TPMS pretty worthless

[usofrob]

You can tell if the tires deflate while parked by using your eyes when you inspect the vehicle. The safety issue isn't that it takes a few minutes for the TPMS to wake up, it's your failure to properly inspect the machine you are about to operate.

And the Rivian TPMS will update in near real time once it wakes up.

Really? That's not a very helpful comment. Do you go check the PSI of all 4 tires before starting driving every time? Maybe on the Rivian low PSI would be more visible, but most of my previous vehicles it'd be hard to tell if the tire was 5 PSI low. And knowing that my tire has a slow leak while I'm in my subdivision is a lot safer than waiting to tell me until I'm on the freeway.

I had this exact situation with my Tesla recently. I hadn't driven it in a while, and shortly after leaving my house, it warned me that one of my tires was kind of low. Looking at the tire, you couldn't see it deformed any more than usual because they're performance summer tires. Thankfully, I wasn't planning on going on the freeway, but I was able to make an informed decision and get it pumped up.

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[Mathme]

As others have said these TPMS systems take a few blocks to wake up...and they do so by the rotational force of the wheels spinning. Rivian recently updated the system to shodshow you the last time it had a reading (in the OP case 8am). Once the system has an accurate reading from the tires, that date/time stamp will disappear.

My last vehicle -- an Audi -- used the ABS system to monitor the tire pressure and when it went off, it only told me which tire was spinning at a different rate than others. I had more false alarms on that car than practically any other car I've had with TMPS as it would go off if one tire was running hotter than the others.

As others have noted, TMPS is a good system to alert you when a tire is low, but is no substitute for manually checking (as the manual advises) your pressures on at least a monthly basis. Speaking of which, now that it's cooling off in most of the country, it's a good time to check your tire pressures and likely add a few lb of air to each.

 

[usofrob]

I just realized that it takes about as long every time I start my Rivian to sync up with the TPMS as it does when I change my wheels on my Tesla. So, maybe it's just having a problem remembering which sensors to sync with, and it can be fixed with a SW update.

 

[godfodder0901]

Really? That's not a very helpful comment. Do you go check the PSI of all 4 tires before starting driving every time? Maybe on the Rivian low PSI would be more visible, but most of my previous vehicles it'd be hard to tell if the tire was 5 PSI low. And knowing that my tire has a slow leak while I'm in my subdivision is a lot safer than waiting to tell me until I'm on the freeway.

I had this exact situation with my Tesla recently. I hadn't driven it in a while, and shortly after leaving my house, it warned me that one of my tires was kind of low. Looking at the tire, you couldn't see it deformed any more than usual because they're performance summer tires. Thankfully, I wasn't planning on going on the freeway, but I was able to make an informed decision and get it pumped up.

Agree to disagree. The comment was about a safety concern, not a trivial 5psi. If the tire were deflated to dangerous levels then, yes, a visual inspection would catch it.

A small or gradually leaking tire would still be caught by the TPMS.

 

[j.w.s]

It’s common for most tpms systems to begin reading once the vehicle is in motion. Glad to hear the compressor came in handy though.

Some cars are smarter than that though. They will only show tire pressure after a bit of warm-up driving, and won't alert to being a few pounds low until after that warmup, but they will alert right away for a fully flat tire. That's the sort of behavior that I hope Rivian will adopt.

 

[usofrob]

Agree to disagree. The comment was about a safety concern, not a trivial 5psi. If the tire were deflated to dangerous levels then, yes, a visual inspection would catch it.

A small or gradually leaking tire would still be caught by the TPMS.

I still believe it's a safety concern. It seems like a good idea to have more safety, not less. Also, it just seems like a bug. I don't know why you're being so defensive of a bug when other vehicles don't have the long delay. But, if it's not a concern for you, that's fine.

 

[godfodder0901]

I still believe it's a safety concern. It seems like a good idea to have more safety, not less. Also, it just seems like a bug. I don't know why you're being so defensive of a bug when other vehicles don't have the long delay. But, if it's not a concern for you, that's fine.

I'm not being defensive. It's not a bug. That's how this system works. Do other systems work differently? Yes. But this is how this system is designed to work.

 

[Cascadian]

The Rivian system is not the best.

My 11 year old Volt TPMS updates every minute even when parked and I use the dash display to watch the pressures go up when inflating tires in my driveway. I trust it to tell me of a low pressure before I leave my street.

 

[dcmackintosh]

Agreed, our Gen 2 is the worst car I've owned with actual TPMS. Others update almost immediately once rolling at 15-20mph. Our Audi e-tron gives pressure and temperature measured at each sensor. I don't want to add air to cold tires, then need to drive for fifteen minutes to get today's (now warm) TPMS data. At least it updates continuously after that, like they all do.

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