Your Rivian Isn’t A Cell Phone

With Gen 2 arriving later this year, here are some thoughts about managing your satisfaction during rapid EV iteration.

When I bought my Rivian, I knew that I was buying something new from a new company. My ‘Launch Edition R1T’ would have an “early adopter tax” that I would have to pay in exchange for getting to have my truck sooner. All in all, that trade off has been worth it. Yes, there are some annoying tradeoffs — my truck has had quite a bit of service, for example — but getting the thing I’d been waiting years for early felt awesome.

As the company begins to bring new models to market, the R1, which includes the pickup R1T and SUV R1S, is Rivian’s “handshake with the world.” It’s their flagship model and stunned the auto industry once people got their hands on it. The R1T was MotorTrend’s 2022 truck of the year, it earned the highest satisfaction rating in 2023 from JD Power and Associates, and Car and Driver gave it a 10/10 — with the most critical call out (annoyingly) being the omission of CarPlay (note: I will die on the hill that CarPlay is not that great, @ me)

My experience matched the public consensus. My truck is a quad-motor beast in an army green, limited color (fittingly named ‘Launch Green’). Its name is Rivet, it has a custom license plate…