This Reddit Moderator Went Outside to Rivian’s R2 + R3 Reveal

Here’s everything I learned, considered, and saw at the expected R2 reveal and suprise unveiling of the R3 and R3X

Carter Gibson
14 min readMar 8, 2024

Here’s a fun fact: I moderate the r/Rivian subreddit, an online community of ~80k that really likes the electric vehicles Rivian churns out. Sometimes, when I say this, people assume I work for Rivian. “Oh. No. I and these other two guys do it for free. Like, in our free time.” That’s normally met with a, “OooOOoo… Wow…” or blank stare. But here’s the thing: Community management is important, and bringing people with shared interests together is one of my passions.

There are a lot of great benefits to this. We get to make people happy and provide them a safe place to connect. There’s the unique opportunity to engage the people who make these vehicles, learning from them directly. And then, every once in a while, a special experience comes up. Like the one I’m about to tell you all about.

Another fun fact: Reddit moderators do, actually, (sometimes) go outside. And that’s exactly what I did when Rivian invited me to attend the reveal of their new R2 model yesterday. That’s right. I bravely put on clothes that made me look nice, hopped on a plane from SF to LAX, drove (an unexpected) 2.5hrs (in the

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Carter Gibson
Carter Gibson

Written by Carter Gibson

Community Management strategist & Program Manager | Internal Community Programs Lead @ Google | Excitable Geek | Lover of spectacle | I write about my passions