Free LTE Connectivity to end this month

[R1Tom]

No shit. The amount of vampire drain is probably higher than that per month using California electricity rates!

One plus of midwest.....we might not have service centers, RAN, or hubs like you do in California.....but we have cheap electricity! $.11/kwh off peak and loving it.

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[VGA]

Hey, at least Rivian still says that Driver+ will always be included. Ford is now charging $800 per year for it, and I personally think it’s a fair bit worse than Driver+ (others may have a different opinion, of course). Lots of other companies are charging for connected services as well, so I think this is the new normal.

We can always stream over BT for free instead of using Spotify. Personally, I have no problem paying a reasonable subscription fee of $100 per year or so, but I thoroughly enjoy having the native Spotify app and the remote start/climate controls in the app - especially after being in rentals over the last few weeks (including ones that have AA/Carplay).

Given that the only music options left will be FM/bluetooth and no waze etc...my 2 cents have the music and traffic (and OTA updates) included and if someone wants to use it as a hotspot etc...make that a paid subscription...

 

[FutureTruck]

One plus of midwest.....we might not have service centers, RAN, or hubs like you do in California.....but we have cheap electricity! $.11/kwh off peak and loving it.

I pay $0.02 from 11pm to 7am!

 

[sccmexpert]

All car manufacturers are going to this model. Even for ICE powered vehicles. Now, would I pay for this in its current state? No, I would not. Nav is horrible and phone integration is abominable.

 

[R1Tom]

I pay $0.02 from 11pm to 7am!

That is amazing! Literally free driving!

 

[SANZC02]

I pay $0.02 from 11pm to 7am!

That is crazy cheap, I bet there are not a lot of homes with solar around you, an installation would never pay for itself.

 

[SSteveEV]

No shit. The amount of vampire drain is probably higher than that per month using California electricity rates!

Absolutely, my marginal home rate is only $0.16/kWh which is thankfully pretty good. Though you have more stable weather there, mine burns a lot in the winter sitting without a garage.

 

[Robin]

For what it’s worth, I still use rabbit ears and use rain barrels to save on water, I hang dry most of my clothes as opposed to using a dryer. For a year I refused to pay $100 for Tesla connectivity, mainly bc Elon is rich and does not need my extra $100. Then I had the service in my R1S and broke down and added the service back to the model 3 (I told my girlfriend it was her birthday present) So yes $100/year sucks but the convenience outweighs the price so once a month I eat leftovers as opposed to getting a Spicy 5 piece from Popeyes.

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[jjswan33]

That is crazy cheap, I bet there are not a lot of homes with solar around you, an installation would never pay for itself.

That really depends on what on-peak rates are. I also pay a ridiculously low 0.04/kWh between 10pm - 7am but I also have solar and the PV system completely offsets my on-peak (0.22/kWh)/mid-peak(0.17/kWh) usage. Though it wouldn't pay to add more solar to offset my additional usage at the off-peak times.

 

[SANZC02]

That really depends on what on-peak rates are. I also pay a ridiculously low 0.04/kWh between 10pm - 7am but I also have solar and the PV system completely offsets my on-peak (0.22/kWh)/mid-peak(0.17/kWh) usage. Though it wouldn't pay to add more solar to offset my additional usage at the off-peak times.

What was your ROI for the initial install?

We have a place near the coast in SCE territory, very high rates, exceeds 50 cents peak and in the 23 cent off peak range, ROI is under 6 years for our install. The place in the desert is around 12 cents, no TOU rates, ROI there for us was almost 20 years, I could not justify putting solar in there for me.

 

[defcon888]

I just wish that Rivian would allow other carriers to use the eSIM. Maybe they do, I don't know. We are with T-Mobile and we have a 4 line plan but only 3 lines are being used. We aren't paying a "per line" fee, it is a family bundle and the extra line isn't being used.

If Rivian does end it, we might just get a "miFi" adapter and use that line as a data line.

 

[CommonSense]

This is why it's important to have Carplay or AA. Unless you pay for data, you lose the voice assistant and music, except for FM and Bluetooth. Plus, I'm sure more things are dependant on the connection.

Live-traffic for the navigation system will also be a loss.
You would also lose the ability to remote-control the vehicle when parked , remote-monitor when charging, except when the vehicle is on your home wifi.

There are easy (but not profitable to Rivian) things that could be done here The Rivian has wifi. Would be cool if the Rivian could just connect to your cellphone's hotspot and provide the connectivity that way when it is in motion.

It wouldn't solve the remote monitoring situation, but it would fix assistant, music, navigation connectivity.

 

[jjswan33]

What was your ROI for the initial install?

We have a place near the coast in SCE territory, very high rates, exceeds 50 cents peak and in the 23 cent off peak range, ROI is under 6 years for our install. The place in the desert is around 12 cents, no TOU rates, ROI there for us was almost 20 years, I could not justify putting solar in there for me.

6 years sounds crazy good to me but I also live in Oregon so we don't get quite as much sun so those numbers probably are not too common. I think they quoted me 11 years when I first got my system but that was based on non-TOU that I was running then at~0.14/kWh and whatever inflation they assumed.

I have an 8kW system that is nearly perfectly oriented south with no physical obstruction. I have produced ~1MWh/year the last two years so the 11 year estimate seems reasonable, my cost was around $14k after federal and state credits. Also I am unlikely to live here forever so ultimately it will depend on how the solar panels effect my selling price.

 

[godfodder0901]

If Rivian does end it, we might just get a "miFi" adapter and use that line as a data line.

Can you describe how you envision this working with the Rivian? Or do you mean you'll get this specifically to replace the hotspot functionality of the truck?

 

[LivingInKaos]

If Rivian does end it, we might just get a "miFi" adapter and use that line as a data line.

The issue with this is WiFi is disabled while not in Park, so not really a feasible option.

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