Tonneau Mixed Messages...Concerned!

[luriaj]

There has been a lot of talk about the Tonneau cover on the R1T and the problems that it may or may not be having. I have heard the following directly from Rivian employees over the last couple of weeks (not third hand...directly from Rivian to me):

"It works perfectly...no issues"

"Yeah, I think there is a problem, but I think we are working on it"

"It gets glitchy when it gets opened and closed a bunch"

"We don't want it to break if it gets opened and closed all day"

"Sometimes it gets stuck for a second or two, but I think they fixed it"

"We just disabled it because there are kids around"

"It gets stuck when it gets too hot or too cold"

"It is getting redesigned to better handle the rain and water...right now your stuff will get wet...if you get yours before it is fixed it will get retrofitted with the new design"


I have also heard several people on the forums expressing the same types of responses from Rivian employees. These mixed messages prompted me to reach out to the Customer Service supervisor, outlining exactly what I have quoted above.

I received the following response today, not from the supervisor, but someone else (I am leaving out the "sorry...blah blah blah..this must be frustrating..." part):


"I am unaware of any issues with the tonneau cover, and we don’t have the powered tonneau covers available at the Events because we cannot have anyone climbing in and out of the bed of the truck while someone else is trying to close the tonneau cover. I apologize you didn’t get to see how the tonneau cover works and I can put in a suggestion to have a staff member show how the powered tonneau cover works every so often."


I am sadly suspicious! Why would so many employees say one thing and I get this response? Why would I be told in no uncertain terms that it is getting redesigned? Why is there a video (I just saw), of the water getting dumped into the bed off a wet cover? Why did the supervisor have someone else respond...is the person who responded "unaware" so he can claim this. It all seems super fishy! What do y'all think>

Sponsored

 

[SeaGeo]

"I am unaware of any issues with the tonneau cover, and we don’t have the powered tonneau covers available at the Events because we cannot have anyone climbing in and out of the bed of the truck while someone else is trying to close the tonneau cover. I apologize you didn’t get to see how the tonneau cover works and I can put in a suggestion to have a staff member show how the powered tonneau cover works every so often."

So then why are so many review units locked out for reviewers who aren't at events, or are at the event and have access to it?

And isn't the cover on at least one of the trucks in Venice working for the public?

 

[godfodder0901]

So then why are so many review units locked out for reviewers who aren't at events, or are at the event and have access to it?

And isn't the cover on at least one of the trucks in Venice working for the public?

I can tell you that my Mobile Drive unit had the cover locked out as well. There was no danger in crushing people, so... I absolutely believe there is an issue that they are aware of and are working to resolve.

 

[SeaGeo]

I can tell you that my Mobile Drive unit had the cover locked out as well. There was no danger in crushing people, so... I absolutely believe there is an issue that they are aware of and are working to resolve.

Great point.

It seems pretty obvious that's the case to me as well.

 

[PastyPilgrim]

I think that at this point there's enough information out to make some conclusions about the cover. The guides and reps that are saying that there's a problem being fixed wouldn't just say that unless it were true. The guides and reps that don't think there's a problem either weren't told about the problem (remember that there's tons and tons of fresh hires for Rivian) or think that they're not allowed to talk about (maybe they aren't). The guides and reps saying something else (e.g. problem with rain) might also be describing the same problem (e.g. since leaks would be more problematic if the cover were expanding/shrinking or otherwise not sealing), or they might have misunderstood the problem, or there are just more problems with the tonneau that contributed to the desire to redesign it.

Conclusion: there is/was a problem with the materials of the cover and Rivian is/was addressing it.

None of us are getting tonneau v1 and we can only hope that tonneau v2 fixes all of the problems, but it doesn't seem that there are models with v2 yet so that remains to be seen.

 

[Blur1t]

There has been a lot of talk about the Tonneau cover on the R1T and the problems that it may or may not be having. I have heard the following directly from Rivian employees over the last couple of weeks (not third hand...directly from Rivian to me):

"It works perfectly...no issues"

"Yeah, I think there is a problem, but I think we are working on it"

"It gets glitchy when it gets opened and closed a bunch"

"We don't want it to break if it gets opened and closed all day"

"Sometimes it gets stuck for a second or two, but I think they fixed it"

"We just disabled it because there are kids around"

"It gets stuck when it gets too hot or too cold"

"It is getting redesigned to better handle the rain and water...right now your stuff will get wet...if you get yours before it is fixed it will get retrofitted with the new design"


I have also heard several people on the forums expressing the same types of responses from Rivian employees. These mixed messages prompted me to reach out to the Customer Service supervisor, outlining exactly what I have quoted above.

I received the following response today, not from the supervisor, but someone else (I am leaving out the "sorry...blah blah blah..this must be frustrating..." part):


"I am unaware of any issues with the tonneau cover, and we don’t have the powered tonneau covers available at the Events because we cannot have anyone climbing in and out of the bed of the truck while someone else is trying to close the tonneau cover. I apologize you didn’t get to see how the tonneau cover works and I can put in a suggestion to have a staff member show how the powered tonneau cover works every so often."


I am sadly suspicious! Why would so many employees say one thing and I get this response? Why would I be told in no uncertain terms that it is getting redesigned? Why is there a video (I just saw), of the water getting dumped into the bed off a wet cover? Why did the supervisor have someone else respond...is the person who responded "unaware" so he can claim this. It all seems super fishy! What do y'all think>

Kind of wish they would just make it manual, less worries that way, that is as long as stays waterproof.

 

[ads75]

Could be something like the original tonneau motor (or another part) wasn't strong enough, or interfering with operation, and Rivian discovered that through testing some time ago. So they ordered an upgraded motor or part, which works great. But it takes time for the part to get manufactured and shipped in significant numbers. So Rivian is quiet on this issue, knowing its addressed/fixed, just waiting on parts, with plans to use this newer part going forward, and plans to retrofit already deployed units. That being said, part of me would just like an old style tonneau cover, and not one that rolls into the truck itself, because I would still worry about a roller jam long term.

 

[Shzeph]

I've heard this a bunch, but on my test drive last weekend, the powered tonneau worked totally fine. Opened and closed multiple times, seemed to divert the water away from the bed (it was raining pretty hard that day) and it was actually the second thing the employee showed me when he arrived.

Maybe the truck I test drove had the updated design

 

[opnwide]

As a new shareholder, this tonneau news concerns me. As a R1S LE holder, bring on the SUV while tonneau 2 is redesigned!

 

[jtshaw]

Why would so many employees say one thing and I get this response? Why would I be told in no uncertain terms that it is getting redesigned?

My uninformed hot take here.... I'd guess there is a problem, either with durability or something else, and it's probably a good thing ultimately they are fixing it.

My second more informed hot take... having been in the Kindle business unit at Amazon when it went from very small to giant numbers of customers... scaling Customer Service is really really hard. It's hard to disseminate information to a large group of responders and it's hard to update that information for a lot or reasons, including because people remember what they were told before and often rely on that memory rather than checking for new information because it's faster. It's especially hard when the customer service team is growing like crazy and they are training up all new team members constantly. This is growing pains stuff that I suspect they will get over.

My third hot take... I'd be cool if they suspend R1T builds and build R1S's instead while they figure this out... so long as mine goes first

 

[dleepnw]

where there's smoke...
if it was nothing, there would be nothing. it would be shown, enabled and there wouldn't be all these mixed messages there's definitely something wrong with the design, motor, materials. i'm sure they are trying to address it but yet again their comms is broken.

 

[evtrail]

+1 @dleewla. Ive tried to poke around at the Sonoma event because they were disabled and the rep told me to my face: “yeah it's for the children you know we don’t want any acdient”.

Hmm so you're telling me the children are 5”6 and can touch the tonneau cover, know it's there at the first place. And would somehow get hurt with it. So I ask: but didn't you guys had issue with it? How do you manage debris that will be on top of it? Water? Organic maters (tree, pollen, bird feces etc)? On the long run it'll clog up.

“Well I guess you can always clean it before using it”

Now cmon... Anyway, I continue, but there is no mention of any servicing or cleaning in the owner manual, do you know if we can access it somehow to clean it?

“I don't know sorry”

Well. Wasn't satisfied with that one problem particularly. Too much smoke ?.

 

[Florida Boy]

I'd honestly rather have a manual cover that is lockable. No matter how well this is designed, there is almost no way it isn't going to collect dirt, dust and water over time that will build up and cause failure. A power cover isn't that big of a deal for me and I'd rather have something stronger and safer, even if it is a manual fold-up cover.

 

[RivianXpress]

I was at the Sonoma event on Wednesday and a Rivian employee opened and closed the tonneau cover on one of the trucks with a tent on it for me. It seemed to work fine even though this was a very early production truck.

 

[Sgt Beavis]

I'd honestly rather have a manual cover that is lockable. No matter how well this is designed, there is almost no way it isn't going to collect dirt, dust and water over time that will build up and cause failure. A power cover isn't that big of a deal for me and I'd rather have something stronger and safer, even if it is a manual fold-up cover.

Same here. IMO that is a downside to the Adventure pkg. It's only a 4' bed. A powered tonneau is not needed.

Sponsored