mpshizzle
Well-Known Member
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- #1
...and by first REAL road trip, I mean first multi-day road trip. It was 4 people on this trip: me and my BF with another couple. 2,200 mi and 1 MWh of energy later here's how it went!
The Route (And Weather)
We started just south of SLC, UT and drove north through glacier national park, crossed the border and entered Waterton, continued to Calgary, and ended in Banff before returning south to Utah (we skipped waterton/glacier on the return trip). Needless to say we saw some absolutely GORGEOUS scenery.
Unfortunately, traveling this time of year the weather was a bit unpredictable. It was raining on and off for the entire trip, with a few moments of snow and hail. Fortunately, though, the precipitation seemed to magically clear for us every time we wanted to do something outside. It mostly rained while we were driving ( more on that later)
How The R1S Fared
The R1S is a GREAT road trip vehicle. Quiet, smooth, comfortable, with lots of amenities. Everyone made liberal use of the wifi hot spot and plentiful device charging. It came in very handy.
Efficiency was not great. Not terrible, but not great. Between the constant elevation changes, slightly cold temps (between 40-50 generally), rain, and INSANE wind, conditions were FAR from ideal from an efficiency perspective. Our final efficiency number for the entire trip was 2.13 mi/kWh. Despite that, we never had any range anxiety. The dual max still had PLENTY of juice to get us through the charging desert that is Montana.
The software worked great for the most part, though there were a couple of glitches here and there (chromecast not working at one point, and the unreal engine 3D view on the drivers display dissapearing for about 15 seconds at one point). There was also on point where it kept flashing up errors relating to driver assistance systems not working. I was able to engage basic highway assist, but lane changes, blind spot monitoring, and hands free were unavailable. It told me to do a reset to get the functionality back, which I did, and it worked!
(side note on chromecast - Not sure how many plex users are on here but the new plex app update made it unusable on Rivian chromecast. You can't change streaming quality, and center channel audio doesn't play - meaning you can't hear any dialogue)
Highway Assist
When it worked, it was fantastic! Loved it! But that's WHEN it wanted to work. Over the 2200 mile road trip 10% of the disengagements were because it was doing something wrong, 90% of the disengagements were because of mapping. This trip re-affirms that the mapped geofence is the worst part of RAP and it needs to go, ASAP. Along I-15 it was annoying, but tolerable. Random sections of hands on vs hands off with no rhyme or reason, but mostly mapped.
Crossing into Canada it fell apart really fast. Alberta 2, between the border and Calgary was almost entirely unmapped. There are occasional crossings on the otherwise uninterrupted highway, and as a result highway assist is not allowed for most of that drive. Once you get into Calgary, though it starts to work. Highway assist was available through the city, and most of the way between Calgary and Banff. But just because it was available doesn't mean it was "good". It was absolutely INFURIATING to use. Constant interruptions of "OK this is mapped" then, "wait this isn't mapped", "hands off", "hands on".. There were literally sections where it would prompt me to take my hands off the wheel then immediately yell at me to put them back. Or HWA would function for about 30 seconds before telling me the mapping had ended.
It honestly made me feel really bad for Canadian Rivian owners. There are hundreds of kilometers of beautiful pristine, perfectly marked highway that you can't use HWA. And when you can use it, it's an infuriating mess of constant interruptions. It's annoying in the US, but not infuriating.
As a side note - the system is clearly capable of much more than it's allowed to do. There was one section that for some reason WAS mapped where the road was an absolute mess. There were no lane markings, aside from the occasional white spot panted in the middle of the road. It was working hands free, with lane changes and everything with a very unmarked road. But after about 3 minutes of this, the mapped section ended... of course
Reception
Never have I EVER seen so many looks at my vehicle lol. When I got my Mustang Mach E back in 2021 I got a lot of looks, but nothing like what we got on this trip. Where I live, I see between 1-3 other Rivians on a daily basis. They're pretty common here. But once we left Utah the only other Rivian we saw was just outside of Waterton (and the driver of that R1S was breaking her neck looking at us, surprised to see another Rivian). We got CONSTANT looks (and even a few pictures). A few waves and smiles, a few dirty scowls, and many shocked stares. It was pretty funny. And I made a 911 driver in Calgary pretty angry when I got the jump on him
The Route (And Weather)
We started just south of SLC, UT and drove north through glacier national park, crossed the border and entered Waterton, continued to Calgary, and ended in Banff before returning south to Utah (we skipped waterton/glacier on the return trip). Needless to say we saw some absolutely GORGEOUS scenery.
Unfortunately, traveling this time of year the weather was a bit unpredictable. It was raining on and off for the entire trip, with a few moments of snow and hail. Fortunately, though, the precipitation seemed to magically clear for us every time we wanted to do something outside. It mostly rained while we were driving ( more on that later)
How The R1S Fared
The R1S is a GREAT road trip vehicle. Quiet, smooth, comfortable, with lots of amenities. Everyone made liberal use of the wifi hot spot and plentiful device charging. It came in very handy.
Efficiency was not great. Not terrible, but not great. Between the constant elevation changes, slightly cold temps (between 40-50 generally), rain, and INSANE wind, conditions were FAR from ideal from an efficiency perspective. Our final efficiency number for the entire trip was 2.13 mi/kWh. Despite that, we never had any range anxiety. The dual max still had PLENTY of juice to get us through the charging desert that is Montana.
The software worked great for the most part, though there were a couple of glitches here and there (chromecast not working at one point, and the unreal engine 3D view on the drivers display dissapearing for about 15 seconds at one point). There was also on point where it kept flashing up errors relating to driver assistance systems not working. I was able to engage basic highway assist, but lane changes, blind spot monitoring, and hands free were unavailable. It told me to do a reset to get the functionality back, which I did, and it worked!
(side note on chromecast - Not sure how many plex users are on here but the new plex app update made it unusable on Rivian chromecast. You can't change streaming quality, and center channel audio doesn't play - meaning you can't hear any dialogue)
Highway Assist
When it worked, it was fantastic! Loved it! But that's WHEN it wanted to work. Over the 2200 mile road trip 10% of the disengagements were because it was doing something wrong, 90% of the disengagements were because of mapping. This trip re-affirms that the mapped geofence is the worst part of RAP and it needs to go, ASAP. Along I-15 it was annoying, but tolerable. Random sections of hands on vs hands off with no rhyme or reason, but mostly mapped.
Crossing into Canada it fell apart really fast. Alberta 2, between the border and Calgary was almost entirely unmapped. There are occasional crossings on the otherwise uninterrupted highway, and as a result highway assist is not allowed for most of that drive. Once you get into Calgary, though it starts to work. Highway assist was available through the city, and most of the way between Calgary and Banff. But just because it was available doesn't mean it was "good". It was absolutely INFURIATING to use. Constant interruptions of "OK this is mapped" then, "wait this isn't mapped", "hands off", "hands on".. There were literally sections where it would prompt me to take my hands off the wheel then immediately yell at me to put them back. Or HWA would function for about 30 seconds before telling me the mapping had ended.
It honestly made me feel really bad for Canadian Rivian owners. There are hundreds of kilometers of beautiful pristine, perfectly marked highway that you can't use HWA. And when you can use it, it's an infuriating mess of constant interruptions. It's annoying in the US, but not infuriating.
As a side note - the system is clearly capable of much more than it's allowed to do. There was one section that for some reason WAS mapped where the road was an absolute mess. There were no lane markings, aside from the occasional white spot panted in the middle of the road. It was working hands free, with lane changes and everything with a very unmarked road. But after about 3 minutes of this, the mapped section ended... of course
Reception
Never have I EVER seen so many looks at my vehicle lol. When I got my Mustang Mach E back in 2021 I got a lot of looks, but nothing like what we got on this trip. Where I live, I see between 1-3 other Rivians on a daily basis. They're pretty common here. But once we left Utah the only other Rivian we saw was just outside of Waterton (and the driver of that R1S was breaking her neck looking at us, surprised to see another Rivian). We got CONSTANT looks (and even a few pictures). A few waves and smiles, a few dirty scowls, and many shocked stares. It was pretty funny. And I made a 911 driver in Calgary pretty angry when I got the jump on him
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