Driver+ Gen 1 Advertised Features

[Killer95Stang]

Back in 1999 Ford advertised Cobra HP at 320. When the owners put them on a dyno, they too figured out the hardware simply wasn't capable of performing as advertised. So Ford corrected the situation, by replacing intake manifolds, mufflers, and a retune...so the customers were made whole to the advertisement.

Not saying that is what Rivian owes owners....but arguably the resale value of G1 Rivians have taken a hit by this revalation that the hardware can't do what the advertisements said.

I honestly don't care in this case, as I am good with my truck as it stands....even if it never gets another update....but I do understand the argument.

That whole situation caused Ford not to sell a Cobra in 2000. Back then I had a 97 Cobra that spun a rod bearing, so I bought one of the left over 2000 Cobra crate engines. It was a steal at $6500 with t45 transmission, wiring harness, exhaust, etc. What a pain in the ass it was to make it work in a 97 Cobra with a returnless fuel system, using the 2000 wiring harness, 2000 computer with Diablo chip. Doesn't have much to do with this thread... but it sure did bring back a memories.

Sponsored

 

[the.phd]

I think it's more about the promise being in 'good faith' or if it was a known lie.

Ah, the ol' Elon and FSD conundrum.

 

[dleepnw]

i think they delivered a few more features than you've listed. that being said, Rivian was obviously way over their skis here in terms of what they promised and what was / has been delivered.

on one hand, they likely have been more focused on production and delivery of vehicles than developing Driver+ but on the other hand, they over estimated what they could develop and/or the hardware they spec'd for Gen 1 wasn't up to snuff. since we know they developed a completely new driver assistance suite with Gen1 its likely the latter.

at the end of the day it still sucks. at the very least id like them to improve the features we have now and make it work well. it doesn't work on all freeways and it shuts off on certain parts of freeways. lane centering sucks. Driver+ sucks on curvy freeways.

 

[Mellowyellow]

So many people comment that they never buy a car on expected features. I get that but when the company itself is promising these features in the future via C suite interviews, press releases, advertising material, their own website, etc it is a bit different. Why would I not expect something when the CEO is telling everyone that it is coming s00n? (I'm still salty about my Apple Watch as a key, among other things)

 

[beatle]

I think people say not to buy features based on promises since manufacturers are allowed to promise something and not deliver it with no meaningful consequences. COGS for promises is zero.

Software defined vehicles are pretty new in the timeline of cars, and there are some real benefits to allowing improvements over time, but they also allows manufacturers to get a minimum viable product out early and start earning revenue on sales without finalizing the feature set as was previously the case.

 

[Cascadian]

D+ was not a big factor in my purchase decision, but the advertising of future features that never get delivered needs stronger consumer protection. Are there legal footnotes in these ads that waive Rivian of liability to deliver the product?

My opinion is that Driver+ is clunky. I still use it but it cancels out a lot from things like, turning wheel too soon after signaling when changing lanes, not detecting lanes, no mapping of sections of freeway that are or were previously construction zones, incorrect speed limits, reading joints or tar sealing lines as lanes, glare, rain, …

Will there be any improvements for Gen 1 going forward?

 

[ohseedee]

While I don't regret my decision to go with the R1T and will continue to enjoy it the next ~4 years, the promises of D+ certainly influenced my decision. I had early deposits on every eTruck and did a pretty detailed analysis on features when making the decision. Autonomous systems were pretty important to me at the time and I had D+ equal to every other truck except the Cybertruck which was higher with FSD (yes I'm aware it wasn't there at launch). Reality is the Gen1 R1T will have the worst autonomous system than any other eTruck on the market (F150, CT, hummer, Silverado). Had I known their autonomous system was never going to be better than the 7+ year old Audi I was replacing, it might have made a difference when I decided on the R1T ~1.5 years ago.

 

[SANZC02]

The only thing I would like them to change for G1 vehicles would be to let D+ work on all highways by reading the lane lines. That is how my V1 Autopilot works and I use it a lot on long trips. D+ for me works well but does drop a lot with no data available messages, enabling it to read lane lines would just make it so much better overall on long trips.

 

[Tim-in-CA]

Yea, it is a complete miss on Rivian's part and we are left with a system that matches the capabilities of a 5 year old Kia. At a minimum Rivian should make Connect+ for free or with a DEEP discount for us hobbled G1 owners.

 

[zefram47]

The only thing I would like them to change for G1 vehicles would be to let D+ work on all highways by reading the lane lines. That is how my V1 Autopilot works and I use it a lot on long trips. D+ for me works well but does drop a lot with no data available messages, enabling it to read lane lines would just make it so much better overall on long trips.

If you actually watch the drawn lane lines in the display, the Gen1 absolutely sucks at seeing lane lines. It's especially obvious when a road splits from one to two lanes and the truck can't figure out where the lane line went or pick up the new lane line down the middle quickly enough...causing it to veer into one lane or the other once it does figure it out. Or even driving on a road with good markings the drawn lines will just bounce around.

 

[SoCal Rob]

If you actually watch the drawn lane lines in the display, the Gen1 absolutely sucks at seeing lane lines. It's especially obvious when a road splits from one to two lanes and the truck can't figure out where the lane line went or pick up the new lane line down the middle quickly enough...causing it to veer into one lane or the other once it does figure it out. Or even driving on a road with good markings the drawn lines will just bounce around.

Not sure if just our Rivian, but under the right (wrong?) conditions I can watch the projected lines in the scenter of the driver’s display flip-flop from straight to a curve and back repeatedly while stopped. It gives me the idea that the system should not be trusted.

Honestly, I don’t understand why a developer would even allow this behavior. Once the system goes through 2 cycles where it cannot make a determination between 2 possibilities while stopped, why not show a stable compromise or average until the vehicle starts moving and a determination can be made with more certainty what the real path is?

From my perspective, all that center display does is serve as a constant reminder of how imperfect the Gen 1* interpretation of the real world is. I think drivers should be able to have an alternate view on the driver’s display where the information currently displayed on the right (power applied, speed, PRND, etc.) is shown in the center and a compact view of the gauges from the drive mode screen (or some other user-selectable data) is shown on the right. This would provide a side benefit of not having the speed get shoved aside and made smaller when the right turn signal is used with blind spot cameras enabled.

*Hoping Gen 2 is better / more confidence-inspiring.

edit: missed a few words

 

[SANZC02]

If you actually watch the drawn lane lines in the display, the Gen1 absolutely sucks at seeing lane lines. It's especially obvious when a road splits from one to two lanes and the truck can't figure out where the lane line went or pick up the new lane line down the middle quickly enough...causing it to veer into one lane or the other once it does figure it out. Or even driving on a road with good markings the drawn lines will just bounce around.

Mine actually does pretty well with the lines. The three things I see an issue with are heading into the sun during sunrise and sunset it loses the lines, black patch lines confuses it, and it appears to follow the right line instead of the left so when a lane splits off for an exit it gets confused. The Tesla seems to handle these scenarios much better.

Not sure if it is a software design or hardware issue on the R1S, outside of those three scenarios when it is available it seems to work very well.

I have a cross country trip coming up, between the free supercharging and ability to use autopilot on all highways, I’ll probably take the Tesla. If driver+ was more like autopilot It would be a tougher decision.

 

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Date on that article is a year before the first customer vehicle even rolled off the production line. I don't think it's reasonable to hold them to that. Why not get the tar & feathers for the "500+ mile $69k Cybertruck", instead? ?

 

[s4wrxttcs]

So many people comment that they never buy a car on expected features. I get that but when the company itself is promising these features in the future via C suite interviews, press releases, advertising material, their own website, etc it is a bit different. Why would I not expect something when the CEO is telling everyone that it is coming s00n? (I'm still salty about my Apple Watch as a key, among other things)

I'd be extremely hesitant on buying a car that didn't have the expectation of SW updates.

In fact I think a SW pipeline of planned features is good marketing.

 

[PappaBolt]

I see it as good intentions from marketing with the engineers saying yeah with think we can do it. They have to market to sell. But a big swing and miss.

Should they have said all that? Probably not without some disclaimers that it might not happen as they hoped.

Same could be said for lots of things that humans have to figure out after they’ve opened their mouths. We’re pretty awful at predicting the future.

But yeah that was over aggressive marketing.

Sponsored