Door Handles Closing on your Hand

[Ashtothexo]

Has anyone had their door handles go into the lock position when their kiddo was reaching to open the door and have their kids hand squished into the handle well? This has happened to my kids a few times, and after it happening this morning and my 6 year old crying I wanted to see if others are having this happen. It did lock unexpectedly this morning as it locked pretty soon after it unlocked and my phone was in my pocket so I didn't hit the lock button. I'm not the biggest fan of the way these door handles, and others with the handles embedded into the door work, but at least I don't live in a cold place where they freeze into the card body and you have to warm them to get them to open.

I did reach out to Rivian about the above although I don't think they are going to change their door handles for this reason.

Still love our car, just would like it to not crush my kids' hands now and again.

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[VandalSibs]

There is a setting where if the car has been unlocked via PaaK (and the fob potentially?), but none of the doors are opened after two minutes, the doors will lock again. This is a setting that can be turned off within the vehicle. However, I'm not 100% sure if it happens when the phone is within detection range of the vehicle, or if it has to not see the phone for this to work.

 

[Cycliste]

Funny you should ask. Just yesterday I had my hand on the driver door handle to open the door when the vehicle decided to lock the doors. The handle did not close onto my adult hand as I was trying to open the door.

 

[josh0]

I think it’s happened to me maybe once? They don’t close with a lot of force, and you can just pull them out manually pretty easily, but then I don’t have 6yo hands (any more).

As retracting door handle designs go, I think Rivian’s are some of the better ones, but there’s still obviously some issues with the concept.

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

Like @VandalSibs says, disable auto locking in vehicle settings. This will keep it from locking after periods of inactivity, so you must remember to lock and make a habit of manually locking. The force isn't strong and you should still be able to push on the forward end to swing the handle out. Experiment with rolled up towel. Kid was probably just startled. And while you are in vehicle settings, go through all of the menus so you have an idea what is there and user-configurable.

If enabled, I think it would still auto lock even if a proximity key is within range. It's when a car is locked and none of the doors are interacted with, that's when it locks after a certain time has elapsed. It's meant to secure the vehicle when you forget to.

 

[VSG]

at least I don't live in a cold place where they freeze into the card body and you have to warm them to get them to open.

I suppose you read that somewhere on the Internet and now you're treating it as a fact?

Please don't throw around "facts" like this unless you're able to back them with your own experience.

I have been reading this forum for years, and I don't recall one person who has complained about this happening. And the people on this forum will complain about pretty much anything.

I have never had this happen to my R1T, but I am sure that some people live in places where this does happen on occasion, just like it has happened on every single vehicle I've ever owned. But you're implying that door handles freezing is a design flaw of the Rivian handles. It's not. Regardless, the way you deal with that situation is the exact same way you would deal with it in every other car, but Rivians also have an advantage that you can turn on the climate control through the app to "warm up" the car before you need to get in it.

 

[COdogman]

Funny you should ask. Just yesterday I had my hand on the driver door handle to open the door when the vehicle decided to lock the doors. The handle did not close onto my adult hand as I was trying to open the door.

Did you cry though?

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

I suppose you read that somewhere on the Internet and now you're treating it as a fact?

Please don't throw around "facts" like this unless you're able to back them with your own experience.

I have been reading this forum for years, and I don't recall one person who has complained about this happening. And the people on this forum will complain about pretty much anything.

I have never had this happen to my R1T, but I am sure that some people live in places where this does happen on occasion, just like it has happened on every single vehicle I've ever owned. But you're implying that door handles freezing is a design flaw of the Rivian handles. It's not. Regardless, the way you deal with that situation is the exact same way you would deal with it in every other car, but Rivians also have an advantage that you can turn on the climate control through the app to "warm up" the car before you need to get in it.

Reminds me of the people who blame Rivian for "epic design failure" when they don't teach their kids to not to slam the passenger door on the seat belt buckle—and damage door panels—before the seat belt had a chance to retract. And of course when you say they need to teach their kids better, they accuse you of advocating child abuse. Some people don't seem to know difference between misuse/abuse of product and design flaw.

 

[Ashtothexo]

Like @VandalSibs says, disable auto locking in vehicle settings. This will keep it from locking after periods of inactivity, so you must remember to lock and make a habit of manually locking. The force isn't strong and you should still be able to push on the forward end to swing the handle out. Experiment with rolled up towel. Kid was probably just startled. And while you are in vehicle settings, go through all of the menus so you have an idea what is there and user-configurable.

If enabled, I think it would still auto lock even if a proximity key is within range. It's when a car is locked and none of the doors are interacted with, that's when it locks after a certain time has elapsed. It's meant to secure the vehicle when you forget to.

Thank you. Strangely the doors went to lock after only being unlocked for seconds. So it was very unexpected for them to lock again.

 

[Ashtothexo]

I suppose you read that somewhere on the Internet and now you're treating it as a fact?

Please don't throw around "facts" like this unless you're able to back them with your own experience.

I have been reading this forum for years, and I don't recall one person who has complained about this happening. And the people on this forum will complain about pretty much anything.

I have never had this happen to my R1T, but I am sure that some people live in places where this does happen on occasion, just like it has happened on every single vehicle I've ever owned. But you're implying that door handles freezing is a design flaw of the Rivian handles. It's not. Regardless, the way you deal with that situation is the exact same way you would deal with it in every other car, but Rivians also have an advantage that you can turn on the climate control through the app to "warm up" the car before you need to get in it.

I only took my car to the cold once and just had to try a few times for it to break through the ice to open. Apologies for any wrong assumptions.

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

Thank you. Strangely the doors went to lock after only being unlocked for seconds. So it was very unexpected for them to lock again.

Then that's your proximity locking, as your proximity key moves out of range after parking, exiting the vehicle and shutting the door behind you. Auto locking is for when you unlock, get sidetracked and do not interact with any of the doors for the fixed pre-set duration (I forget how much time the Owner Guide says).

 

[Donald Stanfield]

No, this has never happened to me in the 3 years I’ve had a Rivian. Then again, my son is 15 so he is a little better with operating the doors, lets hope so because pretty soon he will be operating the entire vehicle.

 

[Dark-Fx]

No, this has never happened to me in the 3 years I’ve had a Rivian. Then again, my son is 15 so he is a little better with operating the doors, lets hope so because pretty soon he will be operating the entire vehicle.

I did it intentionally after the first complaint about this years ago. It's only using the same spring force that's required to pull the handle. Which really is not that strong.

I suspect it's not actually hurting anyone, but the surprise is too much for younger kids.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

I did it intentionally after the first complaint about this years ago. It's only using the same spring force that's required to pull the handle. Which really is not that strong.

I suspect it's not actually hurting anyone, but the surprise is too much for younger kids.

That is probably it. Those handles don’t seem crazy strong to me.

 

[ElGuano]

There is a setting where if the car has been unlocked via PaaK (and the fob potentially?), but none of the doors are opened after two minutes, the doors will lock again. This is a setting that can be turned off within the vehicle. However, I'm not 100% sure if it happens when the phone is within detection range of the vehicle, or if it has to not see the phone for this to work.

I've unlocked the door at home and had it re-lock pretty quickly. I honestly have no idea if it's 2 minutes, but it often feels quicker than that. FWIW, I have proximity unlock disabled at home because it keeps unlocking when I walk into the living room or the side yard.

In most cases, I unlock the truck so I can get to the gear tunnel or the PTC/tailgate, so I never open the actual passenger doors. And after a short while the car locks again and I have to unlock it again to regain access. Lately, I've just taken to keeping one of the passenger doors ajar to prevent it from happening.

I still want the "auto-relock if nothing is opened for a few minutes" feature, maybe I'm just a bit wary because of the prior proximity unlock false positives.

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