Cancelling my Pre-order, thoughts inside from test drive

[captainjp]

Was there another EV pickup to compete with? The Cybertruck lol? The R1T? Being first in a category that has 3 choices doesn't mean much. It was fine for a first try but it wasn't good. A lot of them were bought by governments anyways. Even my local city here in the south has a fleet of them they got in 2023 or so.

Very true. A TON of those were fleet sales. Also, just because the public chose it at inception doesn’t necessarily mean it was a good product.

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[Great Gatsby]

Was there another EV pickup to compete with? The Cybertruck lol? The R1T? Being first in a category that has 3 choices doesn't mean much. It was fine for a first try but it wasn't good. A lot of them were bought by governments anyways. Even my local city here in the south has a fleet of them they got in 2023 or so.

Very true. A TON of those were fleet sales. Also, just because the public chose it at inception doesn’t necessarily mean it was a good product.

Wasn't saying it was good, was just countering the last part about "people choosing with their wallet." If that is what it came down to, then the segment would be gone altogether. The cybertruck, R1T and the GM EV trucks are all still being sold today. I'd argue it was more Ford being incompetent as always more than the product not selling.

FWIW every Lightning owner I've ever talked to has loved it. Again, not saying it was good, just my anecdotal experience.

 

[Jeremy3292]

Wasn't saying it was good, was just countering the last part about "people choosing with their wallet." If that is what it came down to, then the segment would be gone altogether. The cybertruck, R1T and the GM EV trucks are all still being sold today. I'd argue it was more Ford being incompetent as always more than the product not selling.

FWIW every Lightning owner I've ever talked to has loved it. Again, not saying it was good, just my anecdotal experience.

Anecdotally, I took my dad to test drive the R2 with me and showed him the R1T when we were there and he loved it. He drives a Honda Ridgeline and the R1T is very similar to that. If R1T wasn't $80k starting price they'd sell a lot more of them.

 

[Great Gatsby]

Anecdotally, I took my dad to test drive the R2 with me and showed him the R1T when we were there and he loved it. He drives a Honda Ridgeline and the R1T is very similar to that. If R1T wasn't $80k starting price they'd sell a lot more of them.

Agreed. TBH while I think the EV pickup segment was an odd choice to start with, I do think it would have done a lot better sub $60k. While the R1T doesn't sell that great, and R2T would IMO sell like hotcakes. I'd probably get an R2T over an R2S if Rivian had offered both.

 

[Millbarge]

Stick it under dash. No one can see it. Annoying, sure. Deal breaker? Not even remotely() close.

Ok but "unavailability" of tech I had in a car 26 years ago is embarrassing.

 

[Jeremy3292]

Ok but "unavailability" of tech I had in a car 26 years ago is embarrassing.

Lot of FUD in this thread. The R2 will have garage door opener natively in the car UI. No one has to carry a clunky button around.

 

[tgrick]

Anecdotally, I took my dad to test drive the R2 with me and showed him the R1T when we were there and he loved it. He drives a Honda Ridgeline and the R1T is very similar to that. If R1T wasn't $80k starting price they'd sell a lot more of them.

Agree 100%. If Rivian can pull of an R2T around or under 50K it would make for a very compelling vehicle. Apple (Steve Jobs) knew the new iPhone would cannibalize sales from it's best selling product the iPod but he knew he had to do it. I think it would be a great addition to the Rivian line to add a sub 60k truck, with a Max Pack battery option.

 

[captainjp]

TBH while I think the EV pickup segment was an odd choice to start with

Rivian’s claim-to-fame was to be the very first pickup EV to hit the market. I feel like that’s what set them apart and drew some attention to the product

 

[Millbarge]

Lot of FUD in this thread. The R2 will have garage door opener natively in the car UI. No one has to carry a clunky button around.

"Has" or "will have"?

 

[Jeremy3292]

"Has" or "will have"?

Next software update

 

[Morgan J]

The sad thing is here that I think the halo wheels have the potential to be the gigantic headlining feature of the car, like how Apple trackpads are the headlining feature in MacBooks, but since their software department is unable to iterate on the software at an acceptable rate, it's going to get buried by the poor experiences at the beginning. It's wild to me that their software isn't capable of just moving to the new car because they built it to be extensible from the ground up like new software is supposed to be written. It tells me that either the software team is tiny with a huge turnover, or they purposefully won't hire enough engineers to get shit done. From an outsider looking in, the software experience appears to be barebones, and these features like camping mode should take like a weekend to publish to the codebase, because after all, Camping mode is a few images, a few parameters, and probably a few checking functions that should be reused elsewhere, so it shouldn't take months to release to the public.

From many of the reviews I watched online, reviewers will point to software bugs, but that over the course of years, the software improved dramatically with the R1. What's not confidence inspiring is that there isn't a UX team that just hammers out user facing features on a monthly basis (directly inspired from competition, and the user base). It's hugely frustrating that you are expected to buy a Rivian product, but wait years for things to settle on the software side. In the open source community, you see weekly iteration, and with a billion dollar company, it might take years? Why?

 

[Morgan J]

The sad thing is here that I think the halo wheels have the potential to be the gigantic headlining feature of the car, like how Apple trackpads are the headlining feature in MacBooks, but since their software department is unable to iterate on the software at an acceptable rate, it's going to get buried by the poor experiences at the beginning. It's wild to me that their software isn't capable of just moving to the new car because they built it to be extensible from the ground up like new software is supposed to be written. It tells me that either the software team is tiny with a huge turnover, or they purposefully won't hire enough engineers to get shit done. From an outsider looking in, the software experience appears to be barebones, and these features like camping mode should take like a weekend to publish to the codebase, because after all, Camping mode is a few images, a few parameters, and probably a few checking functions that should be reused elsewhere, so it shouldn't take months to release to the public.

From many of the reviews I watched online, reviewers will point to software bugs, but that over the course of years, the software improved dramatically with the R1. What's not confidence inspiring is that there isn't a UX team that just hammers out user facing features on a monthly basis (directly inspired from competition, and the user base). It's hugely frustrating that you are expected to buy a Rivian product, but wait years for things to settle on the software side. In the open source community, you see weekly iteration, and with a billion dollar company, it might take years? Why?

Yes, I've had 3 R1T and am currently in a leased 2026 Quad that has had nothing but software glitches that create major safety concerns... side cam alerts for blind spots failed, front collision fails, passenger airbag fails, Universal Handsfree fails... so bad they need to take it into service to do a hard reset and upgrade... then a week later all the bugs come back. I won't return to Rivian until the software is not causing so many problems with so many users. Def not Gen 1 R2. They have too much to figure out and I don't want to be a guinea pig for a 4th or 5th year. It's been too much. I believe in the company and bought small amount of stock -- but I'm going take a beat before getting back in one once my lease is up next August.

 

[defcon888]

Based on your nitpicking I’m not sure any vehicle from any carmaker would work for you. While you might have a point or two…”watermelon”??

exactly.

We have a RAV4 Prime and to be honest......I don't like CarPlay. The only thing I use it for is WAZE, Messaging, Spotify. Other than WAZE, Rivian does all that and I have the GEN1 R1T and the Meridian sound system IS SOOOOOOO amazing.

I read the posters "nitpicking" and that is what it was....nitpicking......COLORS......COLORS were an issue?. Where I work we have 14 chargers for us to use (for free). The other day I plugged in and I kid you not, I was the only NON-TESLA plugged in. Out if the 14 chargers, 8 of the spots were taken by Teslas.....all WHITE in color. The others where taken with Teslas (BLue and BLack). Ihave said many times I will never get a Tesla for the pure and simple fact that everyone pretty much has them.

Nothing against the poster about their reason for cancelling, but some (not all) of the complaints were trivial at best. I hope they have a great experience with their Tesla, I personally wouldn't want to drive a car that pretty much everyone drives.

 

[defcon888]

• 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:

So, let me get this straight (and I am being serious),the lack of CarPlay and Android Auto was big factor in canceling your order, but you know that Tesla DOES NOT have CarPlay or Android Auto either and you will be getting a 3rd part accessory to have that feature......makes zero sense because you can do the same thing with the R2.

We have had our Gen1 R1T for 3 years and every version of the software has got better. I was screaming for 3 years "get messaging, get messaging"......it took a bit, but we have it and it is improving. I would rather Rivian take their time to get it right rather than rush it through because that is what people want right now.

Personally I think you were never serious about getting an R2 and looking for an excuse to cancel, which is perfectly fine....I wish you luck, but honestly, your reasoning (while valid for you), makes it seem like you aren't upset at the issues you listed, but were looking for an excuse to cancel and using CP/AA as a major excuse knowing well that Tesla doesn't have CP/AA either.

 

[defcon888]

Having under 330 miles of range is a hard dealbreaker.

The software in Subarus/Toyotas is another dealbreaker. It's as slow, clunky, and stuttery as a flip phone UI.

LOLOL. We had a Volvo XC40 (the EV) and it was the worse piece of crap ever to roll on the road. It stated "250 mile range" I was lucky to get maybe.....maaaaaaaaybe 200 miles, it usually came in at 180 on a 100% charge. We sold it back to the dealer after 10 months because it was in the shop twice within 3 months for the same issue.


We also have the Rav4 Prime and my wife loves it. It gets 45 miles of pure electric which is perfect for my wife since she only goes into town during the week. It has CP/AA and to be honest.....I can't stand it. My Gen1 R1T does all of what I need it to do.

It really sounds like NO vehicle will tick all the boxes you want. You will find something wrong with every vehicle. I don't mean this with any disrepect, but I would have a hard time dealing with you as a customer for any business.

Best of luck with your Tesla Junioer with 320 mile range and looking like every other car on the road.....at least with the Cybertruck, it will standout......for all the wrong reasons.....and it is a Tesla, so it ticks the boxes for you

• 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.

Wow......that is a first. In 46 years of driving I have never had the need to "2 pedal drive". I learned to drive on a stick shift and was able to "clutch brake" on hills.....its a skill"

• ..........if I can't find something in the software with my 20 years of software development, a non-tech person would be just lost.
  

• 
  you lost me at "20 year software experience". That screams "do you know who I am?" vibes

• [*]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.

  • 
    
    There are aftermarket accessories you can get for the sunroof. In the 3 years of owning a Gen1 R1T living in California where the current temperature is 100 degrees, I don't even notice the roof.

• 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.

I like the fact that I can go up 1 with a press of the right button

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)

There are these places that paint cars colors if you want. To be able to pick a RGB (which is mainly used for electronic devices, you would probably want a PMS color choice or at least a CMYK......heck, get yourself a HEX value color). If Rivian offered 16+ million co,or combinations, they would have a warehouse filled with just paint. I personally like the colors they picked. It would be nice to pick a current R1`T or R1S color, but the ones they offer are nice.

I get it, you are a picky person....nothing wrong with that, but I personally think you need to be a little accepting what is offered. If you don't like it, then you are correct in cancelling your reservation, but if you are doing it because ofwhat you listed and going to a Tesla, you will be on a Tesla forum complaining that they won't have a coffee maker pre-installed like they do on an American Airlines plane.

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