Anyone with R1S Been Contacted by Guide with Delivery Confirmation?

[paariv]

Pretty clear that whatever it was, something wasn’t fully ready on the R1T until this month. Some combination of the tonneau and rear screen, plus general bugginess and missing software features may be it.

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[timesinks]

I would also suspect optimism bias in their plans for how many engineers they could hire and how quickly, how complex the work would be and therefore how long it would take to complete... Then there's the inevitable prioritization -- need to get it complete enough to get the test fleet rolling (e.g., the rear climate controls).

I also am thinking the trucks we're getting right now were built over the past month and were just awaiting getting their final go-live software update.

 

[atlastracer]

I am not a software engineer and don't pretend to be one usually but I have struggled to understand why so many features were coming in a later software update. I get the Covid related delays on some issues but I would think the software development could have gotten a lot further while working remotely.

I am a software engineer (principal engineer actually). There could be a lot of reasons the software was behind schedule. Working remotely for a company that is not used to it would have taken a bit of time to transition. More likely though, onboarding new engineers in a rapidly growing company is hard and can slow down development times as your experiences staff are both interviewing as well as helping new hires-ramp up. Add to that the complexity of onboarding new hires remotely (see earlier comment about it being "new" for a company like Rivian). This for sure would have slowed stuff down.

I'd bet that some of those features were determined to not be launch blockers and were safe to add later. With large releases - it is very common for a decision to be made for features as "fast-follows". In this case - with the expectation that employees were getting the first wave of vehicles, they determined it was better to prioritize certain features critical to the operation of the vehicles and follow up with improvements or less-important features later.

At least - that is what makes the most sense to me based on my experience. But not being on the inside, I can't say for sure that is the reason.

 

[Speedrye]

Isn't software being developed 3rd-party via Unreal Engine?

 

[Tim-in-CA]

I don’t want a black exterior because of the solar gain, but that nearly-monochromatic look really does it for me.

Looks great, but from a perspective of someone who has owned TWO black vehicles, keeping them clean and swirl free is an impossibility. They look GREAT freshly cleaned, but less than 24 hrs later they look terrible. I vowed never to get a black vehicle again.

 

[SoCal Rob]

Agree 100%. But damn it looks good. I also won't be spending extra money on dark rims.

I wish Rivian would let you do a white roof instead of the black. I am pretty sure they do black because of the sunroof glass which looks black. I would pay for Forest Green if I could get something with this kind of look on an R1S…

 

[PostMinivanDad]

The R1S reservation holders planning to use both the 2nd and 3rd rows every day are in a different situation than the rest of the preorder community – we are stomaching the lack of communication, the delays, the price boondoggles without even knowing if the product is right for us. R1T bed size has been no secret for a while, same for charging curves – no more dealbreakers left out there for the R1T crowd.

My ICE vehicle is ordered, and I am scanning the lots to try to have something sooner. If and when my LE R1S comes, if it can work for me, ill trade the ICE in. Based on the experience of the last few years and Rivian’s apparent reticence to share any information on the interior (don’t give me the they are concentrating on the R1T – a company that size should be able to walk and chew gum… this reticence has to be because they are much further from deliveries than stated and/or the 3rd row usability are expected to disappoint many. If they were ready to hide a price increase until a few days before deliveries start, you can be sure they would try to wait to divulge a shitty 3rd row as late in the game as possible). I think anyone planning to carry 4 or 5 passengers and waiting for the R1S without a solid plan B, including to stick with an ICE 3 row SUV, is setting themselves up for disappointment.

 

[jtshaw]

Isn't software being developed 3rd-party via Unreal Engine?

It's developed in house using Unreal Engine as far as I know. Unreal Engine itself is developed by Epic Games and is used by a lot of companies for games and other things.

 

[SoCal Rob]

Looks great, but from a perspective of someone who has owned TWO black vehicles, keeping them clean and swirl free is an impossibility. They look GREAT freshly cleaned, but less than 24 hrs later they look terrible. I vowed never to get a black vehicle again.

Yeah, I love the monochromatic look only black can provide on a modern car with rubber seals, black plastic trim, and/or dark-tinted glass… but I had one black vehicle in 1995 and I swore never again. Desert trips only strengthen my resolve. But I can still admire someone else’s!

 

[jtshaw]

I am a software engineer (principal engineer actually). There could be a lot of reasons the software was behind schedule. Working remotely for a company that is not used to it would have taken a bit of time to transition. More likely though, onboarding new engineers in a rapidly growing company is hard and can slow down development times as your experiences staff are both interviewing as well as helping new hires-ramp up. Add to that the complexity of onboarding new hires remotely (see earlier comment about it being "new" for a company like Rivian). This for sure would have slowed stuff down.

I'd bet that some of those features were determined to not be launch blockers and were safe to add later. With large releases - it is very common for a decision to be made for features as "fast-follows". In this case - with the expectation that employees were getting the first wave of vehicles, they determined it was better to prioritize certain features critical to the operation of the vehicles and follow up with improvements or less-important features later.

At least - that is what makes the most sense to me based on my experience. But not being on the inside, I can't say for sure that is the reason.

100% agree with all of this. I'd guess there is a lot of potential root causes to their software delays. It's complicated system. A bunch of bugs were probably really hard to track down. The teams were rapidly expanding and they probably had all sorts of onboarding difficulties and cross-team communications issues. They probably had some priority churn. They probably had last minute hardware changes that effected software. A bunch of things were probably estimated as being small projects and ended up having massive hidden technical complexity. Etc. etc. etc.

 

[Gator42]

I wish Rivian would let you do a white roof instead of the black. I am pretty sure they do black because of the sunroof glass which looks black. I would pay for Forest Green if I could get something with this kind of look on an R1S…

That’s classic Defender livery. R1S leans toward the footballer ‘round Chelsea look…

(Who does that??? ?)

 

[Speedrye]

Looks great, but from a perspective of someone who has owned TWO black vehicles, keeping them clean and swirl free is an impossibility. They look GREAT freshly cleaned, but less than 24 hrs later they look terrible. I vowed never to get a black vehicle again.

I've only ever had black trucks and SUVs, but I keep a protective layer of dirt on them to keep them swirl-free.

 

[atlastracer]

100% agree with all of this. I'd guess there is a lot of potential root causes to their software delays. It's complicated system. A bunch of bugs were probably really hard to track down. The teams were rapidly expanding and they probably had all sorts of onboarding difficulties and cross-team communications issues. They probably had some priority churn. They probably had last minute hardware changes that effected software. A bunch of things were probably estimated as being small projects and ended up having massive hidden technical complexity. Etc. etc. etc.

Ugh yeah - hardware changes probably too. I've seen that - shortages in components resulting in software changes as a result of a supplier change. The overall product is the same, but the low-level interop code may need to be modified because of a component change. I don't want to say "supply chain and component shortages" because that feels like such an over-used statement. But I've seen some very interesting impact that are beyond just "can't get a part". When you have to get an alternative part which does the same thing - but requires unplanned software re-work.

 

[fotoflux]

I am not a software engineer and don't pretend to be one usually but I have struggled to understand why so many features were coming in a later software update. I get the Covid related delays on some issues but I would think the software development could have gotten a lot further while working remotely.

As someone else mentioned, those features were not deemed as "blockers" for release. They implemented the core functionality such as radio, HVAC, driver preferences, etc. There are a lot of things that are "standard" on luxury cars like birds-eye view that really aren't needed, but are really nice-to-have. These types of things can and will be added iteratively.

It's easy to underestimate the scale of designing new software from the ground up. Most legacy automakers have had years to add iteratively to their user interfaces. The first iPhone release did not include SW support for multimedia messages. This was something that was available in even the most basic Nokia phone at the time. Apple added the feature after release and the rest is history.

We also should remember that only "tens" of real customers have the R1T in their garages. So the customer blowback for not having a trip meter really is miniscule. By the time 10,000 of these are on the road, you're probably going to be at 95% software parity with a Tesla.

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