Immediately Disengaging Cruise Control when Driver+ is Unavailable is Unacceptable

[Kacey3]

I am not the kind of person to complain, and I am generally happy with my R1T and all of the updates that have been released since my purchase back in January 2023. But after having done several road trips in the past 18 months, my biggest complaint is that under certain conditions, when Driver+ becomes unavailable, it will not only deactivate lane centering, but also the adaptive cruise control. On more than one occasion, this has happened at the most inopportune time, resulting in a near-panic response that could possibly make the situation worse.

I understand the limitations of the Driver+ system, and am one of those drivers who trusts it circumstantially... Meaning that I always have one hand on the wheel, I maintain awareness of the road and cars around me, and if I recognize a situation where I suspect the lane centering might react incorrectly (construction, additions of new lanes, increasingly curvy roads, etc.), I am prepared to take the wheel. In fact, there are a number of times where I will simply wrestle control back from Driver+ just because I don't trust it to take a curve like I would, or give leeway to a big rig like I would prefer.

But my biggest complaint is when, despite everything I am looking out for, Driver+ simply disengages and deactivates cruise control with it. While I keep my hand on the wheel, ready to take control, I don't keep my foot hovering over the accelerator the whole time. Resting my feet and knees is arguably the biggest benefit of cruise control - and not just in this vehicle, but in every vehicle I have owned. Over the past week, we drove several thousand highway miles, and on more than one occasion, we were caught off guard by Driver+ disengaging, which would be fine, but as I was trying to catch the wheel and mange our steering, it took me more than a second to realize that we were also dramatically slowing in heavy traffic. At least once, it happened as we were passing another vehicle and trying to merge back into traffic. A sudden deceleration, along with trying to get your bearing as the wheel is handed back to you is just a bit too much.

I am sure there is probably a reason for everything to disengage all at once, and if there is, I'd be curious to learn what that is. But if full disengagement can be avoided, I would much prefer that. It would not only make driving (and recovering from Driver+ disengagement) more pleasurable, but also seems like it would be a safer response as well. I know that Driver+ uses the camera in the windshield to manage not only lane centering but also adaptive cruise control, and it's likely that the situations I am experiencing are related to the camera being obscured or otherwise unavailable, but no such message was presented to me (where in the past I would receive a notification of "front camera obscured").

Nevertheless, my request to Rivian - if in fact the engineers and software developers read this forum - in the event that if Driver+ needs to disengage, it at least leave the adaptive cruise control active, at least for another second or two so that drivers can regain control more reasonably and not be forced to react to everything all at once.

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[ndmiller]

I've received a screen warning when Driver + is coming to an end in the dozen or so times it's happened. If you're not getting warnings that's a problem.

 

[SANZC02]

Just my take….

If only using cruise control and you are steering it will not disengage cruise.

When in driver+ though, it would be far more dangerous to disengage steering and maintain speed than to disable everything.

 

[beatle]

FWIW, if you take over by using the wheel with Tesla autopilot, it leaves cruise engaged, so Rivian is different. It is rare, however, that autopilot will disengage on its own. It will usually just keep driving and making mistakes until you're really in danger.

Some on TMC have said they'd prefer it to disable everything. I can see the point in that sometimes, as I have taken control and once the situation is over, I relax my grip on the wheel and let it resume - except it hasn't - and I find myself "mysteriously" drifting out of my lane.

I am with OP, however. I'd prefer if you take control via the wheel and not the pedals, cruise should remain engaged On my maiden voyage home from the SC, I took over with the wheel and found myself going 50 mph on I-270 before I realized what was happening - a pretty dangerous thing to do when everyone around you is doing 70+.

 

[SwampNut]

I have gotten a message that it’s switching to adaptive cruise, such as when changing lanes into the exit lane.

 

[Perplexed]

I agree with OP, it is not typical behaviour IMO.
Having said that, I'm glad it does tell me it cannot keep it on, because from my experience so far - the R1S Driver+ is not to be trusted.

 

[Glembi2]

I got to check this next time. Before the update, I could have sworn I was disengaging Driver+ using the wheel (due to the truck getting a little too close to the lane markers with traffic’s next to me) and ACC was not disengaging.

 

[RexRemus]

FWIW, if you take over by using the wheel with Tesla autopilot, it leaves cruise engaged, so Rivian is different. It is rare, however, that autopilot will disengage on its own. It will usually just keep driving and making mistakes until you're really in danger.

Some on TMC have said they'd prefer it to disable everything. I can see the point in that sometimes, as I have taken control and once the situation is over, I relax my grip on the wheel and let it resume - except it hasn't - and I find myself "mysteriously" drifting out of my lane.

I am with OP, however. I'd prefer if you take control via the wheel and not the pedals, cruise should remain engaged On my maiden voyage home from the SC, I took over with the wheel and found myself going 50 mph on I-270 before I realized what was happening - a pretty dangerous thing to do when everyone around you is doing 70+.

This works. In fact it's exactly how I deal with the random "Driver+ not Available" for like... 50ft messages that pop up. If you just give a little twist on the wheel (enough to overcome the initial D+ resistance) it'll disengage D+ but KEEP ACC active. And then 4 seconds later when D+ suddenly knows where it is again, you can re-engage it. I found that all other methods seem to disengage both systems which does indeed suck most times when it's just D+ being flaky.

One thing some people might not be aware of is that when you need to disengage D+ or ACC and want to avoid sudden/jerky deceleration - like when it's time to hit the exit, or you want to take control for a construction zone/lane shift scenario. The ACC speed display will change color to let you know you have "matched" speed on the accelerator pedal. So rather than hitting the brake pedal and then trying to move your foot over (while aggressively regen slowing) or tapping the right stalk up and THEN trying to get the pedal in sync - simply start pressing the pedal (slowly, but you'll get a feel for it after a time and can match pretty quickly after you get used to it) until the set speed indicator changes color - I forget if it fills in white, or goes from filled-in white to outlined - but it'll "change" that's all you're looking for, and if you THEN hit the stalk up it'll disengage and you'll have a perfectly smooth transition to deceleration that you can control immediately off the pedal. If you weren't aware of this give it a try and you'll never do it another way

I still feel like D+ is one of the biggest disappointments in the vehicle and with Gen2 I have very little faith that the experience will get much better for Gen1 vehicles... Which really does kinda suck. But I have at least learned how to work around it's quirks to achieve minimal disruption - but it's a lot of "work" to deal with an ADAS that ACTIVELY underperforms the 10yr-old MDX I traded in for it... Such is life. I enjoy so many other facets of the vehicle that this is a grin and bear it thing for me.

 

[Ecupip]

This works. In fact it's exactly how I deal with the random "Driver+ not Available" for like... 50ft messages that pop up. If you just give a little twist on the wheel (enough to overcome the initial D+ resistance) it'll disengage D+ but KEEP ACC active.

Thank you! I can't wait to try this on my next drive. I agree with OP, the sudden drop of even basic cruise control because the cameras can't see or the road isn't mapped is super annoying.

 

[bd5400]

I got to check this next time. Before the update, I could have sworn I was disengaging Driver+ using the wheel (due to the truck getting a little too close to the lane markers with traffic’s next to me) and ACC was not disengaging.

That’s how it (Highway Assist) works most of the time but not all of the time. There are instances where it completely disengages, which is likely what OP is referring to. When Highway Assist has a planned disengagement, such as an upcoming junction, you can disengage by moving the wheel and keep cruise control on. Same when it has trouble reading lane lines, usually, or when you manually move the wheel too far.

However, I have, on multiple occasions, had Highway Assist error out and everything completely disengages without pre-warning. I’ve always assumed it was caused by some system fault or other error because it happens in areas where Highway Assist should be fully available and doesn’t happen in the same spot repeatedly.

 

[Kacey3]

I got to check this next time. Before the update, I could have sworn I was disengaging Driver+ using the wheel (due to the truck getting a little too close to the lane markers with traffic’s next to me) and ACC was not disengaging.

Yes, disengaging by pulling the wheel does not disengage ACC. It's only if you disengage it from the lever or if the system decides that Highway Assist is no longer available and shuts down both at once.

 

[Kacey3]

I've received a screen warning when Driver + is coming to an end in the dozen or so times it's happened. If you're not getting warnings that's a problem.

Most of the time I get the warning, but at least twice on this last road trip, the time between the alert and the system disengaging was less than a second, and at least once, I was changing lanes in front of someone who was tailgating me, so I immediately started slowing down unintentionally while being followed by someone with obviously little patience for me.

 

[Kacey3]

FWIW, if you take over by using the wheel with Tesla autopilot, it leaves cruise engaged, so Rivian is different. It is rare, however, that autopilot will disengage on its own. It will usually just keep driving and making mistakes until you're really in danger.

Some on TMC have said they'd prefer it to disable everything. I can see the point in that sometimes, as I have taken control and once the situation is over, I relax my grip on the wheel and let it resume - except it hasn't - and I find myself "mysteriously" drifting out of my lane.

I am with OP, however. I'd prefer if you take control via the wheel and not the pedals, cruise should remain engaged On my maiden voyage home from the SC, I took over with the wheel and found myself going 50 mph on I-270 before I realized what was happening - a pretty dangerous thing to do when everyone around you is doing 70+.

It's less about when I want to take control, and more about when the truck randomly decides that Highway Assist is no longer available, and it automatically disengages everything all at once.

 

[Kacey3]

That’s how it (Highway Assist) works most of the time but not all of the time. There are instances where it completely disengages, which is likely what OP is referring to. When Highway Assist has a planned disengagement, such as an upcoming junction, you can disengage by moving the wheel and keep cruise control on. Same when it has trouble reading lane lines, usually, or when you manually move the wheel too far.

However, I have, on multiple occasions, had Highway Assist error out and everything completely disengages without pre-warning. I’ve always assumed it was caused by some system fault or other error because it happens in areas where Highway Assist should be fully available and doesn’t happen in the same spot repeatedly.

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one. I typically have no problem with Highway Assist and ACC, but every now and then, there's some kind of system fault and it just dumps everything all at once. Even a couple more seconds of ACC would make all the difference. Give me a second to react to having to take over steering before I have to react to taking over acceleration, too.

 

[racekarl]

I just did a 3 hour drive and twice I saw a notification along the lines of “Driver+ unavailable, reverting to ACC” or something along those lines, when driving through a merge or interchange. I don’t remember the exact circumstances or wording, but is it possible this is something they changed a bit in the latest update?

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