HVAC GUI problems and suggestions

[Rizzian]

OK Rivian, admit it, there is something inherently wrong at the core of your HVAC software because I keep seeing the same GUI issues popping up after upgrades. Let me preface by saying I'm in Florida and I've only intentionally turned on the heat ONCE in the 14 months that I've owned my R1S Quad. To be completely honest, I've made it a point to just avoid messing with the AC settings altogether and 99% of the time I leave things on Auto with the temp set at 70 and fans on Low or Medium. Whenever my wife gets into the car and I haven't pre-cooled it, she turns everything up to High and sets the temp to LO. Apparently her Hyundai does a far better job cooling the cabin, but I'm not getting into that here. What I have noticed is that the air vent graphics on the screen that allows you to direct the airflow seems to occasionally assign the RED graphics (for heating) regardless of the fact that I am blasting the AC and cooling. Sometimes it's red for both diver and passenger, sometimes it's only one side, but this has been going on for over 4 upgrades now. How is the screen (graphics) not aware of what the HVAC system is doing? If it's 95 degrees outside, and the cabin temperature is around 110, and the HVAC temperature is set to 65 degrees and blowing HIGH, how can the GUI even dispay RED air coming out of the vents like the heater is running? It's just annoying, like I said I try not to mess with it as much as possible because It's a disappointment.

A bigger pet peeve of mine is the on-screen seat heating/cooling buttons. One touch turns it on and displays the sub menu which allows you to choose between seat ventilation, seat heating and steering wheel heat. I understand the convenience of one touch activating this feature, but only if it's intuitive enough to turn on the correct feature. Otherwise it's doing the wrong thing from the start and you have an additional press in the sub menu to correct it (which is what happens to me constantly). Why on earth, if it's a 95 degree day and the AC is turned all the way up, would my Rivian assume I want heat when I touch the seat icon? God knows I've NEVER intentionally wanted or needed the seat heater on. If someone had taken the time to code this button to turn on with one press, can't it at least default to last used? Either that or have some sort of logic based on Cabin temp or outdoor temp (above 68 default to cool, below 68 default to heat). Or, just have it follow what the AC is doing. If the cabin is being cooled, occupants probably want their seats to be cooling, if the cabin is being heated, they probably are looking for the seats to heat too. It seems like a really easy fix, yet I think it all ties back to the first problem of something wrong at the heart of this software where the GUI is somehow disconnected to temperatures or HVAC settings.

If I've been driving and stop for a short time, it seems to remember what I want to do, but typically in the morning (after it's been asleep and/or charging) that all resets and I get into an already scorching hot car that thinks I want more heat on my posterior. Anyone else noticing these issues?

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[a99ieJem]

Yeah, I have similar issues. My wife loves to fiddle with the HVAC controls because the auto setting isn't reading her mind. Then she complains that she can't figure out the touch controls. If only they could slap some code in there to deal with spouses...

Seriously though...I have all the same HVAC quirks as you. I especially can't figure out the seat climate logic. Too many taps to get my swamp bum under control in the Houston summers (and all the other seasons).

It can be annoying for sure, but I have found that it is much more annoying to have the entire HVAC unit replaced due to condensate leaking into the cabin and starting a mold garden...twice! First time bricked my truck. This time around I noticed it early, but still have to deal with it being in the SC for a month.

I suppose I'm okay with a few quirks until they get fixed in a future update.

 

[SolartoEV]

If you want to cool your house down from 72 to 70, does turning the hvac to 60 make it cool down faster?

 

[Woo]

I have a friend who doesn't understand how any AC works and insists that if you set the temperature lower (when you first get into the car) then it cools faster. Ridiculous. Then he turns the temperature up higher than he wants because he's too cold and then turns it back down to 60 and so on. For the whole trips he's adjusting the temp. When I suggest just setting the temp to where he wants and leaving it, he says the temperature of the air coming out is controlled by the temp control.

It drives me insane but I just let it go, he's set with his fiddling process.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

I wish the seat things worked the way they do in my wife’s BMW. There the car uses the cabin temp to determine if either the seat heating or cooling needs to be on, then turns them on automatically. So in summer the cooling will already be on at medium or low intensity and in winter the heater will already be on by itself.

Rivian is constantly adding features, so we may get this logic at some point.

 

[McLovin]

I have a friend who doesn't understand how any AC works and insists that if you set the temperature lower (when you first get into the car) then it cools faster. Ridiculous. Then he turns the temperature up higher than he wants because he's too cold and then turns it back down to 60 and so on. For the whole trips he's adjusting the temp. When I suggest just setting the temp to where he wants and leaving it, he says the temperature of the air coming out is controlled by the temp control.

It drives me insane but I just let it go, he's set with his fiddling process.

I don't suppose your "friend" happens to be my wife?

 

[Mathme]

I have the same issue plus a few others that apparently are "normal." I'm not sure why - as posted above - the diagram of air coming out of the vents is red (indicating heat) when the air coming out of them is definitely cold.

My other complaint - and the SC has said this is normal - is I can get into the truck and the AC will only run on a slow fan speed. This happens when it is hot outside, the cabin is 90+ degrees, and the AC is set to 71. After about 10 minutes of almost breaking a sweat, the fan speed picks up and the system cools fine. The ONLY work-around for this is to set the Auto temp to Lo and then as the cabin cools down, adjust it back up to 71. This is my third summer with this truck, yet this is the first summer it's displayed this type of behavior. I've actually driven to the local grocery store that's about 10 minutes away and when I got out and started Pet Mode, the dash display said it was 76 degrees in the cabin.

I'm not sure why it is so hard for Rivian to write logic into the system that says, "If internal cabin temp is 10+ degrees above set temp, initiate deep freeze mode."

And don't even get me started on how the infotainment stack seems to restart randomly since the last update. Apple Music starts stuttering, Driver+ disengages (yet still thinks its active), then the entire entertainment stack reboots -- all while driving down the freeway.

 

[lefkonj]

I never understood why people jack the temp down to lo or all the way to 80 when a vehicle has been sitting. My vehicle temp is set and is touched maybe once or twice a year. If it's set to 72 it will get there with auto enabled no issues.

 

[BCondrey]

I never use AUTO. I find it to be too aggressive with the fan. I think I saw a change with that in a previous release, may have to give it another go.

All the other stuff, I have no idea what you are talking about. My R1T cools quicker than my last trucks and I haven't found the seat buttons unintuitive, but hey, each to his own.

If yours is showing red while the A/C is engaged, that is a problem service should look at. Get a video of it and attach it to the service ticket.

The one improvement I would like to have is the ability to adjust the fan speed without bringing up the entire HVAC screen.

 

[MountainBikeDude]

OK Rivian, admit it, there is something inherently wrong at the core of your HVAC software because I keep seeing the same GUI issues popping up after upgrades. Let me preface by saying I'm in Florida and I've only intentionally turned on the heat ONCE in the 14 months that I've owned my R1S Quad. To be completely honest, I've made it a point to just avoid messing with the AC settings altogether and 99% of the time I leave things on Auto with the temp set at 70 and fans on Low or Medium. Whenever my wife gets into the car and I haven't pre-cooled it, she turns everything up to High and sets the temp to LO. Apparently her Hyundai does a far better job cooling the cabin, but I'm not getting into that here. What I have noticed is that the air vent graphics on the screen that allows you to direct the airflow seems to occasionally assign the RED graphics (for heating) regardless of the fact that I am blasting the AC and cooling. Sometimes it's red for both diver and passenger, sometimes it's only one side, but this has been going on for over 4 upgrades now. How is the screen (graphics) not aware of what the HVAC system is doing? If it's 95 degrees outside, and the cabin temperature is around 110, and the HVAC temperature is set to 65 degrees and blowing HIGH, how can the GUI even dispay RED air coming out of the vents like the heater is running? It's just annoying, like I said I try not to mess with it as much as possible because It's a disappointment.

A bigger pet peeve of mine is the on-screen seat heating/cooling buttons. One touch turns it on and displays the sub menu which allows you to choose between seat ventilation, seat heating and steering wheel heat. I understand the convenience of one touch activating this feature, but only if it's intuitive enough to turn on the correct feature. Otherwise it's doing the wrong thing from the start and you have an additional press in the sub menu to correct it (which is what happens to me constantly). Why on earth, if it's a 95 degree day and the AC is turned all the way up, would my Rivian assume I want heat when I touch the seat icon? God knows I've NEVER intentionally wanted or needed the seat heater on. If someone had taken the time to code this button to turn on with one press, can't it at least default to last used? Either that or have some sort of logic based on Cabin temp or outdoor temp (above 68 default to cool, below 68 default to heat). Or, just have it follow what the AC is doing. If the cabin is being cooled, occupants probably want their seats to be cooling, if the cabin is being heated, they probably are looking for the seats to heat too. It seems like a really easy fix, yet I think it all ties back to the first problem of something wrong at the heart of this software where the GUI is somehow disconnected to temperatures or HVAC settings.

If I've been driving and stop for a short time, it seems to remember what I want to do, but typically in the morning (after it's been asleep and/or charging) that all resets and I get into an already scorching hot car that thinks I want more heat on my posterior. Anyone else noticing these issues?

Per Wassym over on Reddit the other day

 

[Woo]

I don't suppose your "friend" happens to be my wife?

Dude.. I read this while on a conference call and totally didn't mute in time. Well done.

 

[Woo]

I never understood why people jack the temp down to lo or all the way to 80 when a vehicle has been sitting. My vehicle temp is set and is touched maybe once or twice a year. If it's set to 72 it will get there with auto enabled no issues.

Exactly. Take a temp gun and measure the air coming out of your AC vents in the summer. It's not coming out at 73 degrees or whatever temp you have set, it's probably coming out at 54. Then it turns off when the thermostat reads 73 (or whatever you have set). Cars AC runs the same way. It doesn't come out any colder and keeping the condenser running for longer than you really want is a ridiculously efficient way to wear out your AC early.

 

[Rizzian]

If you want to cool your house down from 72 to 70, does turning the hvac to 60 make it cool down faster?

No, but you completely missed the point. The real question is when you cool your house down from 72 to 70 , should your smart thermostat turn blue or red as it is cooling? Also, if you were to use a digital assistant (like Alexa) in your smart home and your prompt was: "it's 90 degrees outside and 100 degrees in here, can you fix the temperature to make it more comfortable" would you expect the home to start cooling or run the heater?
Because when I hit the "seat" icon in my R1S with an ambient cabin temperature of over 100 degrees and the AC running, it still defaults to heating my seat and that's just lousy or lazy programming.

 

[SolartoEV]

No, but you completely missed the point. The real question is when you cool your house down from 72 to 70 , should your smart thermostat turn blue or red as it is cooling? Also, if you were to use a digital assistant (like Alexa) in your smart home and your prompt was: "it's 90 degrees outside and 100 degrees in here, can you fix the temperature to make it more comfortable" would you expect the home to start cooling or run the heater?
Because when I hit the "seat" icon in my R1S with an ambient cabin temperature of over 100 degrees and the AC running, it still defaults to heating my seat and that's just lousy or lazy programming.

I agree the seat icon should be corresponding to exterior temperature. It also seems like Rivian is working on this.

Second i agree that sometimes the vent colors don't match the air its putting out.

I think these are both minor quirks. Doesn't seem to effect the usage of a well working system.

If your system doesn't cool or warm properly I would try to get it in for service.

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