Hypothetical Breakdown

[Larry]

Say I find myself sitting on the roadside with a dead Rivian. My home and the nearest Rivian facility are hundreds of miles away.

Now what?

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[CommodoreAmiga]

call roadside assistance.

 

[Larry]

call roadside assistance.

What can I expect from them? Tow home? Tow to a Rivian facility? Local help?

I’m just trying to game this out in my head before it happens.

 

[DeafPug]

Yes, same as with any other new vehicle that has roadside coverage. Call roadside assistance and let them deal with the vehicle. If the vehicle can't be immediately repaired and it sounds like you are on a road trip (away from home and service), rent a vehicle and continue on your trip. Nothing special about it being a Rivian. You don't have to reinvent the wheel. Some insurance policies have coverage for such events, but it tends to be more expensive to purchase that coverage than just pay for any potential events out of pocket.

 

[Larry]

Yes, same as with any other new vehicle that has roadside coverage. Call roadside assistance and let them deal with the vehicle. If the vehicle can't be immediately repaired and it sounds like you are on a road trip (away from home and service), rent a vehicle and continue on your trip. Nothing special about it being a Rivian. You don't have to reinvent the wheel. Some insurance policies have coverage for such events, but it tends to be more expensive to purchase that coverage than just pay for any potential events out of pocket.

Been there, done that but with a legacy brand vehicle and an established dealer network. Rivian is going to arrange a multi-hundred mile tow to a repair facility? That would be great. Do you really think I can rely on that?

 

[CommodoreAmiga]

What can I expect from them? Tow home? Tow to a Rivian facility? Local help?

I’m just trying to game this out in my head before it happens.

As with so much in life, the answer is ”it depends”.

Rivian has said they expect to be able to remotely troubleshoot many issues — so they may be able to get you going by remotely connecting to the vehicle.

in the even you run the battery dead, they will tow you to a charger.

in the event the battery isn’t dead and they can’t remotely get you going, they’ll tow you to a service location. Their terms say that would normally be a Rivian branded location, but they can authorize 3rd party locations on a case-by-case basis.

https://rivian.com/legal/roadside

“Rivian will provide complimentary emergency towing to transport the Vehicle to either the nearest authorized Rivian service location or to a mutually agreed-upon location for warranty-related issues (you may be charged for towing expenses resulting from non-warranty issues)”

 

[crashmtb]

Rivian’s closest service centre to me that’s in the same country will be 13hr drive. But I’m not worried.

 

[HTownB]

Rivian’s closest service centre to me that’s in the same country will be 13hr drive. But I’m not worried.

Why does it need to be in the same country?

 

[CommodoreAmiga]

Why does it need to be in the same country?

warranties are typically specific to the country the vehicle was made for. A Canadian Honda, for example, wouldn’t be eligible for warranty service in the USA, for example.

 

[Larry]

Why does it need to be in the same country?

Though never a vehicle, I’ve transported cargo across international borders. That could involve some red tape if it’s being hauled on a truck rather than driven.

 

[opnwide]

Or tow it for six miles and see how much regen miles you get…

https://insideevs.com/news/535988/stranded-tesla-towed-to-charge/

 

[COdogman]

In those circumstances why would the plan be different for a Rivian vs any other vehicle? If you’re stranded you’re stranded. You call for help and who the hell knows after that… You might have a simple solution like a remote fix or a charge or you might be in for a longer ordeal with a long distance tow.

 

[crashmtb]

Why does it need to be in the same country?

I mean if rivian wants to truck a broken R1T to Minneapolis instead of calgary that’s their prerogative, I suppose.

 

[ajdelange]

Why does it need to be in the same country?

At this particular time Covid. Plus the usual BS with customs, operator’s insurance etc.

 

[ajdelange]

Say I find myself sitting on the roadside with a dead Rivian. My home and the nearest Rivian facility are hundreds of miles away.

Now what?

That was the very first question I asked upon entering a Tesla store for the first time. The answer was "We'll send someone out to take care of you." A couple of years later exactly that happened and they did but as the car bricked in Newport, VT ( a border town) and the nearest contracted transport (they don't tow these things - they go on a flatbed) was in Rutland it was a couple of hours before he got there. Though the nearest service center is in Montreal (1-1/2 hrs away) they took it to Boston (4-1/2?) and told me I could come pick it up there when it was ready. They did arrange a rental for me - the following week by which time we had the car back because it took a kid with a laptop about 15 minutes to reformat some RAM that had gotten scrambled during an OTA update.

Now RJ has intimated that if this happens with a Rivian the flatbed they send will have a loaner on it and I'm guessing that at first that will be true. But if you are 5 hours from the nearest Rivian service center it's going to take 5 hours for that flatbed to get to you.

These things are computer systems that happen to have wheels as peripherals so I think that in buying one you have to be prepared to wind up stranded on the side of the road when some piece of software gets hung up. Your experience may not be a pleasant one overall. If the failure occurs on the wrong side of an international border (as it did in our case) it may be even more unpleasant. If you aren't prepared to deal with this possibility then you shouldn't get one of these vehicles.

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