Just fix the software

[strykerwsu]

I guess Im a fanboy but my R1's are way better vehicle/software than when purchased 3 years ago. I have had to do 2 software resets since owning and were my issue due to Comma AI. The only gripes I have on software is occasionally after updates having to sign back in to Tunin (first world issues) and no voice to text but sounds like that is finally about to happen with Google news.

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[NY_Rob]

Microsoft has been trying to "just fix the software" since Windows 3.1 was released in 1992.

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

Microsoft has been trying to "just fix the software" since Windows 3.1 was released in 1992.

Microsoft... Anyone complaining about Rivian software should spend a few hours with Powerpoint and receive instant attitude adjustment.

 

[NY_Rob]

Microsoft... Anyone complaining about Rivian software should spend a few hours with Powerpoint and receive instant attitude adjustment.

PowerPoint?? Remember Microsoft BOB and Windows ME? Complete rubbish!

 

[Mathme]

Interesting. I've noticed some glitches in both Sirius XM and Apple Music at start up. Usually these issues are at home where the truck is on Wifi. The way the approach to my house is, the truck starts on Wifi, then transitions to LTE, then back to Wifi (where the driveway loops around), then finally onto LTE.

I've noticed that my favorites sometimes don't load during these intervals however, once the truck is on LTE for about a consistent minute or so, they do show up. I've always attributed this to the unique case where the software doesn't have a steady connection and time to download and buffer the data from the cloud. I don't see this as a big issue as within about a minute of leaving the house, it settles in and works consistently.

 

[azbill]

Let me get one thing straight here...


it's the year 2025 and people still isten to satellite radio?

It is better than nothing, and there are many areas in AZ where neither cellular or FM work. And Rivian does not support USB music either, big miss.

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

PowerPoint?? Remember Microsoft BOB and Windows ME? Complete rubbish!

Every time I'm asked to work in PPT, like right now, I have violent thoughts.

 

[VandalSibs]

PowerPoint?? Remember Microsoft BOB and Windows ME? Complete rubbish!

My job uses M365 for email and various apps. Been chasing a bug where Exchange Online will randomly convert a shared mailbox in our hybrid environment into a Mail contact..... temporarily killing the mailbox. It's reversable, but we have no idea why it's happening, and getting Microsoft to help us figure that out is becoming interesting.

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

and getting Microsoft to help us figure that out is becoming interesting.

Will get even more "interesting" as the industry shifts to have AI code and handle support.

 

[hudesigns]

Oh wow - just fix the software! I'm sure the software development team at Rivian never thought of that...

Hate to break it to you, but software - and all computer programming in general - is only getting more complex.

If you were constantly running into bigger issues - like software issues making it so you can't drive the vehicle - I'd understand the intensity of your rant here, but in the grand scheme of things what you are describing are minor bugs.

Finally, in all software-bug related posts I like to leave this little set of lyrics behind that illustrate how complex programming can be:

There's 99 bugs in the code,
99 bugs in the code,
Take one down & patch it around,
127 bugs in the code!

Rivian software does reminds me of Windows XP days — cute moving GIFs can’t coverup problems that need constant rebooting or refusing to wake up! Automobile software can’t be windows based (don’t know what architecture its based on) it needs at least a native Linux system from ground up.

 

[portdirect]

I guess I get the luxury of having been a software engineer and knowing that what you all think should be easy to fix and “just do it” stuff is never that easy.

I really do believe this is a vehicle by vehicle problem. As I mentioned, my vehicle has had nearly no glitches to speak of. There have been some slow screen load times and transitions, but otherwise, it’s well oiled and stable.

I think as somebody mentioned earlier, everyone needs to realize that you’re ultimately driving around a vehicle is a “gamma release” phase. Rivian is still incredibly new and there are things that need to (and will) improve. Comparing it to Telsa is not fair given the age differences of the platforms. I think we could all use a little more grace and understanding and just report bugs to Rivian consistently so they can prioritize and fix them.

Your second paragraph is actually what causes me some concern about the Rivian Hardware/Software stack.

For context: my day job involves looking after the architecture of a large distributed computing platform: hardware and software together. Our fleet is sizable by most standards, and while it’s obviously very different from Rivian’s, it shares key characteristics: a decently sized BOM (though we don't have cupholders in ours) and a tightly coupled software stack tuned to specific hardware.

Why bring this up?

When we see an issue on one node, it’s usually just that node. When we see an issue across all nodes, it’s a software bug. Neither of those cases are too concerning - operations or engineering can handle them predictably.

What does worry me is when behavior diverges across the fleet. That’s when we know something fundamental is being missed - configuration drift, inconsistent components, or untracked variance in hardware. For example, you may think you’ve bought 10,000 identical servers, but some shipped with a slightly different SSD despite the same vendor part number, or some NICs run hot...

That’s the kind of pattern I see with Rivian: clear divergence in user experience, even among vehicles that should be identical. At my workplace alone there are quite a few Rivians, and between those and what’s reported here and on Reddit, the spread of issues is wide (ranging from I think about the best - our R1S, has been restarted once in the last year, though to folks who restart once a month, to others where Apple Music just will not sign in for any account). That inconsistency implies the platform isn’t behaving deterministically across builds - which, from a systems perspective, is unsettling.

Yes, the issues are mostly minor. But the inconsistency itself is the worrying signal. It suggests underlying complexity or variance that isn’t being fully accounted for - and without clear patterns emerging, that’s hard to have full confidence in.

(I’m speaking in absolutes to make the point - reality is obviously more nuanced.)

 

[Rivian-E]

Your second paragraph is actually what causes me some concern about the Rivian Hardware/Software stack.

For context: my day job involves looking after the architecture of a large distributed computing platform: hardware and software together. Our fleet is sizable by most standards, and while it’s obviously very different from Rivian’s, it shares key characteristics: a decently sized BOM (though we don't have cupholders in ours) and a tightly coupled software stack tuned to specific hardware.

Why bring this up?

When we see an issue on one node, it’s usually just that node. When we see an issue across all nodes, it’s a software bug. Neither of those cases are too concerning - operations or engineering can handle them predictably.

What does worry me is when behavior diverges across the fleet. That’s when we know something fundamental is being missed - configuration drift, inconsistent components, or untracked variance in hardware. For example, you may think you’ve bought 10,000 identical servers, but some shipped with a slightly different SSD despite the same vendor part number, or some NICs run hot...

That’s the kind of pattern I see with Rivian: clear divergence in user experience, even among vehicles that should be identical. At my workplace alone there are quite a few Rivians, and between those and what’s reported here and on Reddit, the spread of issues is wide (ranging from I think about the best - our R1S, has been restarted once in the last year, though to folks who restart once a month, to others where Apple Music just will not sign in for any account). That inconsistency implies the platform isn’t behaving deterministically across builds - which, from a systems perspective, is unsettling.

Yes, the issues are mostly minor. But the inconsistency itself is the worrying signal. It suggests underlying complexity or variance that isn’t being fully accounted for - and without clear patterns emerging, that’s hard to have full confidence in.

(I’m speaking in absolutes to make the point - reality is obviously more nuanced.)

I don't disagree with you.

What I think often needs to be looked at here though is environmental factors and user behavior. We are trying to troubleshoot problems that are being reported on forums so we are not able to look at this as empirically as we would like to, but what are the situations surrounding the issues that people are reporting: are they connected to spotty wifi in front of their house, what accounts are the signed in with for third party accounts, what mobile phone do they have and what software is running on that, how is the GPS coverage in their area. There are SO many factors that it's hard to pinpoint it down to a simple "fix your software" statement.

I often point back to a (unfortunately very real) example of a problem I encountered long ago. There was a user that consistently reported that things from this one system printed multiple times. Didn't matter what computer they used, didn't matter what exactly they were printing, but it was always printing multiples. I even had another user in the same location try to replicate it and couldn't. Turned out that this user always (and I mean always) double-clicked. They didn't know that single-clicking was an option. and the particular system took that to mean 2 actions and would print twice. I share this example to show that sometimes it's the user, not the system.

 

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

I often point back to a (unfortunately very real) example of a problem I encountered long ago. There was a user that consistently reported that things from this one system printed multiple times. Didn't matter what computer they used, didn't matter what exactly they were printing, but it was always printing multiples. I even had another user in the same location try to replicate it and couldn't. Turned out that this user always (and I mean always) double-clicked. They didn't know that single-clicking was an option. and the particular system took that to mean 2 actions and would print twice. I share this example to show that sometimes it's the user, not the system.

Some good points in these past few comments. Working in tech (as I think, a lot of people on this forum do), can't turn around and not trip over "ID10T" errors, or "PEBKAC". The user who wears dangly bracelets on their wrists and complains about "the mouse pointer jumps around when working on laptop touch pad", etc.

Definitely agree that we need to have consistency across the platform. As much as they are innovating at a rapid pace, things like mid-year model changes to batteries, suspension components, etc., are going to make troubleshooting more difficult for all of us.

Of course, no one likes being told "you are the problem". But if we can at least standardize the hardware, should eliminate a few of these issues. And don't buy a car if it was made on a Monday or a Friday.

 

[Andy Wallace]

Software is hard - I've been doing it for a living since the '80s. VandalSibs's ditty is closer to the truth than I like - literally have been fighting that exact sort of issue for the last 2 days. That said, I haven't had many software complaints - my main bitch after the last release is that the truck keeps resetting the main screen too the map after I leave the car and come back, even when not using nav. I like it to be showing the cameras, dammit!

But hey, better than Windows.

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