Yikes! Overheating motors.

[MrMusAddict]

I think this might be a case of "too much information".
While I think it is nice to have this information available. It seems to serve no useful purpose.
What is the driver supposed to do (besides panic) if the information shows orange or red temperatures? It doesn't seem like the car issues any warnings such as "slow down" or "stop driving".
I would think that if there was really an "overheating" problem that the car would automatically take care of the problem without inconveniencing the driver (or at the very least put up some kind of explanation message).

I think it's more of "incorrect information being communicated" than "too much information".

• If high temps are because it's warming the battery, there should be something like a battery icon on the motor temp gauge and avoid the red highlights.
• If they're hot but within operating spec, they should keep it black, or maybe yellow (to communicate it's normal, or on the high side of normal)
• If they're hot & outside of spec, red's fine, and probably at that point should have a little icon pop up on the dash.

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[scottf200]

No, not referring to FSD. I am referring to the message "Battery Conditioning" or "Warming battery for best performance" that pops up when the vehicle is using motors (& other sources) to heat the battery.

Got it. That makes perfect sense. I park in an attached garage that stays fairly warm so I never see that msg. I do see battery preconditioning when traveling to some superchargers depending on temps and how far I've already traveled.

 

[zefram47]

Wonder if that snowflake on the driver display is relevant to this discussion. I didn't have the snowflake this morning.

 

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Someone wake me up when it can do this. ?

 

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Three minutes later when I finally got out of my subdivision. 25 mph speeds.

Jealous, dude. It takes us 30 minutes just to get out of our neighborhood. I hate Northern Virginia. ?

 

[Dark-Fx]

I think it's more of "incorrect information being communicated" than "too much information".

• If high temps are because it's warming the battery, there should be something like a battery icon on the motor temp gauge and avoid the red highlights.

I have yet to see red on mine, but the OP didn't mention seeing orange on his at all like I have. It's likely that Rivian is changing their strategy as soon as a motor gets into the orange level but it takes a while to be effective- Especially if you happen to be under high regeneration at the time. If the sensors are in the coolant, you've already put more heat into the system before the real temperature is registered.

The distinction here is probably not something they've bothered to worry about before. Could be we'll see a change in the behavior that could end up being slightly detrimental in actual effect, or more likely, they might choose to bump up the display of a red temperature a couple degrees to avoid confusing people.

 

[KootenayEV]

Wonder if that snowflake on the driver display is relevant to this discussion. I didn't have the snowflake this morning.

We've been around freezing the last week or so, and days where I start with a snowflake symbol is the same days I see elevated temps for tens of minutes for my motors. (Park outside, no preconditioning.)

 

[mkg3]

...temperature around 240 degrees. Whoa! That is pretty darn hot for just putting around. In fact, one motor rose to about 270 degrees, at which point the bar graph for that motor turned red. ...

Don't know if anyone has already suggest this but there is a good chance that the problem is the temperature sensor on the motor, and not the actual temperature of the motor itself.

There probably are several thermocouples on the motor to get the reading and it can fail or give false reading.

Wouldn't panic too much until Rivian techs has had a chance to check it out.

 

[scottf200]

Don't know if anyone has already suggest this but there is a good chance that the problem is the temperature sensor on the motor, and not the actual temperature of the motor itself.

There probably are several thermocouples on the motor to get the reading and it can fail or give false reading.

Wouldn't panic too much until Rivian techs has had a chance to check it out.

I don't think you'd expect a problem on all motors at once tho if that was the case.

 

[mkg3]

I don't think you'd expect a problem on all motors at once tho if that was the case.

Actually that's more of the reason to think is a false positive. What are the chances that all 4 motors go bad at the same time??? Stistcically extremely small.

 

[Sonartech]

The hot-motor phenomenon freaked me out the first time I caught it in action. As someone mentioned earlier, this is a case of TMI (Too Much Information) coupled with a poor knowledge of how Rivian designed the system. Rivian risked a lot by providing this kind of information, and while I LOVE having it and even wish I had more telemetry to watch, I also understand the dangers of giving ignorant people too much information - it invites concern, even when unfounded.

This morning was very frosty here in Seattle; it was 28°F when I left my home and slowly creeped up to 37°F as I drove to work. My motors got damn hot, damn quick when I was less than 6 miles from my home, after the car had been sitting all night in the cold. Here's what the max looked like before cooling kicked in and [very quickly] dropped the motors down to about 134°F after which everything stayed totally normal.

So, as we've been able to learn, the motors were helping to warm the battery, and the battery went from 32°F to 50°F in about 25 minutes. As batteries are SUPER sensitive to temperature, it makes sense once you understand what's happening and why, but the GUI display certainly does invite concern if you aren't clear on what's happening. I'm sure there's a TXV in there somewhere, and the GUI could post a message like "Warming battery..." to help allay concerns about why the motors are roasting chickens at 271°F when it's 36°F outside.

 

[zefram47]

I'm sure there's a TXV in there somewhere, and the GUI could post a message like "Warming battery..." to help allay concerns about why the motors are roasting chickens at 271°F when it's 36°F outside.

From others' pics it looks like they do though...the snowflake next to the speedometer on the driver display.

 

[dmg]

My similar experience - at night - freaked me out too till they dropped. Thanks to this forum for explaining why. I agree a bit more communication about the battery would be useful…

 

[Arky]

While I'd hate to see them take this information away - it feels like peoples concern is justified. If you look at a status indicator that turns red/orange it usually means something BAD, so if it's not bad it shouldn't change color to look like it.


The whole screen reminded me of the world of tanks display actually, which go figure, also indicates damage in yellow/red, you know, how anyone would expect it to work.

 

[s4wrxttcs]

There goes our information, I'm sure there will be enough calls to tech support to make them eliminate the graph.

I hope they keep the info/graphs even if it does increase calls/emails to tech support. I think they're easy enough to answer in a boiler plate way.

Perhaps what would help is an explainer video that covers frequency asked questions.

Like here would be my questions.

1.) Why did I see 200F+ motor temps on a drive to work on Day 1 (after it sat for a few days), but not on Day 2 (after sitting for about 12 hours). The ambient temps was about the same yet the highest temperature the motors got to was about 100F.

2.) Why is the left motor running around 10F hotter than the right motor?

3.) Is it normal to see slightly higher power and higher regen for the front wheels than the rear-wheels in ALL-Purpose.

In any case having the information does help me understand the noises it makes. I can tell when the motors are in their "battery heating" mode just from hearing it.

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