Updated Powered Tonneau Cover In Action! [Video]

[Deanmfisher]

Drag a cookie sheet across your counter top. Friction creates vibration and resonance out of thin diaphragm-like material. That resonance produces sound that registers in another diaphragm-like material: your ear drums. Similar to how audio speakers work. The difference with speakers is that vibration is not caused by friction, but fluctuation of magnetic field in the speakers voice coil (coiled of wire and magnet). As the cover deploys or retracts, those panels are dragging along the track: friction.

To mitigate the mechanical noise, Rivian could have coated the metal panels with a sound dampening material. But that would increase thickness, surface friction and a whole different design [and encroachment of Gear Tunnel space] for how the panels are stacked and sprung/lifted from below as the cover deploys.

Again, the way it sounds is merely a product of materials chosen and how the stacking system must be engineered in order to deploy, contract and store/stack panels in the space available... without a complete redesign of body structure and compromise to the Gear Tunnel (a key product differentiator). Nothing to do with whether the cover works or doesn't.

Despite being noisy when dragged/knocked, a cookie sheet still bake cookies just as well as intended.

Great analogy and analysis…thank you!

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