The Rivian R1S: driving a $95,000 beta test
Needless to say, I will 100% not be buying the vehicle at least end.
I’m 19 months into my 24 month lease of my Gen 1 Rivian R1S, and all I can say is what an absolute shame.
I remember picking up the vehicle and bemoaning the lack of hands free text message capabilities in the vehicle’s software, and being told by the rep delivering the vehicle to me in April of 2024 that it would be available that summer. It’s now November of 2025 and it doesn’t even appear to be talked about anymore. Mind you, this is an exceptionally common feature: Tesla has had it for a while and any car supporting Android Auto or Apple CarPlay has it.
Many cars, and especially EVs, are now competing on the axis of software rather than hardware. Sadly though Rivian has chosen to phone this in, and even the meaningful changes have been middling to outright buggy.
The magical disappearing gauge cluster
This problem isn’t just a ridiculous annoyance, it almost fucking killed me.
On more than one occasion, the gauge cluster screen has experienced what I can only describe as some form of digital gangrene. Various pieces would simply vanish, such as the volume controls and mini-nav. I’ve also had the various status icons that indicate the setting of your headlights and wipers disappear as well.
The most dangerous failure by far though is that of the hazard response, which not only continues to beep but blanks out the rest of the screen.
Allow me to explain.
The Rivian R1S is a fairly panicky thing, especially when it comes to drive assist. If you’re leaving a highway, or it isn’t totally confident in its lane detection, it will beep and tell you to take over driving. If it thinks you’re not holding the wheel tight enough, it will beep. If it thinks you’re not holding tight enough and there’s a sharp turn it will beep in a very intense fashion and render a severe message on the screen.
This frantic beep and severe message follows the same form of rendering that the immediate collision detection uses, when it thinks you’re accelerating towards some obstacle and are likely to crash.
When this piece is broken and you’re on the highway using drive assist, you’ll hear the beeping, but the broken warning becomes a blank overlay on the screen, which erased my map of vehicles around me and my speedometer.
Does that beep mean I’m about to crash? Maybe. Does it mean it can’t detect my grip? Possibly. Does it take my eyes off the road while also not telling me what emergency may have caused the fracas? Absolutely yes.
My interests include semis and rumble strips
I do use drive assist when it’s available, which is really only highways, but I’m genuinely confused and terrified by its seemingly insatiable appetite for semis and rumble strips.
Turn on drive assist in either the right or left lane and be prepared for a sudden and deliberate yearning by the vehicle to give you a spine massage. I can’t tell if the lane sensor just sees rumble strips as something different or the car has an odd kink I shouldn’t shame it for, but this happens with startling frequency. A polite chime is followed by an aggressive pull towards uneven ground, and your option is to fight it or let it come to terms with the error of its ways and get back into the proper lane boundaries.
Additionally, the car seems to have boundary issues keeping the relationship professional between itself and adjacent semis both literally and figuratively. The clenching that ensues as I can sense it getting uncomfortably close to the Sysco Foods 18 wheeler in the lane next to me is followed by an increase in heart rate and a clenching of teeth. It’s a harrowing ordeal that has often left my passengers asking me why the hell I’m getting so close to such an intimidating vehicle. Maybe this is what Rivian has in mind with their adventure branding.
Apple Music… sometimes…
The Apple Music app was added over a year ago, and somehow it’s still a buggy and temperamental mess.
The home screen will sometimes render “No media available.” Songs will become decoupled from their play timer. Music will arbitrarily stop playing. Occasionally you’ll have to sign out and in to the app to resolve connectivity issues.
None of this makes sense. Music streaming apps are a solved problem. I could understand having some issues one release or two after the initial launch, but a year later is just pathetic.
No storage device… wait no I found it
Not much else to say here beyond wondering how the vehicle frequently and inconsistently says it can’t detect the additional storage device I have hooked up for the dash cam. Given that the vehicle is “always on” you’d think it wouldn’t struggle with volume mounts, but here we are.
Google Maps-ish
This is one of the few updates of consequence I’ve seen come through, and it’s certainly a welcome improvement over the stock navigation, but it still has some strange problems around searching. I’ve encountered multiple instances where attempting to search for a location was just wildly off and would pull up results on different continents which would be amusing if I wasn’t trying to actually get somewhere.
I’ve occasionally had to find the location in the Google Maps app on my phone and share it with the car to get things to work. It’s not the end of the world to have to do this, but again, this is nearly a six figure vehicle.
Soft reboots at 70mph
Thankfully I’ve only see this happen three times (which is still a lot given what’s happening) but there have been instances where something in the vehicle’s operating system was going haywire, resulting in a soft reboot while driving.
What do I mean when I say soft reboot? I mean every screen going blank at the same time, including the gauge cluster, and seeing the Rivian logo render while I wait a few seconds for the controls to render again, all while cruising down the freeway. Even if nothing came of it, there’s a very real panic when you experience this, simply because you really don’t feel any confidence as to whether the car is just going to stop driving abruptly as a consequence or not.
Want to see my impression of a rocket?
For reasons I don’t understand, sometimes the car will turn on its vents to a level that you really wouldn’t think they’re capable of reaching. On two occasions I’ve had the vents stuck in a “full blast” configuration after using the defogger that sounded like Cape Canaveral. It will also occasionally do this when I first open it, which I can only assume is some kind of proximity based catch up mechanism if the cabin temperature has lowered or raised considerably since leaving.
I shall reenact the car scene in Titanic
Speaking of the defogger: it’s nearly useless. This is, in its own way, an achievement: I don’t think I’ve ever owned a car that did such a simple thing so poorly. I truly don’t even know how it’s possible given that I can see the vents and feel the air, but after 15 straight minutes of driving with a windshield that was 25% fogged and side windows that were 75% fogged I can confirm the phenomenon.
At least the hardware is good
What really aggravates me about this car is that the hardware is so so good.
For the boat of a vehicle this car is, it’s surprisingly nimble and turns very well. I feel very little body roll even at a normal ride height while also not feeling many bumps. The acceleration is great if not sometimes frightening when you can break all four loose for a second flooring it when you’re already going 40mph.
The fit and finish all seem top notch: the materials used really look and feel great on every surface and don’t seem to develop creaks or dash rattles. The physical controls (where they exist) are all fantastic for moving seats around both for comfort and for cargo.
The doors close with a satisfying thud and keep out wind and road noise quite well.
I will say though that the charging pad is a pretty dopey design. If you’re unfamiliar: it’s a big rubber mat with a slight texture but your phone will just slide around on it constantly and break its charging cycle unless you hold it in place the entire time.
An unjustifiable price for unjustifiable issues
Despite my complaints, I still like this car a lot, but at the price tag that comes with it I certainly don’t see myself owning one and at this point I question if I’ll lease another one either. I’m currently driving a quad motor and the new price is a staggering $122k which is not an amount of money I’d consider for any car never mind one with so many serious flaws.
It’s a shame really because from a hardware standpoint the car is exceptional, and you’d think with the mutable nature of software that more would have been accomplished by now to address the embarrassing problems the car has, but it seems to not be a priority.
I’m hoping maybe they’ll figure things out over the next six months and change my mind, but at the present time, I’m not hopeful.