Questions for people who have switched from Tesla to Rivian [ADMIN WARNING: NO POLITICS / NO ELON DISCUSSIONS]

[NinjaWrap]

LOL. "Other than that, Mrs. Kennedy, how did you enjoy the show?"

HW3 can be amazing at times, and infuriatingly dangerous at times. I never take my hands off the wheel. It regularly tries to drive me into a curb - at an entrance to a Supercharger. Of all the places, you'd think a place that dozens/hundreds of Tesla vehicles drive into daily would be mapped well enough that it wouldn't try to drive me into the curb. (It also sometimes tries to turn into the *OUTGOING* lane of the parking lot, and other times tries to turn into the driveway for a "no exit into the main parking lot" bank drive-through lane instead of the main parking lot entrance.)

HW3 drove me crazy. All the influencers would act like it was perfect and it was swerving out of the lane on the highway here.

Sponsored

 

[carsly]

HW3 drove me crazy. All the influencers would act like it was perfect and it was swerving out of the lane on the highway here.

Sounds like aberrant behavior. Did you re-calibrate the cameras? Were you on the old Intel or AMD Ryzen processor? I'm surprised anything runs on those old Intel chips.

 

[CharonPDX]

Sounds like aberrant behavior. Did you re-calibrate the cameras? Were you on the old Intel or AMD Ryzen processor? I'm surprised anything runs on those old Intel chips.

FSD doesn't run on the infotainment CPU. Intel/AMD (even old Nvidia) do none of the FSD processing; they only draw the user interface for it.

HW3 runs FSD compute on "twelve ARM Cortex-A72 CPUs operating at 2.6 GHz, two systolic arrays operating at 2 GHz and a Mali GPU operating at 1 GHz."

 

[NinjaWrap]

Sounds like aberrant behavior. Did you re-calibrate the cameras? Were you on the old Intel or AMD Ryzen processor? I'm surprised anything runs on those old Intel chips.

It wasn’t any calibration issue. Both HW3 cars were had did the same stupid things all the time on v12.

HW4 on v14 is 100x better but I hate that they removed the ability to manually adjust speed especially now that half the roads in my town have the wrong speed limit

 

[iansriv]

FSD works more places, but most of those places i don't want to use it because it makes enough mistakes i have to watch it so carefully it doesn't feel like a benefit. Where i would use it on the freeway, our Rivian does well. Other opinions vary, but my wife and I don't miss FSD at all.

Tesla's app and software is ahead, but not by much anymore since Rivian just added better voice control (Alexa was awful) and text messaging. Other physical things - like automatic hood lift - mean more to us.

My wife still prefers her Tesla, but largely because she has been driving the same thing since 2012 and she doesn't like to learn new controls. I prefer the Rivian.

Agreed. I've rented two Teslas so my experience is very limited. I've had mixed results using FSD in non-highway places.

 

[carsly]

I had a 2021 Model S and 2023 Model Y Performance. I found v12 was usable to good on highways, didn't try it anywhere else.

FSD on Cybertruck, even though it's the limited FSD (no summon or smart summon still) is very, very good. I couldn't have said that 18 months ago when it wanted to run across center medians on every left hand turn I came across and had issues with tight right-hand turns as well. But now? Better than the overwhelming majority of drivers on the road, perhaps even including myself as it's generally smoother than me - and I aim to drive quite smoothly for efficiency and reduced component wear.

 

[NinjaWrap]

I had a 2021 Model S and 2023 Model Y Performance. I found v12 was usable to good on highways, didn't try it anywhere else.

FSD on Cybertruck, even though it's the limited FSD (no summon or smart summon still) is very, very good. I couldn't have said that 18 months ago when it wanted to run across center medians on every left hand turn I came across and had issues with tight right-hand turns as well. But now? Better than the overwhelming majority of drivers on the road, perhaps even including myself as it's generally smoother than me - and I aim to drive quite smoothly for efficiency and reduced component wear.

Exactly my experience. Only in the last year has it finally made me go "Wow". On my old cars it was frustrating to use. On my Cybertruck when I first got it, it was pretty rough in some places.

Does Rivian not have any kind of cabin overheat protection? I park outside, and my cabin overheat runs all the time. Maybe I need to finally get that carport built.....

 

[carsly]

Exactly my experience. Only in the last year has it finally made me go "Wow". On my old cars it was frustrating to use. On my Cybertruck when I first got it, it was pretty rough in some places.

Does Rivian not have any kind of cabin overheat protection? I park outside, and my cabin overheat runs all the time. Maybe I need to finally get that carport built.....

Closest I've found to cabin overheat is venting the windows and sunshades https://amzn.to/4f0BhsI

Rivian sells a front windscreen shade in the Gear Shop that I use as well. The electrochromatic glass in the main roof panel doesn't do enough by itself thus the reflective shades, which fit great.

 

[iamnid]

Does Rivian not have any kind of cabin overheat protection? I park outside, and my cabin overheat runs all the time. Maybe I need to finally get that carport built.....

It does. Over the past week I get a notification every day that the cabin is hot and the fans are running to protect components, such as the displays.

 

[Panhandler]

I switched from a 2018 Model 3 to a 2025 R1S. The Rivian has much nicer interior and is much more comfortable. That alone would keep me from switching back to Tesla.
The biggest negative of any non-Tesla EV is that the V2 superchargers are not compatible. If you rely on the Tesla charging system (which is the only one I trust) about half of the superchargers are not compatible. It makes it difficult to plan a trip if you are in rural areas.

 

[NinjaWrap]

I know this will change but currently Tesla is offering me $89k for my Cyberbeast trade in, and Rivian is offering $84k. Not bad really, considering it's a 2024, 15k miles. I'll see what they both say in a couple months. I am very excited about R2 (not as excited as I am about R3X, but that's a few years out) but also really miss driving a Model 3 Performance. If my wife wasn't currently leasing a new Y, I'd try to convince her to get R2 and I'd get my 3P and then I could experience both!

 

[Christa_R]

I know that FSD is light years ahead of anything else, and honestly that's a big thing that would hold me into owning a Tesla, but aside from that part, how are the other basic things a Tesla owner is used to, like dog mode, sentry, etc? How is the app experience?

Is there anything you miss, anything you loved about your Tesla that frustrates you in your Rivian, or on the flip side anything that frustrated you about Tesla that Rivian does right?

Very tempted to get an R2, but want to know the pros and cons of the Rivian experience compared to Tesla, aside from FSD.

I've only had my Rivian a few weeks so I can't comment on everything. I owned a model y for almost 6 years and used dog mode almost every day. My biggest complaint about the Rivian is the app and the Paak. I have my doors set to unlock the driver side only but sometimes want all doors to open like when I'm loading and unloading my doors. I hate that I can't do that in the app - the app will only unlock what you have set so you have to unlock the others on the display. They could simply add the doors to the control menu in the app. BTW - I had the service center and service on the phone verify this behavior as someone in the forum said it was possible to double tap to unlock all doors but that doesn't work.

Also the Paak is really inconsistent- sometimes it opens the doors when I'm pretty far from the vehicle, sometimes not at all, sometimes just right. I also had the service center look at this when I had it in for something else.

Dog Mode/Pet Comfort - Rivian negatives: You can't control it via the Rivian app. Can't turn it on while supercharging if it's under 20% so you have to charge to 20% and then turn it on. I haven't used it enough to comment on its reliability. However, Rivian has better HVAC vents in the back. My Tesla had none in the cargo area. I wish the Rivian had second row vents in the pillars because vents in the console between seats get easily blocked with gear. My model Y was a 2020 and my dogs traveled in a crate in the cargo area. There would be a significant difference in the temp in the cargo area vs rest of vehicle. I had to add a noggle, fans, and temp monitoring to the cargo area to ensure the dogs weren't baking.

camp mode - this and space were what pushed me into Rivian. Rivian camp mode allows you to turn everything off until you turn it back on. I'd lose 30% charge in a few days at a campground simply by opening and closing doors because no matter what I did for settings, everything (climate etc) would turn on when I opened and closed passenger doors. My gear was in back seat and passenger seat because dog crates were in cargo area.

The thing that I was most surprised about with Rivian was lack of summon. When I went for my test drive, the vehicle was parked too close to another car and we couldn't open one of the doors. I asked the guide if they could just pull it out using the app and he said no. I thought it was because it was a demo vehicle but summon is not available at all in Rivian

 

[NinjaWrap]

I've only had my Rivian a few weeks so I can't comment on everything. I owned a model y for almost 6 years and used dog mode almost every day. My biggest complaint about the Rivian is the app and the Paak. I have my doors set to unlock the driver side only but sometimes want all doors to open like when I'm loading and unloading my doors. I hate that I can't do that in the app - the app will only unlock what you have set so you have to unlock the others on the display. They could simply add the doors to the control menu in the app. BTW - I had the service center and service on the phone verify this behavior as someone in the forum said it was possible to double tap to unlock all doors but that doesn't work.

Also the Paak is really inconsistent- sometimes it opens the doors when I'm pretty far from the vehicle, sometimes not at all, sometimes just right. I also had the service center look at this when I had it in for something else.

Dog Mode/Pet Comfort - Rivian negatives: You can't control it via the Rivian app. Can't turn it on while supercharging if it's under 20% so you have to charge to 20% and then turn it on. I haven't used it enough to comment on its reliability. However, Rivian has better HVAC vents in the back. My Tesla had none in the cargo area. I wish the Rivian had second row vents in the pillars because vents in the console between seats get easily blocked with gear. My model Y was a 2020 and my dogs traveled in a crate in the cargo area. There would be a significant difference in the temp in the cargo area vs rest of vehicle. I had to add a noggle, fans, and temp monitoring to the cargo area to ensure the dogs weren't baking.

camp mode - this and space were what pushed me into Rivian. Rivian camp mode allows you to turn everything off until you turn it back on. I'd lose 30% charge in a few days at a campground simply by opening and closing doors because no matter what I did for settings, everything (climate etc) would turn on when I opened and closed passenger doors. My gear was in back seat and passenger seat because dog crates were in cargo area.

The thing that I was most surprised about with Rivian was lack of summon. When I went for my test drive, the vehicle was parked too close to another car and we couldn't open one of the doors. I asked the guide if they could just pull it out using the app and he said no. I thought it was because it was a demo vehicle but summon is not available at all in Rivian

as a Cybertruck owner, I am blown away that we don't have even basic summon still 2.5 years after release. I am used to not having it now after having it in my Model 3s for years!

That sucks about pet mode not being available from the app. I LOVE the new Tesla feature that shows the interior camera on the lock screen, and knowing I can adjust from the app is nice.

 

[Christa_R]

as a Cybertruck owner, I am blown away that we don't have even basic summon still 2.5 years after release. I am used to not having it now after having it in my Model 3s for years!

That sucks about pet mode not being available from the app. I LOVE the new Tesla feature that shows the interior camera on the lock screen, and knowing I can adjust from the app is nice.

I didn't realize how much I used summon until it wasn't available to me.

Oh, no interior cameras with the Rivian either.

 

[mw3101]

Traded my 2022 Model S for a 2026 R1S Dual with the larger battery pack and the sound/vision package. A few things I like about the Rivian compared to Model S:

• Build quality & fit/finish. I had lots of problems with trim pieces and the glass roof on the S. The paint finish was also incredibly easy to scratch.
• The ability to make the R1S' glass roof opaque with the push of a button is nice. Allows light but greatly reduces glare from the sun.
• The R1S frunk is very useful and the power open/close is great. My model S trunk was misaligned and despite several service visits it was very difficult to open.
• The R1S' built-in air compressor is very useful. I've used it inflate my tires and other vehicles' tires.
• Split tailgate is a feature I love.
• As someone else mentioned, I prefer the framed windows to Tesla's unframed.

Some R1S complaints:

• No glovebox. Front seat interior storage is lacking for a vehicle of its size.
• Tesla's FSD is years ahead of Rivian's.
• Charge port location. Really only an issue when using a supercharger.
• Push button door releases are stupid - applies to Tesla and Rivian.
• There are too many windshield wiper settings on the R1S but the S's rain sensing wipers worked poorly.
• Adaptive high beams on the R1S must be irritating to oncoming drivers based on the number of people flashing their headlights at me while driving at night.

Hope this is helpful.

Sponsored