Heated steering wheel update needed

[Throwdown]

It's good to know it wasn't just an underspec'd or poorly controlled wheel and rather a limitation of the technology. I wasn't aware of that.

Nah, pretty much every manufacturer has gone with capacitive touch. I've had people with taycans be mad that they can't use the driver assistance options on their cars when they are wearing gloves when driving.

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[Blueassassin]

First vehicle ive ever owned thats had a heated steering wheel and i've just been thrilled that it heats. ?‍

 

[AYAYRON]

I live in the PNW where it is now getting wet and colder and my hands are generally cold most of the time. Nothing cuts through you like mid 30's and wet.

I am 4 weeks into my R1S ownership and loving it, mostly. What I noticed on the heated steering wheel is it will warm up quite nicely but after a couple mins the heat cuts and the steering wheel heat drops noticeably and then a few mins later it kicks back on and warms back up.

My guess is this prevents the steering wheel from overheat but the rise and fall in temperature is quite noticeable. All Rivian needs to do is shorten the timing cycle by half and it should keep the wheel nice and toasty warm. My wife's MDX has a heated steering wheel and it doesn't oscillate near the level of the Rivian it just stays warm. I am no auto engineer but this seems like a relatively easy update improvement if Rivian is listening.

You need to call RIVIAN’s service to ask for this in an update, they aren’t going to actionize from the forum post but you could get what you want with a phone call

 

[YellowR1T]

I live in the PNW where it is now getting wet and colder and my hands are generally cold most of the time. Nothing cuts through you like mid 30's and wet.

I am 4 weeks into my R1S ownership and loving it, mostly. What I noticed on the heated steering wheel is it will warm up quite nicely but after a couple mins the heat cuts and the steering wheel heat drops noticeably and then a few mins later it kicks back on and warms back up.

My guess is this prevents the steering wheel from overheat but the rise and fall in temperature is quite noticeable. All Rivian needs to do is shorten the timing cycle by half and it should keep the wheel nice and toasty warm. My wife's MDX has a heated steering wheel and it doesn't oscillate near the level of the Rivian it just stays warm. I am no auto engineer but this seems like a relatively easy update improvement if Rivian is listening.

Agreed. My wife has a BMW - love the option that auto turns on and keeps steady temp. Hers auto heats if temp outside less than 50F. Love it and know Rivian could match if focus on it.

 

[SDH]

Rivian - speak to Jeep about how to do heated steering wheel and seats.

 

[shap]

Agreed. My wife has a BMW - love the option that auto turns on and keeps steady temp. Hers auto heats if temp outside less than 50F. Love it and know Rivian could match if focus on it.

BMW perfected this - I have this in my X5 and it also does this for cooling seats. Technically should be very easy to implement.

 

[AlexF]

First vehicle ive ever owned thats had a heated steering wheel and i've just been thrilled that it heats. ?‍

I had a BMW before the Rivian that had a heated wheel. Yeah, it got a bit warmer, but I have still been pleased with the Rivian wheel. Plenty for me. ?‍

It could be worse. Some Lexus vehicles only heat the 10 and 2 position.

 

[HyperionMark]

After driving a little more in 20s and 30s this season, I'm also thinking the seat is pretty weak. I think I'm going to do some Rivian vs Model Y thermal images this weekend.

 

[endress14]

After driving a little more in 20s and 30s this season, I'm also thinking the seat is pretty weak. I think I'm going to do some Rivian vs Model Y thermal images this weekend.

I think there is a ton of variability in seats and butts. Agree on the weak steering wheel, but i can't even leave my heated seats on low for more than 5 min in low or my backside is way too hot.

 

[HyperionMark]

I think there is a ton of variability in seats and butts. Agree on the weak steering wheel, but i can't even leave my heated seats on low for more than 5 min in low or my backside is way too hot.

Weird, might need to have mine looked at then. Sometimes I can barely tell it's on. (usually wear thinner tech/hiking type pants)

 

[prism7118]

Just wanted to add that I notice that it cycles on/off as well. Just when it starts to get warm, it cycles off, then eventually cycles back on. Not sure what the time interval is, maybe 1-2 minutes but I agree that is should just stay on continuously.

Alternatively, they could add 2 levels of heated steering, high and low. The current level of heating should be low, then high should be leaving the heating element on continuously.

 

[s4wrxttcs]

I think there is a ton of variability in seats and butts. Agree on the weak steering wheel, but i can't even leave my heated seats on low for more than 5 min in low or my backside is way too hot.

With my R1T I could easily see some people complaining about the heated seats being too warm on low, but they work fine for me.

But, the heated steering wheel is just weak. I can't see anyone saying that they're too hot.

They were somewhere around 10-15F less warm than my Jeep.

The Jeep would also turn them on automatically if it was cold out which was really nice.

 

[R.I.P.]

I think there is a ton of variability in seats and butts. Agree on the weak steering wheel, but i can't even leave my heated seats on low for more than 5 min in low or my backside is way too hot.

Same. Low is too hot in my truck. I need a lower setting.

 

[HyperionMark]

Did a thermal camera test on R1T vs Model Y.

TLDR is that the seats are similar but the steering wheel is indeed weak comparatively.

Details:
Garage was at 56 degrees with both vehicles "cold" soaked. Checked all surfaces constantly for almost 10 minutes. None of them changed much after the first few minutes.
Both seats averaged around 90 degrees, with obvious variation depending on where the element ran. As you can see below the Model Y does look to have a little better even coverage.
The R1T steering wheel maxed out around 90 as well, but the Model Y averaged around 120! Hot!
Just doing seat pictures since the wheel ones are kinda useless to look at. First one is R1T:

Ignore the temp numbers on the pictures since I wasn't pointing at anything in particular there.

 

[Nano]

This is a great analysis! I wonder if the model Y steering wheel heat cycles as well like the Rivian but interesting to see and 30 degrees is quite a large difference . I would think an update to the heat cycle timing would resolve this issue.
The more I use the heated seats the more they are plenty warm not hot enough to turn down but warm enough.

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