Car went dark, locked out driver after car wash

[NineElectrics]

This morning, a driver of our R1S (not me) took the car to a brushless car wash and activated car wash mode. She then parked and exited the car to dry the windows. At that point, the car locked her out (despite having the fob in her pocket) and the screens went dark. She had to use the lift gate (thankfully unlocked) to crawl back in. At this point she was poking at the center screen (still dark) and the car called SOS.

After a full reset, the car seems to be working fine again, but this incident scared her. Has anyone else seen something similar? Does service have a fix?

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[jjswan33]

Was she really locked out or just didn't realize that you can still open the doors even know they are not displaying the handle in car wash mode?

I certainly have not seen this and use car wash mode often but I have seen others get confused by the handles not being available in car wash mode.

 

[Sevn86]

The door handles don't pop out when put in carwash mode. Seems like user error. If I didn't know about it already i'm sure I would have been confused too.

 

[SoCal Rob]

I checked the Owner’s Guide and it discusses activating Car Wash Mode and what it does. It doesn’t talk about how to disable it and I don’t have a Rivian to test. If you push on the front end of the door handle to open a door, do the displays come on and explain how to disable the mode?

If it is supposed to work that way then maybe entering from the tailgate meant that the R1S never turned on the displays because that scenario wasn’t anticipated.

 

[SANZC02]

I checked the Owner’s Guide and it discusses activating Car Wash Mode and what it does. It doesn’t talk about how to disable it and I don’t have a Rivian to test. If you push on the front end of the door handle to open a door, do the displays come on and explain how to disable the mode?

If it is supposed to work that way then maybe entering from the tailgate meant that the R1S never turned on the displays because that scenario wasn’t anticipated.

Exactly this, pushing the door handle does not turn the screen on but opening the driver door does. Opening the lift gate does not. I did not test the other doors.

The screens turn off after around 2 minutes.

 

[SoCal Rob]

Exactly this, pushing the door handle does not turn the screen on but opening the driver door does. Opening the lift gate does not. I did not test the other doors.

The screens turn off after around 2 minutes.

Yeah, I figured as much, but I work with a lot of technology so I’m generally familiar with how things are designed and work. To me, the door handle manual operation makes sense and seems obvious but there is no guarantee any other random person would feel the same way.

If I were describing requirements for this mode, I would say that when it is active the central screen should stay on and display instructions for deactivating the mode, including a diagram or animation of someone pushing on the front of the driver’s door handle to permit opening the door.

I read the whole manual whenever I buy a new car, but a lot of people won’t, or in the case of someone borrowing the car, can’t. I think we should be using the onboard tech to help people and I suspect that in the long run it costs less in support and service to actively help the end user with context-sensitive guidance coded into the system.

Related: I don’t there‘s any excuse for presenting just an unlabeled warning/information icon or unlabeled physical controls when you have so much screen real estate which could be used to help the driver.

 

[NineElectrics]

Was she really locked out or just didn't realize that you can still open the doors even know they are not displaying the handle in car wash mode?

I certainly have not seen this and use car wash mode often but I have seen others get confused by the handles not being available in car wash mode.

Most likely this is what happened. She was expecting that if you drive (even slowly) car wash mode is disabled, and/or she was expecting that once you open a door, car wash mode turns off. That assumes an automatic car wash, though, and plenty of people wash cars by hand. You have to get out of the car first to wash by hand, obviously. I don’t understand why SOS was activated, but accidental presses can happen, for sure.

Thanks, everyone, for the quick diagnosis. Technology, so much fun.

 

[NineElectrics]

Related: I don’t there‘s any excuse for presenting just an unlabeled warning/information icon or unlabeled physical controls when you have so much screen real estate which could be used to help the driver.

Agreed. The displays shouldn’t completely sleep when in car wash mode. They’re on for Gear Guard, they can be on for car washes. Otherwise, it can appear that the car is bricked and locked.

 

[Destreyf]

I am not an owner (yet) so I can't say for certain, but I believe the screens turn off to make it easier to see any dirt/debris on the screens for interior cleaning.

I haven't seen someone turn the Carwash Mode on, so I wonder if there's any prompt or help text around it, but ideally a prompt asking you to confirm the Car Wash mode would make the most sense, then once you hit "confirm" it just goes into the current state.

Again, just my opinion/thoughts on why it's possibly doing this.

 

[WSea]

I think your S is telling you to hand wash

 

[moosetags]

When I first took Opal through the automatic car wash, the same thing happened. I parked in the area to wipe down the vehicle. I got out of the truck and the doors were locked. I had failed to cancel the car wash mode when I exited the car wash. I was able to unlock the truck with the button on the key fob.

Brian

 

[SANZC02]

When I first took Opal through the automatic car wash, the same thing happened. I parked in the area to wipe down the vehicle. I got out of the truck and the doors were locked. I had failed to cancel the car wash mode when I exited the car wash. I was able to unlock the truck with the button on the key fob.

Brian

Car wash mode does not lock the truck. It pulls the exterior handles in so they are not hooked on anything but if you push in on the front of the handle it comes out and you can open the door.

 

[Robin]

Was she really locked out or just didn't realize that you can still open the doors even know they are not displaying the handle in car wash mode?

I certainly have not seen this and use car wash mode often but I have seen others get confused by the handles not being available in car wash mode.

It’s the door handles, they get inline with the vehicle. I learned this from reading the blogs how to open the door in car wash mode…you push in the door handle at the dimple and it pops open.

 

[Rivianation]

Carwash mode on/off should be in the app.
Maybe a future update.

 

[moosetags]

Car wash mode does not lock the truck. It pulls the exterior handles in so they are not hooked on anything but if you push in on the front of the handle it comes out and you can open the door.

Good to know. Thank you.

Brian

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