Dangerous Acceleration Curve in Conserve Mode

[AYAYRON]

I was driving in Conserve mode and accelerated hard to get up to speed. The acceleration curve ramps up over time in Conserve so it took a moment to reach the speed I wanted, which was expected. What was not expected was that when I reduced throttle input to stop accelerating, the curve ramp continued and it kept speeding up faster and faster even though I reduced from full throttle to about 1/3. This was an unintended and rapid acceleration that could have caused an accident.

I was trying to tell the car that I am done accelerating and would like to maintain speed, but it was still ramping up and giving me more power at a lower pedal position than it was giving me at the time I had it fully pressed.

Repo Steps:
• Find a private road you can safely drive on as you wish
• In Conserve Mode and at a slow speed (below 20mph) push the throttle to 100% (as if entering a busy road)
• Get up to speed (around 45mph)
• Over about 1.5 seconds, reduce throttle to 1/3 as if to reduce acceleration.
• Vehical continues to accelerate about the same or faster even though the throttle is reduced (this is where I would expect to not be accelerating nearly as quickly, if at all)
• Don't crash, drive safely

Note: I have driven around 20K miles in this R1T and am use to the acceleration in other drive modes. For me, this acceleration curve has only been an issue in Conserve mode.

Essentially you've discovered you shouldn't be using conserve mode for anything other than highway speed driving without much turning, acceleration. With the rear motors off, you have no traction control.

I have been asking Rivian to change conserve mode to quad motor under 20mph to eliminate the dangers that can occur when a driver NEEDS more power at slow speed for acceleration.

To me the problem is Rivian intended for Conserve mode to be turned on after you are at highway speed, but they should have made it work this way not rely on the driver to change driving modes once they are at cruising speed.

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[jeeden]

Yea, it really is a branding problem I think. As much as I know about Rivian and pay attention to these forums vs a "normal" owner might even I wasn't clear about the intent of conserve mode at first. I went on a 2 hour road trip with family that was mixed single lane and interstate and thought I would just try it out. I remember having the front wheels slip at very slow take offs from stop signs, the family in the 2nd and 3rd row complained about the ride quality, etc. I didn't realize there were impacts other than a couple of seconds more 0-60 time until I read up on it later.

Trying to think up names:

• Reserve Mode
• Auxillary Mode
• Trip extension Mode
• Extend Mode
• Eco Mode
• Saver Mode
• Stretch Mode (I think I like this one the best)

 

[AMaier]

I was probably around 60% SoC and had no noticeable traction issues. I can repeat the experience 100% of the time on my backroads.

Conserve Mode (no matter what it was intended for) is available all the time and a lot of people going long distances will be pushing it a little harder here and there instead of changing modes for one quick moment. I used it to cross long stretches on a 10,000 mile road trip and thus have uneven tire wear. For that reason I am using it on my rural backroads to and from home to hopefully even the wear post tire rotation.

This issue I faced was that acceleration is over dampened in Conserve mode, so one can push the pedal all the way in (acceleration slowly increases), and bring the pedal back out expecting to decrease acceleration but instead find the acceleration is still catching up to the pedal position and acceleration still increases a while until you intercept the under damping.
It is not a pleasant experience, if you give it a go. The car just feels uncontrolled for a moment.

 

[SANZC02]

I was probably around 60% SoC and had no noticeable traction issues. I can repeat the experience 100% of the time on my backroads.

Conserve Mode (no matter what it was intended for) is available all the time and a lot of people going long distances will be pushing it a little harder here and there instead of changing modes for one quick moment. I used it to cross long stretches on a 10,000 mile road trip and thus have uneven tire wear. For that reason I am using it on my rural backroads to and from home to hopefully even the wear post tire rotation.

This issue I faced was that acceleration is over dampened in Conserve mode, so one can push the pedal all the way in (acceleration slowly increases), and bring the pedal back out expecting to decrease acceleration but instead find the acceleration is still catching up to the pedal position and acceleration still increases a while until you intercept the under damping.
It is not a pleasant experience, if you give it a go. The car just feels uncontrolled for a moment.

I guess the question is throttle mapping. Have you tried pushing half way down on the throttle, then floor it? It is possible that the second half of the throttle range does not do much in conserve. That could explain why you think you are letting off but may not be.

I have not tested the actual mapping as I do not drive around in conserve, only switch to it on long trips once I’m on the freeway and up to speed, switch off before I exit.

 

[emoore]

The throttle mapping and handling on conserve mode is the reason I never want to use it again unless I really have to. I didn't like how it handled even on the highway so unless I'm in a charging desert I won't be using it even on the highway.

 

[SANZC02]

The throttle mapping and handling on conserve mode is the reason I never want to use it again unless I really have to. I didn't like how it handled even on the highway so unless I'm in a charging desert I won't be using it even on the highway.

I only use it on long open stretches with Driver+. Honestly there is not much difference in range with conserve verses all purpose but on a long trip if I can get save an extra 20 miles (10 kW) between stops it does add up on a longer trip.

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