My Rivian Driver+ almost killed me

[rivianguy]

A mapping error maybe?.. It happened to me several times last year near Rock Springs.The same spot pulling to the left. Scary first time for sure.

PS; Also the radars get confused on an arch bridge with a lot of metal angles

That's fascinating. I distinctly remember passing over one of those small 'bridges' as it happened, right in the area you describe too. I will pass this information along to Rivian. My primary goal is to prevent this sort of thing from happening to other drivers.

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[VSG]

For future reference, if you long-press on your user name in the center screen your Rivian will capture a log. Or if you hit the hazard lights. Doing that will make it easier for customer support to find and examine the incident in your data.

Thanks for reporting this - it's super important that we all report things like this so Rivian can find and fix any problems with the Highway Assist functionality.

 

[SoCalTravels]

First few weeks into ownership (Dec. 2022) I was using Driver+ and was approaching a sudden slow down on the freeway. Initially my R1S started to slow down, but then suddenly it took off like I had fully pressed the accelerator (I did not) as if there were no cars stopped in front of me, I had to slam on the breaks with all my might. I managed to stop, but because of my sudden acceleration and sudden breaking 3 cars behind me collided. None of this would have happened if I hadn’t been using Driver+.

Several months ago I had an incident with Driver's Plus that came very close to taking my life. I have been working with Rivian since that time to try to get to the bottom of the issue and figure out why it happened. I would have posted about this earlier but I wanted to some answers before sharing my experience with the community. I have been a staunch advocate of the Rivian brand so this isn't a 'hate on Rivian' post but rather a fact based (at least as I recall the events) warning to those who own Rivian's and use the Drivers+ feature.

Here's the facts...

• Driving at highway speeds in southern Wyoming
• Road was straight as an arrow (no obstructions etc.) and dry pavement (not slippery etc.), weather conditions fair (no rain etc.)
• Using Drivers+
• Occasionally would take both hands off the wheel (will never do this again) until the car 'chirped' and then would put hands on wheel again

On one of these occasions Drivers+ lurched the steering wheel to the left violently (at highway speed) as if it had detected some sort of obstruction on the road (there was none, bare flat as far as the eye could see). I grabbed the steering wheel with both hands and fought as hard as I could against Driver's+ to prevent it taking me off the road at highway speed (it was trying to take me off the left side of the highway). This was not a 'passive hands off loss of control' type incident, this was absolutely fighting the fully engaged automatic steering for control. I managed through brute force to overcome Drivers+ and proceed to fishtail on dry pavement for quite some time as I fought to correct the initial engagement (which was now disengaged after I overpowered it). I can honestly say this is the closest I have ever come to dying in a vehicle.

I reported the incident to Rivian immediately and asked them to pull the telemetry on the vehicle to try to figure out what happened. I won't go into the 10 hours of calls, failed follow ups, outright lies etc. with the call center as that in itself is another sad (and quite frankly surprising) story. I will tell you however that the determination of the engineering team (after 4 months) was that it was caused by the driver (apparently according to them I initiated a sharp left turn at highway speed into the ditch as I had a death wish) All I can tell you is that factually that isn't what happened and while I understand their desire to absolve themselves of liability due to the seriousness of the incident that doesn't protect other drivers who may face the same issue. Though I remain a Rivian fan I can't in good conscience not share this experience with the community knowing what happened and that it could happen to someone else, I certainly hope it doesn't.

Should I have taken both hands off the steering wheel at any point? Absolutely not, stupid, risky and will never do so again. Does that in itself change that this system catastrophically failed and almost killed me and may kill others? Nope, not a bit.

 

[VSG]

I was using Driver+

You mean Highway Assist. Please use the correct name. Driver+ is something different entirely.

 

[SoCalTravels]

You mean Highway Assist. Please use the correct name. Driver+ is something different entirely.

I was using the full driver plus. Not just highway assist.

Edit: @VSG Not sure what you were trying to differentiate. Per Rivians website, Driver+ is the overarching system. Highway assist is a sub category within the system.

 

[rivianguy]

First few weeks into ownership (Dec. 2022) I was using Driver+ and was approaching a sudden slow down on the freeway. Initially my R1S started to slow down, but then suddenly it took off like I had fully pressed the accelerator (I did not) as if there were no cars stopped in front of me, I had to slam on the breaks with all my might. I managed to stop, but because of my sudden acceleration and sudden breaking 3 cars behind me collided. None of this would have happened if I hadn’t been using Driver+.

That's interesting. My R1S is a really early VIN number as well (took delivery in Sept 2022).

 

[909phillyman]

That's fascinating. I distinctly remember passing over one of those small 'bridges' as it happened, right in the area you describe too. I will pass this information along to Rivian. My primary goal is to prevent this sort of thing from happening to other drivers.

The crazy thing is...this just happened to me TODAY while returning from my first road trip in my R1S. It occurred while driving south on the 15 in Utah on my return trip back home to CA.

From my recollection, I had D+ engaged, with BOTH hands making contact on the wheel so as to comply with D+ rules, however, I do believe that I had just passed underneath a small overpass when D+ suddenly, and aggressively tried to steer the truck left and off the pavement...at highway speeds, which in Utah, was set at 80mph. The roads were clear at the time and this was early afternoon. Thankfully, as I mentioned, both hands were on the wheel and I was able to immediately fight D+ and disengage it with a significant amount of force in order to regain control and keep the truck on the pavement, tracking straight.

Needless to say, this was VERY concerning, but I chalked it up to "a glitch", but perhaps I should report it to Rivian as well. Thanks for posting this...

 

[rivianguy]

The crazy thing is...this just happened to me TODAY while returning from my first road trip in my R1S. It occurred while driving south on the 15 in Utah on my return trip back home to CA.

From my recollection, I had D+ engaged, with BOTH hands making contact on the wheel so as to comply with D+ rules, however, I do believe that I had just passed underneath a small overpass when D+ suddenly, and aggressively tried to steer the truck left and off the pavement...at highway speeds, which in Utah, was set at 80mph. The roads were clear at the time and this was early afternoon. Thankfully, as I mentioned, both hands were on the wheel and I was able to immediately fight D+ and disengage it with a significant amount of force in order to regain control and keep the truck on the pavement, tracking straight.

Needless to say, this was VERY concerning, but I chalked it up to "a glitch", but perhaps I should report it to Rivian as well. Thanks for posting this...

That is almost exactly what I experienced with the exception that you were smarter than I was and had 2 hands on the steering wheel at all times. That 'significant amount of force' bit in your post is what I remember clearly it was like I was fighting the system hard for control and that's what almost led to catastrophe. Thank you for sharing your experience here it seems like this isn't a one off and my hope is that Rivian will look into this more closely to avoid a real tragedy. Please report your issue to Rivian and perhaps send me a private message as well and I can mention you when I pick up the vehicle tomorrow so that their engineers can try to triangulate on the issue.

 

[Marchin_MTB]

Several months ago I had an incident with Driver's Plus that came very close to taking my life. I have been working with Rivian since that time to try to get to the bottom of the issue and figure out why it happened. I would have posted about this earlier but I wanted to some answers before sharing my experience with the community. I have been a staunch advocate of the Rivian brand so this isn't a 'hate on Rivian' post but rather a fact based (at least as I recall the events) warning to those who own Rivian's and use the Drivers+ feature.

Here's the facts...

• Driving at highway speeds in southern Wyoming
• Road was straight as an arrow (no obstructions etc.) and dry pavement (not slippery etc.), weather conditions fair (no rain etc.)
• Using Drivers+
• Occasionally would take both hands off the wheel (will never do this again) until the car 'chirped' and then would put hands on wheel again

On one of these occasions Drivers+ lurched the steering wheel to the left violently (at highway speed) as if it had detected some sort of obstruction on the road (there was none, bare flat as far as the eye could see). I grabbed the steering wheel with both hands and fought as hard as I could against Driver's+ to prevent it taking me off the road at highway speed (it was trying to take me off the left side of the highway). This was not a 'passive hands off loss of control' type incident, this was absolutely fighting the fully engaged automatic steering for control. I managed through brute force to overcome Drivers+ and proceed to fishtail on dry pavement for quite some time as I fought to correct the initial engagement (which was now disengaged after I overpowered it). I can honestly say this is the closest I have ever come to dying in a vehicle.

I reported the incident to Rivian immediately and asked them to pull the telemetry on the vehicle to try to figure out what happened. I won't go into the 10 hours of calls, failed follow ups, outright lies etc. with the call center as that in itself is another sad (and quite frankly surprising) story. I will tell you however that the determination of the engineering team (after 4 months) was that it was caused by the driver (apparently according to them I initiated a sharp left turn at highway speed into the ditch as I had a death wish) All I can tell you is that factually that isn't what happened and while I understand their desire to absolve themselves of liability due to the seriousness of the incident that doesn't protect other drivers who may face the same issue. Though I remain a Rivian fan I can't in good conscience not share this experience with the community knowing what happened and that it could happen to someone else, I certainly hope it doesn't.

Should I have taken both hands off the steering wheel at any point? Absolutely not, stupid, risky and will never do so again. Does that in itself change that this system catastrophically failed and almost killed me and may kill others? Nope, not a bit.

Sounds terrifying. What was the speed, was the sun in front of the vehicle at the time?

 

[VSG]

I was using the full driver plus. Not just highway assist.

Edit: @VSG Not sure what you were trying to differentiate. Per Rivians website, Driver+ is the overarching system. Highway assist is a sub category within the system.

That's correct - Driver+ includes lots of different things. Some you can turn off, some you can't turn off, like Forward Collision Warning and others. You are ALWAYS using Driver+.

Highway Assist is the feature that many people seem to equate with Driver+, but in reality it is only one (small) part of Driver+. Highway Assist is only available on some ... highways. Not everywhere. And you have to explicitly turn it on when you want to use it (down press twice on the right stalk when available).

If you are using Highway Assist, then SAY you are using Highway Assist. If you say you are using "Driver+" then well of course you are, but it is ambiguous to just say Driver+ since that is ALWAYS ON.

If you can't properly name the feature you're using, it makes your problem report ambiguous and less credible. The Highway Assist feature may have some problems in some use cases, but overall Driver+ is seamless and effective.

 

[SoCalTravels]

semantics.

car was clearly steering, accelerating, decelerating on its on as you can gather from my post. And it clearly didn’t work properly. To brush off the problem and say it’s “less credible” due to semantics is childish.

That's correct - Driver+ includes lots of different things. Some you can turn off, some you can't turn off, like Forward Collision Warning and others. You are ALWAYS using Driver+.

Highway Assist is the feature that many people seem to equate with Driver+, but in reality it is only one (small) part of Driver+. Highway Assist is only available on some ... highways. Not everywhere. And you have to explicitly turn it on when you want to use it (down press twice on the right stalk when available).

If you are using Highway Assist, then SAY you are using Highway Assist. If you say you are using "Driver+" then well of course you are, but it is ambiguous to just say Driver+ since that is ALWAYS ON.

If you can't properly name the feature you're using, it makes your problem report ambiguous and less credible. The Highway Assist feature may have some problems in some use cases, but overall Driver+ is seamless and effective.

 

[VSG]

Absolutely not semantics. Highway Assist is a specific function. Calling everything "Driver+" is not only lazy but it indicates you don't know what you're doing.

While the Original Poster in this thread made it abundantly clear from context that he was using HA (hands off, etc.), your post did NOT. You just said Driver+ and didn't mention hands-free or anything like that. For all we know you could have been using cruise control (ACC) which would have been completely consistent with what your post describes. This is what you said:

I was using Driver+ and was approaching a sudden slow down on the freeway. Initially my R1S started to slow down, but then suddenly it took off like I had fully pressed the accelerator (I did not) as if there were no cars stopped in front of me, I had to slam on the breaks with all my might. I managed to stop, but because of my sudden acceleration and sudden breaking 3 cars behind me collided. None of this would have happened if I hadn’t been using Driver+.

There is no indication here that you were using Highway Assist. So were you or were you not? Did you have unexpected behavior with ACC or with HA?

 

[240vPlug]

First, thankful that your safe. Sounds like a very scary situation.

This is an important reminder to drivers you must keep your hands on the wheel and be ready to takeover at any time. Driver+ Highway Assist is not a hands free system.

I had a scary situation with Tesla a few years ago when there was an object in the road and cars all around me.

 

[Christo]

Highway assist isn’t there yet, it needs a lot more work. That being said, I am confused with people trying to wrestle with the steering when you could easily tap the brakes to disengage.

 

[strykerwsu]

It behaved as intended. AI is here to kill us,

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