Software Team Needs a Revamp

[hammick]

This is exaggerated. Compared to every other vehicle manufacturer besides Tesla, Rivian's software is superior in every way. Teslas have drawbacks for different reasons, and their software lacks basic features that Rivian offers. In my opinion, it's a wash. You bought a computer with wheels. Sometimes computers need to be rebooted.

Every computer I've ever owned has required a reboot at least once a week. I don't see how this is unusual or unexpected.

Yep. I have to reboot my MacBook every couple weeks when Safari locks up.

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[AlanP]

This is exaggerated. Compared to every other vehicle manufacturer besides Tesla, Rivian's software is superior in every way. Teslas have drawbacks for different reasons, and their software lacks basic features that Rivian offers. In my opinion, it's a wash. You bought a computer with wheels. Sometimes computers need to be rebooted.

Every computer I've ever owned has required a reboot at least once a week. I don't see how this is unusual or unexpected.

Maybe opposites attract? I have a Dell XPS and haven’t had to reboot it in years. My Rivian, at least 2-4 times per month. And the touch screen… at least half the time it registers the touch but doesn’t execute the command.

 

[RandomMcRandomFace]

Add me to the G1 no issues club. I don’t even find it laggy. I had a Tesla model Y before and I frankly don’t understand why everybody talks about how awesome Tesla software is. Certainly the Rivian driver assistant needs help, but I don’t see any perceivable difference between the two other than I thought the Rivian is laid out better. The tesla nav was better too I guess. I have had 3 resets in 1.5 years. Never did a manual soft or hard reset. Telsa had probably 5-10 in my 3 years of ownership.

I think the expectations here are far too high. It’s clearly superior to nearly every other manufacturer. My other car is a Volvo and their night and day different. I don’t mind the Volvo software either, but they’re not really comparable. And Volvo is probably better than a lot of other ones.

 

[ElGuano]

The recent change to make climate instant helps a lot. That's the one control I've really found myself "waiting for" a lot, and frankly it requires taking your eyes off the road for a beat or two too long if it lags. So it's great that Rivian is focusing on that.

Generally speaking though, for a "computer on wheels" and a car that has really embraced the "screen does everything" ethos, Rivian's software (or rather, hardware) desperately needs a refresh. A lot of screens are slower than a Tesla MCU2 from 2018, and IMHO so much if it is "functional, but not snappy."

Some people don't care as long as it eventually works (like my wife, who couldn't really tell the difference between our Tesla MCU1 -> MCU2 upgrade), and others care a lot (like me, I tend to notice even brief framerate drops).

I'm pretty sure however that Rivian has been running up against the limits of the hardware, and there's only so much they can keep in RAM without swapping/reloading. So many times I will flip over to drive mode to see my battery/motor temp, and when I go back to active navigation, it reloads the entire route overview and turn-by-turn.

 

[iforbes]

This is why I was hesitant to post anything here about this, because I've seen others in the past attack an OP if they dared say anything wrong about the vehicle. As I mentioned I love my R1S and is/was planning on getting an R2; with Rivian still on the brink we should be trying to assist and point out flaws, rather attack anyone who points them out.

Um, I don’t believe I saw anyone “attacking” you in any of theses comments? Maybe I missed it?

Put me in the stable group. Glitch and bug here and there but no major complaints. I have also watched the software mature over time. I think it is often forgotten that the first car rolled off the floor 3 (?) years ago. Microsoft didn’t have a flawless product after 3 years, nor did Apple, Tesla, etc.

I appreciate the monthly updates and look forward to any coming improvements. As I have said before, this is the fist car I have owned that is better now than when I bought it.

For clarity, just because I don’t agree with OP does not mean I am attacking.

 

[QuadMonster]

As a software product manager, I genuinely believe Rivian’s biggest limitation right now isn’t hardware. It’s the software stack. If I released a product with this level of instability, I’d only do so under a “beta” label with clear disclaimers.

In the past few weeks, I’ve experienced multiple reboots of the driver display while in motion, complete system reboots involving both the instrument cluster and center display, and freezes in the infotainment system, most critically while using navigation, causing me to miss highway exits. These aren’t rare edge cases. They reflect systemic reliability gaps.

The deeper concern is the lack of resilience and graceful degradation. A fault in the navigation or UI layer shouldn’t cascade into a full system failure. That suggests tightly coupled dependencies or insufficient process isolation. At this stage, this is a reliability and architecture issue, not just a UX bug.

It’s time for Rivian to reconsider its full stack approach, especially when it comes to navigation. Google Maps and Waze have spent over a decade solving real-time routing, traffic intelligence, and location UX. Rather than building a parallel ecosystem, Rivian would be better served by deeply integrating a mature, stable platform like Google’s and reallocating engineering bandwidth to their core competencies like vehicle performance, drive system integration, and safety-critical UI stability.

To illustrate the gap, my wife drives a 2022 Kia EV6 GT-Line. It has over three times the mileage, and she’s never experienced a single software crash or navigation issue. Not only is the system stable, but it also supports Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, giving it a more advanced and flexible user experience than Rivian’s current setup.

Rivian’s hardware is excellent. The vision is compelling. But until the software experience reaches production grade reliability, especially for core systems, the vehicle will continue to feel like an early access product. That’s not sustainable at this price point or scale.

 

[SANZC02]

When I read through many posts on this forum it often leaves me wondering, am I way more tolerant than most or did I get a unicorn for my early vin (1663) R1S.

I just do not see the plethora of issues many post about. I’ve had a Tesla for 9 years, I find my Rivian experience to be the same as it was with my Tesla. Over the years I get new functions, on occasion I get a feature that has an issue, most recent was the voice on Alexa with 2025.10, subsequently fixed in 2025.14, but overall my experiences have been pretty solid in the 2+ years and 38k miles. I’ve had my Tesla UI reboot twice while driving in the 9 years I’ve had it, has not happened in my R1S yet but would not surprise me if it does.

People constantly complain about navigation, I’ve been on a maiden voyage over 5k miles and 2 trips over 7k miles and find the navigation to work great. Just yesterday I was going from OC to LA, only a 45 mile journey that navigation projected to be 1 hour 30 minute. I was 10 minutes in and navigation suggested an alternate route to save 20 minutes, I accepted, followed the route, it only saved me 18 minutes, instead of griping about not saving me the 20 minutes I just appreciated the 18 it saved me.

I find the Rivian UI to be very intuitive and do appreciate the new features that have been added since I originally took delivery. I find the UI response to be acceptable and on par with my Tesla. I do not use every single feature it has but I do make a habit of going through the screens I use after each update. That caches the screen layouts, the initial load after an update they do take a second or 2 to load but when I cache the ones I use it solves that.

 

[Rivianero]

I have not had any significant software issues until 2025.14.01, which coincided with NAV oddities and terrible Connect+ hotspot speeds.

I have seen the many many posts about other people's software issues.

Coming from a production software background, I think that "staffing changes" are rarely ever the correct solution. I would advise them to freeze adding any new features, focus on quality and stability until the cumulative technical debt is managed, and then move back to adding features at a more modest pace.

The race for new features has simply come at the cost of lower quality.

Making this sort of shift is very very hard in a startup environment. There is immense pressure to show progress and new capabilities. It sounds like a simple change, but takes great courage.

 

[R1Yes]

The software on my Gen1 2023 R1T working just fine. I like it. Absolutely no bugs. Maybe your car system has some issues and needs to be addressed

That’s great, seriously, but given the sheer number of complaints about software issues here and elsewhere, it’s hard to argue that the software is fine and anyone having problems must have some issues unique to them ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[SeaDawgBob]

I do find it frustrating with some Riv owners that discredit issues and problems because “They haven’t had any issues..”

I’m sure any programmer will agree the more flaws and bugs we point out the easier it is to fix them. By claiming everything is great is just not being honest, all of you that claim to have zero issues must have absolute unicorns because if you read through the FB or Reddit groups so many owners have software issues daily.

 

[Davethadog]

You’re not alone. I have a gen 1 dual performance and it is constantly rebooting to varying levels of severity. Sometimes the gauge cluster will just go white for a while, sometimes both screens will reboot entirely, sometimes I get in and both screens are black and it takes a while for everything to be operational again.

I asked them to take a look at it during the TWO WEEK LONG routine service appointment I have coming up. I’m not hopeful.

 

[Rivianready]

It’s time for Rivian to reconsider its full stack approach, especially when it comes to navigation. Google Maps and Waze have spent over a decade solving real-time routing, traffic intelligence, and location UX. Rather than building a parallel ecosystem, Rivian would be better served by deeply integrating a mature, stable platform like Google’s and reallocating engineering bandwidth to their core competencies like vehicle performance, drive system integration, and safety-critical UI stability.

I completely agree. It will take many years for Rivian’s navigation to mature to the level of Google’s. I recently took a trip from Richmond, VA to Philadelphia and it took me on the most bizarre route through Washington DC. It added 2 hours to my trip. The problem is that you need nav to integrate with the car for recharging stops. The best solution would be to license Google’s nav software and integrate it with the car.
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[COdogman]

I do find it frustrating with some Riv owners that discredit issues and problems because “They haven’t had any issues..”

I’m sure any programmer will agree the more flaws and bugs we point out the easier it is to fix them. By claiming everything is great is just not being honest, all of you that claim to have zero issues must have absolute unicorns because if you read through the FB or Reddit groups so many owners have software issues daily.

If we are going to get analytical about anecdotal experiences, then you need to acknowledge that people are far more likely to go to a forum with a complaint than to note how great their product is.

In other words, why is it ok for you to share your negative opinion of the software, but NOT ok for others to share their positive opinions? Why is your opinion more important than others?

 

[Donald Stanfield]

Maybe opposites attract? I have a Dell XPS and haven’t had to reboot it in years. My Rivian, at least 2-4 times per month. And the touch screen… at least half the time it registers the touch but doesn’t execute the command.

To this point, I would be lying if I said that I did not share this issue. I've had a Rivian in one form or another since 2022, and it seems as though the software version your on controls how responsive the screen is to commands. It goes in cycles, and maybe that's what is causing some of the pushback people like you and the OP are getting.

I've been around the platform long enough to see that as Rivian adds features, stability and responsiveness degrade until there is an update or two, with minimal new features but increased stability. With the monthly cadence of new features, I'm willing to look the other way a bit more than some.

Also my gaming PC is a dell and not very stable at all. Weird.

 

[rhumbliner]

When I read through many posts on this forum it often leaves me wondering, am I way more tolerant than most or did I get a unicorn…

Same sentiment here. Did I get a unicorn? My 2023 R1T has been bulletproof — except for a wonky nav system.

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