Intermittent audio cut out

[trez63]

It’s happened to me twice in 3 days now where the audio cuts out completely. No sound whatsoever. Not just on Bluetooth but with any of the sources. The for the entire trip the audio is unavailable until next trip.
I noticed today that I was able to sound again when I switched to one of the digital radio stations and then back to my source. Hopefully that’s a workaround cause otherwise it’s pretty annoying.

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[User433]

I had an instance where the audio was super muted and almost all bass. I tried different audio sources but didn't help. I ended up resetting the system which fixed it.

 

[Nilator]

Had the same event (once), called it in and had to let the vehicle “sleep” (sit locked/undisturbed) for 30 min and then audio came back. Soft system reset with Hazard Lights did not work...

Make sure you call it in so that this can be documented & patched for good.

 

[plasmdude]

I too had a case of all about the bass, no treble! The gps navigation from my drive from SF to LA was all in the bass. After the truck was resting from a charge the sound was working again.

 

[plasmdude]

I ended up resetting the system which fixed it.

I forgot, how do you do the soft/hard reset? I recall it was something like hold the hazards + something else for 10s.

 

[OverZealous]

I forgot, how do you do the soft/hard reset? I recall it was something like hold the hazards + something else for 10s.

It's in the manual under Troubleshooting and Help, Perform a Reset.

Before you do this, several owners have been asked to not perform the "hard reset" if they can avoid it, because it wipes out the logs and makes fixing these issues much harder. Obviously if you can't drive or it's a safety issue, then do what you have to.

It turns out there's really 3 types of reset.

1. Vehicle Sleep. This is when you lock the vehicle and walk away for at least 15 minutes (they recommend 30). This has been the only reset that fixed audio issues so far, so try this first for that issue.
   
   
2. Screen Reset. This is when you press the outermost buttons on the steering wheel and hold them for 15 seconds. This reboots the screens.
   
   
3. Vehicle Reset. This is only to be used when the screens won't come up, or the vehicle isn't working correctly. Make sure the vehicle is in park, then press the left outermost button on the wheel and the hazard lights button overhead at the same time for 15 seconds.

From what I've read on here, #3 is when the logs might get reset, so it shouldn't be used lightly. (However, I might be mistaken, and there might be a 4th method that's not in the manual.)

 

[User433]

I learned about the screen reset afterwards and it's much faster than a system reset anyway

 

[trez63]

I've done all the resets by now. Pretty uneventful. Even the big reset only takes a few minutes (maybe 2).

 

[Khaneric]

i had this happen to and it seemed to be when i was using navigation. Basically, it seemed the navigation sounds were missing and it just went silent when it wanted me to turn.

 

[LaunchGreen]

I know that this is a new product, but there sure seems to be a lot of issues being reported. I'd be curious to know what percentage of deliveries haven't had to "reboot" their truck repeatedly due to issues.

I believe we've also had one truck be bricked, another with a "critical battery issue", a couple others with suspension faults, and 3? with major paint issues.

I'm starting to think we might be looking at 1 out of 5 forum deliveries being lemons. Again, I know it's early, but at what point should we be getting concerned?

 

[OverZealous]

I know that this is a new product, but there sure seems to be a lot of issues being reported. I'd be curious to know what percentage of deliveries haven't had to "reboot" their truck repeatedly due to issues.

I believe we've also had one truck be bricked, another with a "critical battery issue", a couple others with suspension faults, and 3? with major paint issues.

I'm starting to think we might be looking at 1 out of 5 forum deliveries being lemons. Again, I know it's early, but at what point should we be getting concerned?

No need to chicken little yet.

• My 2015 Tesla needs regular reboots to this day. This was built 3 years after they started making them. I guarantee that many current Tesla owners require reboots.
• I don't think that 1 out of 5 are lemons by any definition. There's nothing permanent or truly serious about misaligned panels, software issues, key issues, or wind noise. All are fixable, and while they might be annoying (even very annoying), they don't fall under the lemon label.
• The serious battery issue sucks, to be sure. But Rivian is replacing it, and relatively quickly. Again, not a lemon, since it's (hopefully) going to be fixed.

In fact, I don't think a single person who has reported an issue has gotten the car back and it continued to have issues. Everyone either got it back fixed, or is still waiting on service to return the vehicle.

I know it sucks they have issues, but is it realistic to expect perfection yet? On most things, it sounds like they've continued to maintain better build quality than Tesla (such as interior fit and finish).

 

[trez63]

I know that this is a new product, but there sure seems to be a lot of issues being reported. I'd be curious to know what percentage of deliveries haven't had to "reboot" their truck repeatedly due to issues.

I believe we've also had one truck be bricked, another with a "critical battery issue", a couple others with suspension faults, and 3? with major paint issues.

I'm starting to think we might be looking at 1 out of 5 forum deliveries being lemons. Again, I know it's early, but at what point should we be getting concerned?

These are VERY minor issues so far. My Range Rovers over the years had far more issues and no OTA. So I basically went 3 years with issues like this with no fix. Three separate times!
For 1st year of production, with less than 3000 units in market these are all very minor issues and nearly all of them can be addressed with software.
Don't look at my posts as trying to highlight issues. I'm just documenting the experience so far and part of that is how well RIVIAN will respond. So far they have been very responsive and I am confident the fixes will arrive for just about everything in a few weeks.
This is what I expected honestly and I'm actually pleasantly surprised by how well it's done so far and how few issues I have had.

 

[Zoidz]

I know that this is a new product, but there sure seems to be a lot of issues being reported. I'd be curious to know what percentage of deliveries haven't had to "reboot" their truck repeatedly due to issues.

I believe we've also had one truck be bricked, another with a "critical battery issue", a couple others with suspension faults, and 3? with major paint issues.

I'm starting to think we might be looking at 1 out of 5 forum deliveries being lemons. Again, I know it's early, but at what point should we be getting concerned?

Not sure if you are calling all of these nuisance issues "Lemons", or if you are implying the legal definition of the term Lemon as in Lemon Law?

The following is California law. It might vary slighly by state, but it requires multiple failed attempts to solve a problem. I don't think that has been reported by anyone - it's not been long enough since delivery. Calling them Lemons right now seems excessive.

• Substantially impairs the use, value, or safety of the vehicle
• Four or more times for the same problem and it still is not fixed, or
• Two or more times for the same problem, if that problem is big enough to cause death or serious injury, and it still is not fixed, or
• The vehicle has been out of service for repair for more than 30 days (the 30 days do not need to be in a row).

 

[LaunchGreen]

Not sure if you are calling all of these nuisance issues "Lemons", or if you are implying the legal definition of the term Lemon as in Lemon Law?

The following is California law. It might vary slighly by state, but it requires multiple failed attempts to solve a problem. I don't think that has been reported by anyone - it's not been long enough since delivery. Calling them Lemons right now seems excessive.

• Substantially impairs the use, value, or safety of the vehicle
• Four or more times for the same problem and it still is not fixed, or
• Two or more times for the same problem, if that problem is big enough to cause death or serious injury, and it still is not fixed, or
• The vehicle has been out of service for repair for more than 30 days (the 30 days do not need to be in a row).

Nah, didn’t mean it like that and you’re right it’s probably too strong of a word. The battery and suspension issues are obviously bigger. Stripped paint a pretty bad one. Having the infotainment and/or audio not work repeatedly obviously a much smaller issue, but still seems so common that I’m surprised this got through pre-launch testing.

My question was just whether others think this level of issues is acceptable at this point and is it worse/better than expected? I personally expected to see maybe one or two larger issues out of 100 deliveries so this exceeds my expectation.

 

[Zoidz]

I'm not surprised at the number of issues. I break them into two distinct areas - software and build. I'll give them leeway on obscure software issues popping up right now. With my experience in plant floor automation, I have first hand knowledge of how unexpected tweaks are needed when controlling real world I/O. I now think this is a big part of why Rivian delayed shipments to non-employees last year. The control system/subsystems software just was not ready at all.

From Tesla's issues over the years, I think everyone expected fit and finish issues out of the gate. Those are challenging for all manufacturers, let alone a startup.

It's still unclear whether the more "serious" issues (suspension fault, battery fault, overheating compressor, etc.) that we have heard about are hardware, sensors or software problems. Here's a hypothetical example at 2 opposite ends of the spectrum:

Air Suspension failure -
1) Major air spring hardware problem that will require replacing all four air springs.
vs.
2) An air pressure sensor anomaly, or a comm error to the air suspension controller, causes an implausible (favorite word of control system engineers) air pressure value sent to the main computer. The suspension controller goes into "limp" mode at minimum pressure. Due to less than robust fault handling code, at the same time, due to low pressure, it causes the compressor to run continuously and overheat, throwing a compressor overheating alert.

Again, this is just a random example of the way stuff can happen in complex systems like this. I'm in no way inferring that this is an actual issue with Rivian. I would certainly hope Rivian would have planned for this scenario!

I'm a believer in the adage "The simplest explanation is the most likely explanation" when it comes to stuff like this, so I'll wait for Rivian to provide software updates before I assume they have major "lemon" issues.

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