Autonomous Hands-Free Highway Assist Driving and Alexa

[jyerke]

We are currently on a road trip on Hwy 101 from northwestern WA to Monterey, CA. I’d like to report a few issues that are affecting both safety confidence and usability in my vehicle.

Regarding Highway Assist / hands-free driving: on moderately curved highways (non-interstate roads), the system consistently fails to anticipate turns early enough. This results in late steering input and, on multiple occasions, the vehicle has drifted toward or partially over the center line before correcting. This behavior reduces confidence in using the feature outside of straight freeway conditions. The issue is bad enough my spouse has lost confidence in the feature. I was planning to subscribe to it, but will not until there is better performance. I’ve tried to contact Rivian better understand it, but have been unsuccessful. Roll out of this feature now seems premature.

Second, voice control via Alexa does not appear to support initiating phone calls reliably (or at all in some cases). This is a key hands-free function that I would expect to work seamlessly while driving. This is a common problem. Instead of introducing new features, Rivian should fix ongoing issues like this.

I do love the car, but it needs work in these areas.

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[Oldsmobile_Mike]

I don't think Alexa is being updated anymore. In case you didn't catch it, the plan is to replace her with Google Assistant "soon". Numerous demos on YouTube, vehicles spotted "in the wild", etc.

 

[jrothman]

For placing phone calls, I just use the wake word for my phone's voice assistant. In my case "Hey, Siri". This works perfectly. The phone is connected to the car via bluetooth and the call goes over the car's system every time.

 

[Cal]

I did this trip last year from Vancouver WA last year. Took I-5 and had to turn off Hands free in the mountains for the same reason. But most of the trip was great. I will probably pay the monthly fee for our return trip in the Aug/sept timeframe.

 

[Johnster]

We are currently on a road trip on Hwy 101 from northwestern WA to Monterey, CA. I’d like to report a few issues that are affecting both safety confidence and usability in my vehicle.

Regarding Highway Assist / hands-free driving: on moderately curved highways (non-interstate roads), the system consistently fails to anticipate turns early enough. This results in late steering input and, on multiple occasions, the vehicle has drifted toward or partially over the center line before correcting. This behavior reduces confidence in using the feature outside of straight freeway conditions. The issue is bad enough my spouse has lost confidence in the feature. I was planning to subscribe to it, but will not until there is better performance. I’ve tried to contact Rivian better understand it, but have been unsuccessful. Roll out of this feature now seems premature.

Second, voice control via Alexa does not appear to support initiating phone calls reliably (or at all in some cases). This is a key hands-free function that I would expect to work seamlessly while driving. This is a common problem. Instead of introducing new features, Rivian should fix ongoing issues like this.

I do love the car, but it needs work in these areas.

Based on less than 6 months experience with my R1S Dual Max you have hit on 2 of the few but substantial (and surprising) weaknesses of an otherwise excellent vehicle.

For my (senior) sensibilities, current UHF is just too "loosey goosey" for anything other than straight freeway driving and even then semis make me nervous. As a result I barely use it and will probably not pay for it until reliable point-to-point navigation is delivered (later this year?).

As an early Alexa adopter at home I was unpleasantly surprised by the hobbled Rivian implementation (for which I tend to blame Amazon). I only use her for basic navigation (and music) and even then it often takes her more than one attempt to get it right. Hopefully the (imminent?) arrival of Rivian Assistant will be much better.

 

[jyerke]

I fail to understand that when I say Alexa, directions to xyz, it performs perfectly. When I say, Alexa call my wife (using her name), it has no clue. Or it says it needs access to my address book, which is clearly shown on the screen. Rivian, needs to fix existing issues before adding more.

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