Bed camera is mostly useless (if you have a rooftop tent over the bed)

[jjswan33]

Well I don’t have the update yet but if I am having some neck pain and can’t look up at the mirror or roof then it might be useful to make sure my camper is still on there.

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[Marchin_MTB]

I’ll often put long items in the bed with the tailgate down (kayak, lumber, etc). Even if those items protrude past the tailgate, I can’t see them out the rear window. Now I can finally make sure things stay nice and snug, not to mention, have some kind of pack up visibility with the tailgate down. This surprise update is great.

 

[beyond]

used it today while riding down i-66 into dc, worked great along with the side cameras to give me visibility into the traffic behind me and in the blindspots.

 

[SoCal Rob]

I wanted to be the first one to complain about Rivian introducing a feature that doesn't work for me, even though I'm sure @jjswan33 would have me beat here by a mile.

I am definitely now wondering if it would be feasible to relocate this camera though. Having it at the back of the truck up high like a delivery truck could be pretty useful.

I don’t have a pickup but I thought most people wanted to use the spoiler camera on the R1T for the times the tailgate was down and they lost their backup camera view. I guess Rivian didn’t have a great solution for tailgate down and something blocking the spoiler camera.

Are you trying to see into the bed, past the bed-top cargo for backing up, or both?

 

[SSteveEV]

I’ll often put long items in the bed with the tailgate down (kayak, lumber, etc). Even if those items protrude past the tailgate, I can’t see them out the rear window. Now I can finally make sure things stay nice and snug, not to mention, have some kind of pack up visibility with the tailgate down. This surprise update is great.

Sure beats watching the shadow of the long thing in the tailgate camera! I've panicked more than once driving under a cloud and thinking I lost my load.

 

[Dark-Fx]

I don’t have a pickup but I thought most people wanted to use the spoiler camera on the R1T for the times the tailgate was down and they lost their backup camera view. I guess Rivian didn’t have a great solution for tailgate down and something blocking the spoiler camera.

Are you trying to see into the bed, past the bed-top cargo for backing up, or both?

If I have my spare tire swing arm on the truck with bikes on the rack, I can't see shit behind me at all. "Good luck everybody else, I am backing up now". Obviously I expected that the bed camera wouldn't be the solution in my situation but it should still be something on Rivian's mind when they start shipping the R1T tent.

 

[SoCal Rob]

If I have my spare tire swing arm on the truck with bikes on the rack, I can't see shit behind me at all. "Good luck everybody else, I am backing up now". Obviously I expected that the bed camera wouldn't be the solution in my situation but it should still be something on Rivian's mind when they start shipping the R1T tent.

It seems like someone (RIvian or aftermarket) should make an accessory which incorporates an auxiliary CHMSL and camera which attaches to the top of the tailgate and which can rotate to face rearward with tailgate closed or open. I think that would solve many issues. Even better would be to go an extra step and allow the camera to be undocked and attached to the back of any hitch-mounted cargo. I could see it being wired to reduce the chance of loss with either a self-retracting feature (like some vacuum cleaners or irons have) or a little crank.

I remember seeing a Chevy Suburban in the late 1980s with an under-hood work light. You could pull the light out of its dock and use a magnet on the bottom to attach it to the vehicle where needed (like a fender to illuminate a wheel while changing a flat in the dark) and then use a little crank in the dock to re-stow the cord before putting the magnetic light back on its dock. So the tethered accessory isn’t anything novel, but I could see it being useful here.

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