometer reading close to tenths.

Yeah you will. You know that mile markers and the exit numbers correspond right? The freeway is literally labeled in tenths of a mile already.

 

[CommonSense]

I'm curious who speaks or provides 10ths anyone? All I see is feet and time if less than a mile these days.

I too would vote for getting an Odometer back on the dashboard , like any normal car. Outside of daily driving where I already know the route, I use the Odometer on my other vehicles all the time down to the 10ths.
Use case 1: GPS is telling you to take a exit off the highway, you see the sign, exit in 2 miles. I look at the odometer and now I have an easy way of knowing how close I am to the exit and when I should move over. Sure, the Rivian has the map on the dashboard that could substitute - but I use Waze for navigation , not the Rivian map (and we have no carplay).
Use case 2: Waze alerts you to police with too little warning and no longer does a good job with what side of the highway the police are located. I look ahead on my route in waze, click on police icon "police in 4.5 miles" and then I use the odometer to track how far away I am from that locate using the odometer.

 

[Greg Chick]

When your exit is supposed to be 1.5 miles away, you will never know without that odometer reading close to tenths.

Have you ever driven a a car having a cable old style Odometer? They were in cars for about 75 years. The reading was in miles and had a dial reading in tenths. The tenths dial rotated faster than the others you could glance at it and know the exact distance between any thing you drive by. When measuring distances while driving this is a good thing. Some people use trucks or cars to pace objects. There is a power pole every tenth of a mile of something like that. I am not wanting to second guess google maps. An odometer is just a tool for some things.

 

[usulio]

The odometer is a general-purpose tool. It can be used for many possible things. I think Greg has made that point. Every time someone points out a new use for the odometer, people jump in to say how they would do the same thing different. Ok fine, Rivian can either give us the odometer, or a team of know-it-alls on call.

The other day I drove a nice loop from my house, about an hour and a half. If I had an odometer, I would know how far it is. But I don't. Don't care enough to plot a bunch of points on my phone.

When I drive my other EV, I like to track battery use versus mileage as I go up into the mountains and the elevation changes. It's a fun estimation game and I learn a lot about the impact on range. No way to do that in the Rivian.

Those things aren't a big deal, they just illustrate a general design philosophy of Rivian that I find really frustrating: they picture what they think you should do, and they enable that. Instead of giving you tools to empower you to do new things they might not have thought of.

 

[usulio]

To the original point of the thread, I agree the software is generally too complex to safely use while driving. Especially climate control. I also agree the lack of on/off is annoying in a lot of scenarios (actually, a LOT).

Similar to the odometer thing, every time you come up with a problem caused by lack of on/off, people will jump in to say how to work around it, or hope it can be improved in a software update. Sure, because the alternative would be Rivian actually giving people control over their own vehicle, which is not thinkable.

 

[R1z]

don’t think it’s at all controversial (or really even debatable) that an odometer on a car should be expected and visible.

Appreciate all the comments as to why someone can get by without one, alternative solutions, age-related shade, etc but lordy this is basic and an easy add.

 

[Greg Chick]

To the original point of the thread, I agree the software is generally too complex to safely use while driving. Especially climate control. I also agree the lack of on/off is annoying in a lot of scenarios (actually, a LOT).

Similar to the odometer thing, every time you come up with a problem caused by lack of on/off, people will jump in to say how to work around it, or hope it can be improved in a software update. Sure, because the alternative would be Rivian actually giving people control over their own vehicle, which is not thinkable.

I'm glad you get my points. I guess we give up some things and gain others. Some people never used the ones that were removed. It's a new day, the future is even newer.

 

[Greg Chick]

don’t think it’s at all controversial (or really even debatable) that an odometer on a car should be expected and visible.

Appreciate all the comments as to why someone can get by without one, alternative solutions, age-related shade, etc but lordy this is basic and an easy add.

Even if generated by the speedometer info. The tires roll so many inches per rotation! But hey, some day we will have an app for that and Apple will tell us we need it and it will sell like hell.

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