Rivian R1S: Great car, ruined by techbros

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I rented a Rivian R1S to go to BLFC. I've always thought they looked cool as hell, and was impressed with how well they were built. I'm not an car reviewer, so don't expect me to talk about the car in that way, but I'll give some thoughts as a regular person.

The good

  • It's very comfortable to ride in.
  • It feels effortless to climb Donner Pass in excess of 90 MPH.
  • Visibility is fantastic.
  • The third row that can become a cargo area seems to have used the space very efficiently.
  • The Rivian Adventure Network didn't have a single unusable charger on my journey.
  • Range estimates seemed to match reality despite driving faster than the system had trip planned.
  • The sound system is really good.
  • I think the thing under the center console is a speaker and battery bank and it would be a really useful thing to have if I were using the Rivian for something outdoorsy.

The bad

  • I had to watch a YouTube video to learn how to adjust the mirrors. The mirror and steering wheel adjustments aren't in the settings menu, but rather the profile picker, and the way you adjust them using the steering wheel buttons is awkward and frustrating. Just put a D-pad or joystick on the window switch panel like everyone else does.
  • Steering wheel adjustment was even more awkward. I never got it adjusted how I wanted because I kept overshooting it. Power adjustment is not a feature I desire ... just give me a latch and let me move it by hand.
  • The GPS runs at something around 15 FPS and has incredibly poor accuracy and inaccurate and confusing guidance, which caused me to miss a number of exits in Sacramento.
  • I had to watch a YouTube video to figure out how to open the charging port. The touch screen has an indicator for it, but pressing it doesn't open it. Since I didn't know where it was, I also couldn't just feel around the port to see what happened. The trick is to push a nub that's molded into the plastic fender trim at the front left of the car.
  • I never felt confident that I had actually turned it off, nor did I figure out how to affirmatively do so. I think locking it turns it off, but I was still paired to Bluetooth for 15 minutes afterwards, so maybe there's a button I needed to have pressed.
  • The steering wheel music controls stopped working occasionally.
  • Literally everything is controlled by a tiny, shitty electric motor. The center console could easily be a spring and a catch and cost all of $0.05 to manufacture, and last a lifetime. Instead, the center console latch is motorized, which makes it have a delay to open... and it will be horrible to repair when it breaks. The air vents are similarly controlled via motors, though they're controlled via the touch screen. The update rate is slow, so pointing it at your hot sweaty balls is really hard to do without crashing into the car in front of you. The lever that makes the middle row fold forward is a button and a motor, and it doesn't auto-return, so there's quite literally no point.
  • The Rivian media experience is too shitty for the CEO to say that is the reason they won't add CarPlay. Bluetooth isn't any more capable than a $20 cigarette lighter adapter that I used in my 2001 Subaru Forester. Compare to my BMW i3 or Hyundai Ioniq 5, where I can at least control a few extra media things via Bluetooth (like switching playlists). I use Plexamp and not one of the two or three apps supported by Rivian, so I get the 2005 Kenwood head unit experience. This, combined with the map app that sucks, made me really miss CarPlay.
  • Trip planning is confusing and shitty. More than once, I showed up to a charger that was simply not there (and both PlugShare and ABRP agreed it wasn't there), and ended up having to stop a second time at a Rivian Adventure Network location. Fine, but it's way more convenient if I can charge when I stop to piss. I also had the experience where I would add a charging stop, and it would add it after my destination and completely clobber all of the other planning decisions that were made. I don't love the navigation in the Ioniq 5, but it's significantly better than this.
  • I hate having to take my eyes off the road to play around on the tablet to do basic things like make it cooler or warmer.
  • There are two USB-C ports and no cigarette lighter port. This is not enough, and the lack of USB-A sucks.