the bleeding edge

[thrill]

Advisory: pictures of bloody injury.

At My Rivian broke me! : Rivian (reddit.com) an owner posts some photos and discussion of how the sharp edge on the gear tunnel door cut him badly and thinks it needs a redesign. From this initial look it does seem like a major concern. Perhaps some discussion here is warranted about some workaround, beyond the "don't do that!".

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[CommodoreAmiga]

That's a lot more blood than I was expecting.

I wonder if wrapping some thick PPF (like the 10mil variant) around the edges would help?

I wouldn't try to get in/out of the truck while the gear tunnel door is down, either.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

Yeah I'm gonna be wrapping the edges of that with PPF for more reasons than one.

 

[Max]

Redesign is not going to be quick. I am curious what the great minds of the forum can come up with as a interim solution.

 

[Dark-Fx]

Redesign is not going to be quick. I am curious what the great minds of the forum can come up with as a interim solution.

Actually looks like the original design wouldn't have been as bad. These corners are just flat folded over sheet metal now instead of being somewhat thick.

 

[CommodoreAmiga]

Redesign is not going to be quick. I am curious what the great minds of the forum can come up with as a interim solution.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

Redesign is not going to be quick. I am curious what the great minds of the forum can come up with as a interim solution.

It looks like a fairly simple fix to me. Round the corners.

 

[Craigins]

isn't the solution always duct tape?

 

[cbuckley]

It looks like a fairly simple fix to me. Round the corners.

Mine has no sharp edges or raised blade-like pieces of sheet metal.

I can’t see the Reddit post so maybe I’m misunderstanding what cut the poster.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

Mine has no sharp edges or raised blade-like pieces of sheet metal.

I can’t see the Reddit post so maybe I’m misunderstanding what cut the poster.

To my eye that doesn't look very sharp either but it's still a corner so if you were stepping up or down and caught that corner just right I could see how it could cut you. It seems like a freak accident and he shouldn't have stepped down parallel with the truck but perpendicular instead. I don't see this as Rivian's fault just unlucky like if you were to close your hand in a car door.

 

[Max]

Mine has no sharp edges or raised blade-like pieces of sheet metal.

I can’t see the Reddit post so maybe I’m misunderstanding what cut the poster.

His edge is not that different from yours. It all depends on how much force you hit it with:

 

[Max]

To my eye that doesn't look very sharp either but it's still a corner so if you were stepping up or down and caught that corner just right I could see how it could cut you. It seems like a freak accident and he shouldn't have stepped down parallel with the truck but perpendicular instead. I don't see this as Rivian's fault just unlucky like if you were to close your hand in a car door.

I disagree. I wouldn't be surprised if someone brought this up in a meeting and was shot down because "everything was designed around the gear tunnel". The fact is, tools evolve and someone has to bleed to make that evolution happen. Cost of taking the first step.

Edit: I am not saying dude should sue Rivian. Just saying the design prioritized look (or may be manufacturing ease) over safety.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

I disagree. I wouldn't be surprised if someone brought this up in a meeting and was shot down because "everything was designed around the gear tunnel". The fact is, tools evolve and someone has to bleed to make that evolution happen. Cost of taking the first step.

I'm not arguing that it can't be rounded to prevent it but this doesn't seem excessively sharp. I wouldn't call this a design flaw but that's a matter of opinion at this point. I'm certainly not a product design engineer nor am I an expert in product liability law. I could be wrong, and if this happens on occasion I wouldn't be surprised if the corners go in for service and get rounded on a recall.

 

[ironpig]

I stumbled upon the reddit post last night. From what I could tell, it seemed like the gear tunnel door in question had a spot with a rough weld that might have had just enough sharpness that it could tear something.

I don't think most painted gear tunnel doors would be sharp enough to penetrate skin if the situation was repeated. Certainly they could do some normal impact damage if you bang in to them, but hopefully not cut anything. But it's a good warning and I'm going to consider applying an edge of thick PPF on them.

 

[thrill]

I'm not arguing that it can't be rounded to prevent it but this doesn't seem excessively sharp. I wouldn't call this a design flaw but that's a matter of opinion at this point. I'm certainly not a product design engineer nor am I an expert in product liability law. I could be wrong, and if this happens on occasion I wouldn't be surprised if the corners go in for service and get rounded on a recall.

It looks like the sort of thing that is probably wasn't considered "excessively sharp" if you were to stand beside it, but that's exactly what the Reddit poster says he did in stepping up to the tunnel door to grab something and the edge slicing his leg as he turned.

Imagine how bad such a cut could be if you slipped stepping down from the tunnel door explicitly pitched as safe for stepping on and sliced your leg all the way down.

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