Cancelling my Pre-order, thoughts inside from test drive

[Holler Wanderer]

I have a reservation and am going to be cross shopping a few vehicles. I have a 2024 Q8 Etron. Great car, a bit older technology. Except for possible some 2 track driving for fly fishing, I won’t be going off road. I’m more interested in range, handling, charging, etc. Thus far, The BMW iX3 is leading with over 400 mi of range, fast, and good handling. I’ll drive the Volvo and Q6 as well. The Volvo has what I want, but only in the P12 version which will be too expensive I believe.
The OP has a litany of complaints that don’t bother me much. My prior Equinox EV didn’t have Apple Car Play, nor does my Audi. Colors choices are of course subjective. I’m really hoping Rivian has a hit here.

WIth your use case, you'll probably be very happy with the iX3.

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[Thebandit]

But it’s actually really not.. there are so many features inherent in Waze that are not ported or in the API from google maps.

but it would never be a deal breaker for me.

Yeah, it's not all there, but OPs assertion that you can't do crowdsourced police alerts in Google Maps, but Waze can, because of reasons is..... amusing, because Google Maps does crowdsource police alerts. With Waze. Which it owns lol.

 

[CD1973]

By that logic, Rivian should also have a CD player and a cigarette lighter in the socket.

Hey if parking vehicles in home garages become obsolete then sure, delete the garage door opener.

 

[NinjaWrap]

Most of this is very nitpicky and odd to cancel over. The only one I will address is aftermarket accessories. The reason there aren't many is because R1S/R1T are low volume cars. R2 will have a ton of aftermarket accessories because that's a much larger addressable market for the makers of those accessories.

It honestly sounds like you want to stick to legacy automakers. They seem more suited toward all these concerns.

 

[ENVErider]

I'm going to make this post a list of all the things that led to my decision to cancel my pre-order. Hopefully this information will be read by someone who can use the information to make a better product in the future! My whole investigation into the Rivian software/hardware has essentially been a good-faith investigation into the brand.

• Above all, the lack of CarPlay/Android Auto is the biggest factor in my decision to cancel. The Rivian software is not better than CarPlay, and based on the other posts that I've read spanning years of Rivian software developments, I can comfortably say at this point that the speed of software iteration at Rivian is not confidence-inspiring. I don't want to wait for the Rivian software to "maybe someday" duplicate all the functions already present in CarPlay, when I can simply just use CarPlay right now. Below I'll list things that I cannot duplicate from CarPlay/AA within the Rivian software ecosystem:
  • HomeKit support for accessories (and Google/Alexa integrations on the Android side), especially a garage door opener. Granted, Rivian has the best implementation of this in their software because they emulate an old radio frequency based dumb-opener, but I need this functionality on day 1, at no charge.
  • Waze. I want the mapping software to have a social element to it. Waze essentially is a democratic service that allows for alerts that would otherwise be illegal/gray area if integrated into major mapping apps like Google Maps. I want to know where the speed cameras are, where obstructions are, and I want to hear from other drivers what they think about local roads, whether that info is "politically correct" or not.
  • Apple Music, Apple Podcasts, or whatever music app I want. I don't want to rely on Rivian software building an app. I want to be able to use any media app at all times.
  • Apple Maps is simply better than Google Maps for navigation. I use both Apple Maps and Google Maps, and Apple's maps generally are the most performant, and look the most polished. The old days of Apple Maps leading you off a cliff into a lake have been passed over by almost a decade now.
  • Personal wallpapers. I don't want to look at a large scale cartoon drawing of the car I'm already driving in. It's a lot like flying an American flag in America. "You're in America, so no need to state the obvious." I want customization.
  • I don't want to be "advertised" the brand at every turn in the software. CarPlay/AA does a fantastic job removing the car branding so I can have my own personal customization to make the car feel like "mine".
  • I'm able to write my own apps and use them in CarPlay.
  • I want the UI to have Glass-like transparency throughout.
  • Siri/Gemini/Alexa is leagues more reliable than any other assistant I've used, especially with personal context.
  • I rely on on-screen tapbacks for messages while driving.
  • App based ETA/location sharing (not text message based)
• Lack of accessories compared to Teslas. Almost all of the hardware/software features that Tesla doesn't support can be added with aftermarket parts. CarPlay/AA, auto presenting doorhandles, LED lightbar customizations, Sunroof covers, extra physical knobs (thanks in part to the extensibility support offered by the Tesla infotainment software), driver display, etc. Tesla Accessories. To be fair, Rivian does have accessories too, but they're not nearly as powerful as the competition, because of the lack of volume sales, and support by Rivian corporate.
• Lack of a 19" wheel option with the Launch Edition. I want to be able to maximize range, and to do that I need the smallest, lightest possible wheel. I asked about buying a set of 19" wheels, and I was told not to bother doing so by the salesperson.
• The Rivian infotainment software features that will be missing at launch. Never ever buy a product predicated on the promise of future software features. Also, if these basic features from the R1 can't make it to the R2 by launch, it'll take even longer for software features to be released based on customer feedback on the R2.
  • Rivian Assistant
  • Camping Mode
  • Garage Door support
  • Climate Hold
  • Pet Mode
  • Gear Guard will be present but with limited functionality.
• The halo wheels were awful outside of vertical scrolling; I just couldn’t get left and right clicks to trigger. The software integration with them was awful and I found myself not immediately understanding when I could go left/right/forward/backwards in a menu. Pressing into the wheels and pressing behind the wheels felt better than left/right clicks, but I wanted them to feel like the middle click on a mouse, and absolutely didn't feel that in my hands-on.
  • Scrolling with the wheels felt better than excellent. Definitely the best scroll wheel I’ve ever used in any product, ever.
• The lack of 2 pedal driving (forward creep) was unbelievably disappointing.
  • people coming from an ICE car are going to be disappointed by the lack of 2 pedal driving. Parking into a tight garage is also way harder without a coasting feature.
• The sales rep straight up couldn’t answer any intermediate level questions, and just seemed in a rush to get back to his desk in the empty waiting room. Not super confidence-inspiring service. These vehicles that are software defined need a rep dedicated to all the particulars, because if I can't find something in the software with my 20 years of software development, a non-tech person would be just lost.
• Super disappointed that there’s no option to delete the sunroof. I’d much much much prefer to have a metal roof. Here in the southwest, having a sunroof that can't be covered up is a huge loss.
  • besides the obvious heat-issues, getting a crack is a giant pane of glass on the roof is just not something I want to be possible. Here in the southwest, rocks fly at you all the time, and glass coverage isn't free anymore like it used to be with insurance.
• Autonomy+ issues
  • I couldn't get the car to switch lanes autonomously on my test drive (on excellent surface streets; I didn't have time to get on the highway to test it there)
  • I couldn't find an auto park function. I had to park the vehicle manually when I returned to the service center.
• Cruise control/driving dynamics
  • I really liked being able to set a speed in the cruise control with the +1 and +5 increments, but my Prius/Rav4 did a better job of that with the single pull down/push up for incremental speed changes in cruise control speed. The knobs method on the R2 felt worse from a UX perspective.
  • The brake regen felt like I was hard braking even with the lightest and most careful manipulation of the accelerator pedal. I simply couldn't come to a clean, limo-like stop like I can in my Lightning (which has 2 pedal, coasting mode enabled)
• The color choices were just awful. I wanted more bold color choices besides Catalina Cove and Borealis. Ideally, I'd want a watermelon green, but that's just me.
  • since these cars are made to order, there shouldn't be an issue with custom color selection if they're hand painted anyway
  • give me an RGB slider to customize the paint to whatever I want in the configurator (I'd be willing to pay extra for this)

Wow, just wow; that is quite the list. I wish you the best in your search for the vehicle that meets your long list of needs...
The silver lining of your decision is that we all move up the waitlist one spot; thanks for the bump up!

 

[r2fb]

Coming from a model Y, my biggest issues were the ride/handling that still felt too trucklike to me, hoping that's due to the AT tires which I won't be buying, and the steering scroll wheels left-right motion. The first one is a dealbreaker but realistically I need more driving time with the road tires to make a decision and the, second one can probably be improved. Everything else ranged from fine to excellent for me.

 

[SactownD]

I have EV play in my R1S. It works well and takes < 15 minutes to install. That being said, after driving a model Y w FSD, I wouldn’t want a vehicle without it, even though I like the Rivian SUV form factor better.

 

[tivoboy]

Yeah, it's not all there, but OPs assertion that you can't do crowdsourced police alerts in Google Maps, but Waze can, because of reasons is..... amusing, because Google Maps does crowdsource police alerts. With Waze. Which it owns lol.

I actually do think that google purposely doesn’t enable all these elements into google maps for reasons that aren’t specifically technical.

But police reporting even in google maps Vs. Waze is quite a bit different, deprecated and less useful. For example, it’s just a pin on the map (if it’s there at all), not a north bound, south bound, hidden behind a sign, on a side street type of reporting like wave does.

And personally i find the REPORTING capability in Wave to be FAR superior to google maps. The ability to just tap the screen in Waze and SAY “there’s a cop on my side of the road” or “there’s a dead raccoon in the left lane” and have all that info make it straight into Waze and get updated pretty immediatlely WHILE driving is very useful.

What is ironic is, I am CERTAIN that WAZE is using GEMINI to enable this, of course that being googles AI.

And something that is also much more useful is the reporting and audio prompts that Waze does, compared to google. Waze will actually report “there is a policecar/motorcycle just up ahead” or “there is a box of oranges in the left lane up ahead” and give enough time to make adjustments.. google either DOESN’T report any of that or there might just be a chime - but it’s the same chime to indicate maybe “a new route is recommended” or ‘your route ETA has changed”.. but of course there is no verbal audio reporting on google maps that clarifies that..

So, there’s just a few quite useful things that I would LOVE To have in Google maps.

 

[graytag]

I'm not saying OP is a troll but they posted the exact same thing - word for word, bullet point for bullet point - in a Rivian group to which I belong on Facebook. Rather than trying to be informative, I think they're just trying to get a rise out of people. Wait... I guess I AM saying they're a troll.

And not a very good one as that write-up probably took an hour....

 

[Dweezil]

I must say…I’m genuinely curious why you bothered to post such a long winded message about all the things you didn’t like about the R2…on a Rivian forum.

I’ve owned mine for almost 2 years, and absolutely love it. I’ve also been a member here for a little longer, and not once have I felt the need to list out all the things I love about my R1T.

So, why make the effort? It comes off as either a “look at me“ moment, or some other ulterior motive (a Tesla fanboy, or you’re shorting the Rivian stock). But again…don’t you have better things to do? What exactly do you hope to accomplish by telling us how much you dislike this vehicle?

OP apparently likes being the main character and feels that their opinion on a vehicle we’ve all researched is somehow valued/warranted or somehow an unknown. As it happens, OP said nothing new…but provided some lovely entertainment. I DO hope the OP finds the right vehicle that works for them and their family. It’s obvious that the Rivian brand is not for them, which is fine…we just don’t require a thesis of faults on a vehicle we’re all intimately familiar with.

 

[rbdavis808]

Moved to Rivian and never cared for Carplay ever again.

I also don't get why it keeps coming up in a Rivian forum. They have never ever offered it and are still promising not to. It is not only a dead horse, but one that keeps getting dug up to beat up again. It's fascinating.

I use AA not because I need it per se, but because I need two of its apps: Googlemaps for nav and an mp3 player for my large music library. Googlemaps on Rivian? Check! An mp3 player? Zip, zilch, nada. Can't even play direct from a USB stick rather than a phone. I am not interested in paying a streaming service to hear what I already own and can probably access more quickly from virtually any mp3 player. Yeah, maybe I can use Bluetooth but then I'm fumbling with my phone screen while driving. Not an acceptable solution.

In with the new is great, out with the old when the old still has significant value, not so much. Hope nobody decides windows and wheels aren't tech-forward enough anytime soon.

 

[Jeremy3292]

Put Waze on phone, leave on magsafe charger. Been doing this for years in Tesla. More conveniently located in R2.

 

[TheMac]

[*]Above all, the lack of CarPlay/Android Auto is the biggest factor in my decision to cancel. The Rivian software is not better than CarPlay, and based on the other posts that I've read spanning years of Rivian software developments, I can comfortably say at this point that the speed of software iteration at Rivian is not confidence-inspiring. I don't want to wait for the Rivian software to "maybe someday" duplicate all the functions already present in CarPlay, when I can simply just use CarPlay right now. Below I'll list things that I cannot duplicate from CarPlay/AA within the Rivian software ecosystem:
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I am completely at a loss as to why you would even bother placing a reservation if the need for CarPlay/AA is the primary deal breaker for you??????

It was always known that Rivian does not offer this outdated display mirroring technology.

 

[dleepnw]

Wow, the R2 really is not for you. Good luck finding any vehicle that meets this list of requirements.

 

[Thebandit]

I am completely at a loss as to why you would even bother placing a reservation if the need for CarPlay/AA is the primary deal breaker for you??????

It was always known that Rivian does not offer this outdated display mirroring technology.

Outdated, except there's literally no other way in the Rivian to get offline music, or audiobook and podcast apps, than through your phone. No radio. No XM. No USB storage. No aux input.

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