Driver +.. Deal Breaker ?

[Greatgazou]

I think something got miscommunicated. This is what is on the Website and is line with everything I have heard about Driver+

Rivian Driver+ is standard on every vehicle we build. Delivering true hands-free driving assistance along with our full set of safety features, the system continually adds functionality through over-the-air updates. By making Driver+ standard, our goal is to make driving safer, easier and less stressful for everyone.

may be miss interpretation on my part and Rivian. This link

https://rivian.com/support/article/how-is-rivian-driver-hands-free + a short video I saw
has me confused as its states you will be prompted to put your hands on the wheel. Frankly, I couldn't care less about hands-free driving. I will never use it but I am concerned that if the vehicle detects a "perceived" lack of attention or that both hands aren't on the wheel, it will keep annoying me.. for that kind of money, I don't need another mother-in-law criticising my driving .. My original question was: can this feature be disabled ? apparently not.. Their answer wasn't clear so here we are.. So if I'm wrong, I'm quite happy ! Cheers !

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[CommodoreAmiga]

may be miss interpretation on my part and Rivian. This link

https://rivian.com/support/article/how-is-rivian-driver-hands-free + a short video I saw
has me confused as its states you will be prompted to put your hands on the wheel. Frankly, I couldn't care less about hands-free driving. I will never use it but I am concerned that if the vehicle detects a "perceived" lack of attention or that both hands aren't on the wheel, it will keep annoying me.. for that kind of money, I don't need another mother-in-law criticising my driving .. My original question was: can this feature be disabled ? apparently not.. Their answer wasn't clear so here we are.. So if I'm wrong, I'm quite happy ! Cheers !

If you’re trying to use Driver+ AND you’re not holding on to the wheel AND you’re not paying attention to the road THEN the vehicle will prompt you to take control of the steering wheel.

If you think that is not appropriate, then I don’t want to share the road with you.

 

[Greatgazou]

If you’re trying to use Driver+ AND you’re not holding on to the wheel AND you’re not paying attention to the road THEN the vehicle will prompt you to take control of the steering wheel.

If you think that is not appropriate, then I don’t want to share the road with you.

oh come on.. that's not what I meant... The way I understood Rivian is that regardless of driving mode, it will prompt you to have both hands on the wheel.. if that's not the case, great.. like I said, I will never use hands-free driving - case closed.

 

[MReda]

oh come on.. that's not what I meant... The way I understood Rivian is that regardless of driving mode, it will prompt you to have both hands on the wheel.. if that's not the case, great.. like I said, I will never use hands-free driving - case closed.

Time will tell, but I'm interpreting it that IF you're using Driver+, and it detects your attention drifting, it will prompt you to put your hands on the wheel. If you're NOT using Driver+, it shouldn't do anything.

So you can drive hands free as long as the car isn't driving for you...

 

[SANZC02]

Time will tell, but I'm interpreting it that IF you're using Driver+, and it detects your attention drifting, it will prompt you to put your hands on the wheel. If you're NOT using Driver+, it shouldn't do anything.

So you can drive hands free as long as the car isn't driving for you...

Yes, but probably not very far....

 

[Greatgazou]

Time will tell, but I'm interpreting it that IF you're using Driver+, and it detects your attention drifting, it will prompt you to put your hands on the wheel. If you're NOT using Driver+, it shouldn't do anything.

So you can drive hands free as long as the car isn't driving for you...

Thanks, that's probably it. last sentence; Couldn't have said that any better !

 

[johnking]

This (monitoring) will be new for me. I am on my second Tesla and both of them did not have the internal facing camera. Tesla however nags you to touch the steering wheel at some threshold (not time based but some other logic - https://electrek.co/2018/06/11/tesla-autopilot-update-nag-hands-wheel/) .

I test drove a BMW X7 a few months ago and it has a camera in the instrument console that monitors the driver and when I tried moving my head away from it's view it alerted and disengaged the auto-steer I was testing. If I am not wrong, the Cadillac folks have also done the same thing for their cars.

I would assume that Rivian is taking the active monitoring approach to not only make sure that drivers are cautious but also to improve the safety rating of their implementation (driver monitoring). It also gives them the ability to understand driver behavior and tune the monitoring accordingly. [Example - Coffee cup with eyes on the road, occasional sip of my latte versus me holding a sandwich trying to balance the bite so that the dressing doesn't spill - LOL ?- can't imagine how stupid I look !].

 

[kanundrum]

What features are included in Rivian Driver+?
Automatic driving assistance and active safety features are standard on every Rivian vehicle. Some may be introduced through over-the-air software updates following start of production. Driver+ is designed to support drivers and does not replace their attention, judgment, and need to control the vehicle.

Automatic Driving Assistance: Help with the manual driving tasks when you want it.

• Active Driving Assistance: Automatic steering, braking and acceleration on select highways.
• Adaptive Cruise Control: Set your speed and automatically accelerate or brake on highways, adjusting speed to keep an appropriate distance from vehicles in front of you.
• Lane Centering: Assisted steering to keep you centered within your lane.
• Lane Change Assist: Assisted lane changes on the highway.
• Trailer Assistance: Helps with more difficult reverse maneuvers while you have a trailer attached.

Active safety: Collision warning, alerts and preventative action.

• Forward Collision Warning: Warns you of potential collisions with people and cars ahead.
• Automatic Emergency Braking: Applies the brakes to help mitigate or prevent a collision.
• Dynamic Brake Support: Automatically supports your braking to help mitigate or prevent a collision.
• Blind Spot Warning: Detects vehicles in your blind spots and warns you if you try to move into the lane while present.
• Lane Departure Warning: Warns you if you drift too close or cross lane markers without a turn signal on.
• Lane Keeping Assistance: Helps steer you back into your lane if you unintentionally drift close to or over a lane marker without a turn signal.
• Automatic Emergency Steering: Helps steers you back into your lane if you drift too close to the edge of the road or it detects a potential collision, with or without a turn signal.
• Rear-Cross Traffic Warning: Alerts you to traffic and people approaching from the side when backing up.
• Manual Park Assist: A 360° detection system designed to help sense and alert you to objects.
• Automatic High Beams: Automatically switches the headlights from high to low beams when a vehicle is detected ahead.

 

[Rhidan]

It would be insane for Rivian to have the “eye awareness camera” on and monitoring the driver when you’re not using autonomous or assisted driving. So insane that I have to imagine Rivian would automatically disable it.

For example, imagine you legally drive through an intersection in your R1T and you get T-boned by a drunk driver running a red light driving a 90s era F-150. You have no major injuries, but the other driver had insurance and should cover your totaled vehicle. This should be an easy case where the other driver’s insurance pays out. But suddenly they subpoena Rivian’s data for your awareness camera and attempt to argue you contributed to the crash by not having your eyes on the road for a half a millisecond of the time going through the intersection. Even if you never really took your eyes off the road, the insurance company would get an expert who could claim you were the major contributor to the crash.

I can understand Rivian’s desire for these awareness systems when permitting autonomous driving, but there’s a point where all the extra data could really burn you.

 

[davrow_R1T]

I can understand Rivian’s desire for these awareness systems when permitting autonomous driving, but there’s a point where all the extra data could really burn you.

And that's why people are paranoid. These days you kind of need to be.
Or just live life, "what, me worry" and maybe someday something bad will happen.

 

[bigdogrod]

can somebody (hello Rivian) please confirm if there really will be a nanny about keeping both hands on the wheel that can not be turned off?

i'm annoyed enough at the damn seatbelt chime.. i'm just moving across the driveway, i don't think i'm going to be t-boned by a semi truck.. shut up!

hell on our new mdx, i can't shift to drive and move slowly with the door open, it freaks out and slams itself into park.

if this thing bitches at me every time i take a hand off the wheel, i'm cancelling me reservation right now....

what if i only had one hand..

 

[Greatgazou]

can somebody (hello Rivian) please confirm if there really will be a nanny about keeping both hands on the wheel that can not be turned off?

i'm annoyed enough at the damn seatbelt chime.. i'm just moving across the driveway, i don't think i'm going to be t-boned by a semi truck.. shut up!

hell on our new mdx, i can't shift to drive and move slowly with the door open, it freaks out and slams itself into park.

if this thing bitches at me every time i take a hand off the wheel, i'm cancelling me reservation right now....

what if i only had one hand..

I did get Rivian's answer to this and I am reassured. Here is their answer:

"Thanks for taking the time to follow up on this, I want to make sure you have all the clarity you need to prepare for the Launch R1T.

As you questioned earlier, Driver+ assisted driving can be disengaged and will in turn disengage the Driver Monitoring System. Active Driver+ and the driver monitoring system are connected and must be used together. Driver+ features are worked into the vehicle as an added convenience for adventurers, but this in no way requires you to use driving assistance features.

If you leave these features inactive, the vehicle would operate as normal and you would be in full control. While we’re working to integrate as many helpful features as possible, we also want to make sure each explorer can fit the vehicle to their liking.

To provide you further peace of mind that Driver+ won’t take your vehicle over, while all features are standard, they will only be available on select highways at roll out and more will be added over time. I don’t want you to ever fear that the vehicle will “take you for a ride” and want to assure you that you will always be completely in control if you so desire. "

 

[davrow_R1T]

I did get Rivian's answer to this and I am reassured. Here is their answer:

Good, except it doesn't answer any of the concern about nagging. Or the need for TWO hands while using Driver+.

 

[mkennedy1996]

Good, except it doesn't answer any of the concern about nagging. Or the need for TWO hands while using Driver+.

There are primarily two different ways to monitor driver awareness.

Tesla: Looks for active torque being applied to the steering wheel. Too little and you get nagged and too much and you disengage autopilot and veer to the side.

Rivian & others: [Only While using Driver +] A camera in the car will look at your face/eyes to see if you are paying attention. If so, Driver + stays engaged. If not, it will nag/disconnect. No need to have your hands [no hands] on the wheel while engaged.

 

[Greatgazou]

Good, except it doesn't answer any of the concern about nagging. Or the need for TWO hands while using Driver+.

Driver+ will force you to keep your eyes on the road, if you don't, it will nag you to put both hands on the wheel. Personally that does not bother me as I will not use Driver+. Until hands free driving is really hands free and attention free, what's the use ? If I need to keep my eyes and attention on the road, might as well be driving and in full control...

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