- A Rivian R1T owner had his truck towed after screens went dark and resets failed.
- Service center replaced the battery and modules but left him with fresh problems.
- Incident highlights EV startup growing pains even as Rivian drivers report positives.
Owning a brand-new car is supposed to be a joyful experience. Buying one from a relatively new automaker can heighten those feelings since the product typically offers exciting innovations. For one Rivian owner, though, the whole thing has left a bittersweet taste in his mouth.
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His situation, shared in a pair of Reddit posts, highlights the challenges that come with supporting a new automaker. It also points out how shaky service can sour an otherwise stellar product.
Read: Rivian Owner’s Quality And Service Nightmares Expose The Pain Of Being A ‘Beta Tester’
The first issue popped up when the owner in question slipped into his R1T to find that the screens were dead. No reset procedure worked, so the truck was basically a big, shiny, expensive brick. “I love this truck, it’s amazing,” he wrote, “but these damn problems that keep popping up are making it hard to keep loving.”
Service Setbacks
After a tow, Rivian’s service center replaced the 12-volt battery, swapped out a faulty AXM module, and flushed the coolant. The owner picked the truck up days later, hoping his troubles were behind him. To say was he wrong would be an understatement: actually, he had more problems before even leaving the service center, the least of all being that there were ‘greasy fingerprints’ all over and the floor mats were dirty.
The big issue was that his Apple CarPlay no longer worked. He tried logging out and back in, to no avail. Moreover, the driver’s traffic visualization system was non-functional and things like the ‘smart turn signals’ were on the fritz. “This isn’t fun guys, I’m seriously about to give up on this truck,” he wrote in a full follow-up.
To be fair, this sort of story isn’t unique to Rivian. Service mishaps happen at every automaker, including legacy brands. The difference is that companies like Ford, GM, and Toyota have decades-old networks of dealers and service processes to lean on. Rivian is still building its infrastructure from scratch.
You May Love It – But Can You Trust It?
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Many owners rave about positive experiences, but enough of them report headaches like this that it underscores how fragile trust can be when the car in question relies heavily on things like complex software and untested support systems to function as it should. One commenter in the thread claims they’ve been in for service between 10-15 times in just two years. In the end, for this particular Rivian owner, the R1T still feels like the right truck – when it works.
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