EV Dave - ranting about Rivian's navigation/DC fast charging software

[White Shadow]

Does anyone watch EV Dave's YouTube videos? If not, he's an older gentleman who has had (and still has) many EVs including several Tesla vehicles, a Mach E, a Lightning, and also an R1T. I haven't watched his videos lately, but he posted a series of videos recently about road tripping his R1T and he was really ranting about the poor software on his Rivian when it comes to navigating from one DC fast charger to the next. Not being a Rivian owner myself, I wondered if he was doing something wrong or if he's correct and the software is as bad as he says it is in his videos.

Go to 14:58 in the video to see the issues he's having.



BTW, I'm assuming that he's not a member here. I tried searching, but came up empty.

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[COdogman]

I didn't watch the video because I hate Youtube LOL.

I have only done a couple road trips but as long as I look up the next charger in Plugshare and navigate charger to charger it works fine IMO.

I know Rivian is working to add many of the things people are asking for, like being able to choose which chargers you use on your route and suggesting places to eat or do near the chargers. I think once that is complete it will make more people happy. Part of the problem is just crappy chargers everywhere. If it weren't for that we wouldn't have to be so careful about how we navigate.

I believe they are also hoping to add a way for people to share complete trips with other owners, with charging, places to stay and things to do. I thought that was a cool idea as well. If I am in a part of the country I am not as familiar with and have a day to spare I might look up a day trip if it doesn't require a bunch of planning.

 

[White Shadow]

His problem is that the navigation wouldn't recognize that he was at the charger. Several times, it had him a few feet away, despite the fact that he was already charging. So he wasn't able to tell when he had enough of a charge to make it to the next charging stop because the software still had him as not arriving at his current stop. He seemed really irritated and has mentioned this more than a few times in his videos.

 

[COdogman]

His problem is that the navigation wouldn't recognize that he was at the charger. Several times, it had him a few feet away, despite the fact that he was already charging. So he wasn't able to tell when he had enough of a charge to make it to the next charging stop because the software still had him as not arriving at his current stop. He seemed really irritated and has mentioned this more than a few times in his videos.

Ah ok. I would be frustrated by that as well. I haven't experienced that issue.

 

[HighVoltOverland]

His problem is that the navigation wouldn't recognize that he was at the charger. Several times, it had him a few feet away, despite the fact that he was already charging. So he wasn't able to tell when he had enough of a charge to make it to the next charging stop because the software still had him as not arriving at his current stop. He seemed really irritated and has mentioned this more than a few times in his videos.

Yeah that's something I find annoying on trips, I'll try to plan next legs while charging and it locks me in at the "drive 20 ft and start charging to continue to next leg of trip" so I can't see stuff like distance/ estimated time for charging on the truck screen

 

[R.I.P.]

Does anyone watch EV Dave's YouTube videos? If not, he's an older gentleman who has had (and still has) many EVs including several Tesla vehicles, a Mach E, a Lightning, and also an R1T. I haven't watched his videos lately, but he posted a series of videos recently about road tripping his R1T and he was really ranting about the poor software on his Rivian when it comes to navigating from one DC fast charger to the next. Not being a Rivian owner myself, I wondered if he was doing something wrong or if he's correct and the software is as bad as he says it is in his videos.

Go to 14:58 in the video to see the issues he's having.



BTW, I'm assuming that he's not a member here. I tried searching, but came up empty.

He's not wrong.

I am Fresh off a run from Mexico back to the Pacific Northwest; I mistakenly thought that maybe there had been some improvements with the navigation logic.

I was wrong lol.

 

[zefram47]

His problem is that the navigation wouldn't recognize that he was at the charger. Several times, it had him a few feet away, despite the fact that he was already charging. So he wasn't able to tell when he had enough of a charge to make it to the next charging stop because the software still had him as not arriving at his current stop. He seemed really irritated and has mentioned this more than a few times in his videos.

Did not have that problem on a Denver to St Louis to Chicago back to Denver trip. On the occasion it didn't immediately show what %SoC I needed to charge to it did after getting out and locking the truck when I got back. In any case, it's not hard to do some match to find the %SoC you can leave at with decent buffer. Or just run it through A Better Routeplanner to confirm. The built-in worked well for me save for wanting to go to a known bad charger at one point so I just manually routed to a known good one from PlugShare. Pretty much all cars at this point that aren't Tesla you ought to verify that each charger is in good shape before relying on it on a road trip.

 

[diehlryan]

First thing I noticed when he started complaining is that you don't stop the route you're on to add a charging stop. I believe this was updated recently and you can add stops in the middle of the trip.

147miles.. thats to Nashville. Well maybe its to Clarksville, who knows?! You do, its the end point on your trip for effs sake.

 

[White Shadow]

First thing I noticed when he started complaining is that you don't stop the route you're on to add a charging stop. I believe this was updated recently and you can add stops in the middle of the trip.

147miles.. thats to Nashville. Well maybe its to Clarksville, who knows?! You do, its the end point on your trip for effs sake.

I'm pretty sure he did that as last resort because nothing else was working. And yeah, the guy is a seasoned EV road tripper. He mentioned that he could figure that out, but less experienced people might have a hard time figuring it out for themselves.

The estimated arrival mileage seemed to be pretty much dead accurate during his trip. I noticed that a bit later in the video that he charged something like 60 miles more than the distance to his next charging stop. He was guessing that he needed that as a buffer due to cold temps and bad weather. The nav system wasn't helping because it still didn't realize he was already at the charging stop. And as soon as he started moving again, the navigation reset itself and had him arriving with only 20 miles, so it wanted him to return to the same charging station again. I can see how that would be annoying.

 

[DuoRivian]

Isn’t he Kyle Connors father?

 

[RWerksman]

Isn’t he Kyle Connors father?

I believe you are confusing him with "Out of Spec" Dave.

TBF, we've never seen both of them in the same place at the same time, so, you know...

 

[White Shadow]

Isn’t he Kyle Connors father?

No, but I think both of those Daves have a lot in common.

 

[seatosummit]

Ah ok. I would be frustrated by that as well. I haven't experienced that issue.

If you cancel a trip while you are mid charge and then select your ultimate destination again, it will indicate that you need to drive to then "arrive" at the charger at which you are already charging.

I've had this happen several times. Its a mild annoyance.

 

[Cycliste]

I don’t like the plans that call for me charging to less than the 70% I set as my default. Unless there is a line of people waiting to use the charger, or the cost per kWh is extortionate, I'm charging to 70% even if I don’t need that much to reach my next destination. I’m not worried about losing a few minutes waiting to reach that level.

I use ABRP to see if I need to charge to more than 70% to reach my next charging stop. I use the Rivian Nav for managing preconditioning the battery.

 

[White Shadow]

I don’t like the plans that call for me charging to less than the 70% I set as my default. Unless there is a line of people waiting to use the charger, or the cost per kWh is extortionate, I'm charging to 70% even if I don’t need that much to reach my next destination. I’m not worried about losing a few minutes waiting to reach that level.

For people looking to get to their road trip destination quicker, the strategy is to charge for the curve, meaning only charge as much as necessary to get to the next charging station, given that you don't charge so long as to see a slower rate of charging. The idea is to avoid the slow charging that occurs at a high battery state of charge. I believe that's what Dave was trying to do in the video, but he was also trying to be very cautious to not run short, considering the cold and rainy weather.

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