The Rivian R1T Pick-up Is Your Passport to an Electric Adventure

[lancia delta hf]

Salomondrin not having a good experience with his and the company. Cant post the video as I cant remember if he swears.

 

[ProjectWHaT]

Rivian to work with Mercedes to make vans in Europe

Mercedes-Benz Vans and Rivian move to partner on electric van production - Rivian Newsroom

Mercedes-Benz and Rivian sign Memorandum of Understanding for a strategic partnership and joint production of electric vans

rivian.com

Subject to the parties entering into final binding agreements and to obtaining the relevant regulatory clearances, the companies intend to establish a new joint venture manufacturing company with the purpose of investing in, and operating, a factory in Europe to produce large electric vans for both Mercedes-Benz Vans and Rivian, starting in a few years. The target is to build an all-new electric-only production facility leveraging an existing Mercedes-Benz site in Central/Eastern Europe.

The companies envisage production-optimised vehicle designs for efficient manufacturing on common assembly lines. They will aim to produce two large vans, one based on VAN.EA (MB Vans Electric Architecture), the electric-only platform of Mercedes-Benz Vans, and the other based on the second generation electric-van, Rivian Light Van (RLV) platform. Further options for increased synergies from the joint venture will also be explored.

 

[ProjectWHaT]

Review of the R1S by a R1T owner

 

[ProjectWHaT]

IIHS crash test of the R1T, receiving a Top Safety Pick Plus award

2022 Rivian R1T Crew cab pickup

2022 Rivian R1T Crew cab pickup - large pickup

www.iihs.org

 

[Keef]

IIHS crash test of the R1T, receiving a Top Safety Pick Plus award

2022 Rivian R1T Crew cab pickup

2022 Rivian R1T Crew cab pickup - large pickup

www.iihs.org

Why did they remove the head restraint on that yellow test? I was wonder why the dummy's head was flopping backwards so far.

 

[ProjectWHaT]

Super quick one minute video saying that it was rated Good in all categories

Why did they remove the head restraint on that yellow test? I was wonder why the dummy's head was flopping backwards so far.

I think it's for the interior camera? In the first video, there were no interior videos and there was only one in the second where the headrest would have been in the way

 

[ProjectWHaT]

Rivian R1T Rollover Has Everyone Talking, Except the Driver and Rivian

Meant to be a warning for other Rivian R1T owners, the post took off and many have speculated about what happened.

www.thedrive.com

Someone accidentally rolled a R1T in what appears to be the middle of a field, claiming that it is easier to roll over than expected. Rivian sent engineers to

In the original post, the electric pickup's owner Benjamin Ponds notes that it happened while driving through a field, adding a word of warning: "these trucks will roll easier than you'd expect them to." Rivian then sent a pair of engineers out to investigate, and even after speaking with the owner and the manufacturer, no one is forthcoming with details of what happened. Regardless, Ponds' R1T, which he waited two years for, is now in a North Carolina salvage yard, and he tells me his insurance provider has found him at fault.

Off the bat, Ponds made it clear that he won't disclose the specifics of the incident. "The particulars of exactly what happened, the mode the truck was in, how I was driving the truck, all that, I'm probably not willing to discuss until Rivian figures out what they need to figure out." As such, Ponds isn't saying what height the adjustable suspension was set to, nor if it was in the All-Purpose drive mode or something sportier like Off-Road Rally or Off-Road Drift mode.

"It's interesting because when I approached Rivian, it was, 'Hey, this happened. What did I do wrong?' That's how I approached them," Ponds says. "The next day, they sent engineers out. That's not something I requested of them. People online, you know, they're crazy. They say, 'Oh, you're trying to blame Rivian for rollover.'"

Ponds says that's not his intent. According to him, Rivian's response has been impressive as the engineers examined the scene of the incident and retrieved data that could help them determine why it rolled. He tells me he has, "some ideas as to what could have happened," but he's "waiting on engineering."

"The truck, I hauled it up to Hickory, North Carolina, which was the closest Rivian-certified collision center," Ponds says. "Rivian was pretty adamant early on that it go to one of their certified collision centers, which I was fine with."

He notes that "the truck is bricked" and every panel except the tailgate is damaged. You can see what he's talking about in these images from the salvage center. Not only is its body trashed, but when the airbags deployed, a pyro fuse allegedly blew, cutting the high-voltage battery pack's power. There's nothing to keep the 12-volt battery charged at that point, so soon after, nothing in the R1T would turn on.

When I contacted Rivian for comment, a spokesperson pointed me toward the R1T's recent safety accolades. They then confirmed that Rivian has been in touch with Ponds directly, analyzing the crash. The representative explained Rivian’s findings won’t be released to the public.

 

[Keef]

accidentally rolled

Not many people do it on purpose.

I cannot stand this article and I fear The Drive is becoming the next Jalopnik. Nonsense clickbait articles. I do not care about a "story" of some idiot driving off-road flipping a vehicle in a circumstance where flipping a vehicle is the expected outcome. I'm sort of offended that it's even been reposted on GTP. Complete waste of time.

 

[ProjectWHaT]

I cannot stand this article and I fear The Drive is becoming the next Jalopnik. Nonsense clickbait articles.

I fear The Drive is going to troubling times as well. They recently laid off around 5 journalists including Stef Schrader and others. One of them was on the flight to the new Kia Soul press event when he got laid off

(language warning)

Spoiler

I do not care about a "story" of some idiot driving off-road flipping a vehicle in a circumstance where flipping a vehicle is the expected outcome. I'm sort of offended that it's even been reposted on GTP. Complete waste of time.

I agree that any rollover isn't newsworthy, but I think it's interesting enough considering Rivian sent engineers to investigate, because, as you said, an idiot driving off road can easily roll a car over so I think it's a bit surprising for them to investigate so thoroughly. Also, the photo of the Rivian on its side is kinda funny

 

[Keef]

@ProjectWHaT Wow I hadn't heard about the layoffs. Kinda makes sense in the context of a several clickbait articles I've seen recently and commented about on their Instagram. It seems several stories have been written to do nothing but generate ad clicks and it's been driving me nuts for months.

 

[ProjectWHaT]

speaking of lay offs...

Exclusive: EV maker Rivian to cut 6% of jobs amid price war -internal memo

Rivian Automotive is laying off 6% of its workforce in an effort to cut costs as the EV maker, already grappling with falling cash reserves and a weak economy, braces for an industry-wide price war.

www.reuters.com

Rivian Automotive (RIVN.O) is laying off 6% of its workforce in an effort to cut costs as the EV maker, already grappling with falling cash reserves and a weak economy, braces for an industry-wide price war.

The company is focusing resources on ramping up vehicle production and reaching profitability, Chief Executive R.J. Scaringe said in an email to employees on Wednesday announcing the job cuts. Reuters obtained a copy of the email.

"We must focus our resources on ramp and our path to profitability," Scaringe said in the email, in which he apologized to employees for the necessity of the cuts.

Rivian is focusing on ramping up production of its R1 trucks and EDV delivery vans for top shareholder Amazon.com (AMZN.O), and launching its R2 platform, he said. "The changes we are announcing today reflect this focused roadmap."

Irvine, California-based Rivian, which has about 14,000 employees, will let go of about 840 staff in a move that will not affect manufacturing operations at its plant in Normal, Illinois.

Rivian, which has been losing money on every vehicle it builds, narrowly missed its full-year production target of 25,000 vehicles last year as it dealt with supply-chain disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. It had previously halved that target.

 

[ProjectWHaT]

Rivian recalls 12,700 cars for a faulty sensor in the seat belt. Rivian also announced Q4 earnings,

Rivian Posts Mixed Quarterly Results, Issues New Recall

The move comes as the company’s cash burn accelerates and it continues to lose money as it tries to scale up production.

www.wsj.com

(archived link: https://archive.is/UsFoP)

On Tuesday, Rivian said it was recalling 12,716 vehicles to fix a faulty sensor in the front passenger seat, its second major recall in less than six months.

The Irvine, Calif.-based company also released financial results Tuesday after the market’s close, reporting a net loss of $1.72 billion for the fourth quarter, compared with a $2.46 billion loss in the same year-ago period.

Rivian depleted its cash reserves at a faster rate than in previous quarters, reporting that it had $11.6 billion in cash and cash equivalents as of Dec. 31, about $2.2 billion less than at the end of the previous three-month period.

The auto maker also fell short of Wall Street’s expectations on revenue, reporting sales of $663 million for the October-to-December period.

The results come as the auto industry confronts rising interest rates that threaten to soften demand for new cars and trucks. Rivian took an additional hit this past year when the U.S. changed the rules on federal tax credits for EV purchases, setting both local manufacturing requirements and price caps on qualifying vehicles. As a result, many Rivian customers don’t qualify for the tax credit.

“What we’re seeing in terms of interest rates is, across the industry, having an impact on moderating demand,” said Rivian Chief Executive RJ Scaringe. The company no longer reports how many reservations it has for its vehicles, but Mr. Scaringe said the backlog of orders will last until 2024. The company reported it had 114,000 reservation holders in September.

For the full year 2022, the company lost $6.75 billion on $1.66 billion in revenue.

Rivian entered 2022 flush with cash from a lucrative initial public offering and with plans to swiftly increase output of its vehicles and expand into new markets.

Instead, the upstart was dogged by parts shortages and obstacles on the manufacturing floor that led it to produce about half the number of trucks and SUVs it had initially anticipated.

In response, the company has cut spending and initiated two rounds of layoffs as it focuses on conserving cash while it fixes its problems at the factory. Rivian has also delayed a number of projects, including its next-generation vehicle called the R2, and fell short of its production goal of 25,000 units last year by around 700 vehicles, in part due to missing parts.

Executives say the company is focusing its cash this year on its consumer business, selling R1T pickup trucks and R1S SUVs, as well as its existing contract to sell 100,000 battery-powered delivery vans to Amazon.com Inc.

Today, Rivian announced the new Max Pack for the R1S which will have 390 miles of range

Rivian R1S Dual-Motor Max Pack Promises 390 Miles of Range

Due out in the fall, it'll increase the available range for the R1S by about 20% and hit 60 mph in less than 4 seconds.

www.thedrive.com

Now, there's another one coming in the form of an R1S SUV that sports Rivian's Max Pack battery and dual-motor all-wheel drive. It'll apparently be good for 700 pound-feet of torque and roughly 390 miles of range, making it the top-flight option if the latter is your main concern.

Currently, the Rivian R1S maxes out with 321 miles of range in Large Pack, quad-motor spec. That rig is more potent with more than 800 horsepower and more than 900 pound-feet of torque, but it's not like this new R1S is lacking. Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe claims it'll be capable of hitting 60 mph in 3.5 seconds, which is more than impressive for a three-row SUV.

This Max Pack, dual-motor R1S was first mentioned in Rivian's Q4 2022 shareholders letter, so we already knew it was in the plans. It's slated to reach production this fall, which gives Rivian a few months to properly source all the necessary components for this fresh spec. What's more, it's a deadline the new automaker desperately needs to hit if it wants to avoid backlash from order holders.

 

[Keef]

Speaking of Rivian's stock price absolutely crashing today, I hope none of you were invested in Electrify America because Volkswagen's embarrasing invention is about to go bankrupt.

 

[Keef]

R1T yanks a semi and (empty) trailer out of the snow using Factor 55 hardware.

 

[ProjectWHaT]

WSJ News Exclusive | Amazon, Rivian in Talks to End Exclusivity Part of Delivery-Van Pact

The online retailer has notified the EV maker that it wants to buy about 10,000 vans this year, which is at the low end of a range it previously provided.

www.wsj.com

Rivian Wants Out of Exclusive Amazon Electric Van Deal: Report

With Amazon receiving just 1/10th of its total order so far, Rivian is allegedly looking for other buyers of its electric commercial vans.

www.thedrive.com

Rivian wants to end the exclusive deal to produce 100,000 vans with Amazon. Perhaps the exclusivity clause is why they had backed out of the partnership with Mercedes?

An exclusive agreement between Amazon and Rivian for 100,000 electric delivery vans is reportedly on its way to being scrapped. The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Rivian is negotiating its way out of the deal after Amazon asked for only 10,000 electric vans this year, below the electric carmaker’s expectations. The WSJ cited sources familiar with the talks but who can’t speak publicly about ending the deal.

The original plan for 100,000 vans to be delivered to Amazon by 2030 was made in 2019 and buoyed Rivian’s prospects as a viable startup automaker before it delivered its first R1T electric pickup truck. Amazon is Rivian’s largest shareholder and owns nearly 20% of the company, according to reports.

That said, ending the agreement would allow Rivian to shop its delivery vans to other buyers in a bid to shore up more business to stay afloat. Electric commercial vehicles are expected to boom by more than 30% this year, compared to last year, according to analysts. That would bode well for Rivian to supplement its retail market with commercial vehicles that aren’t tied to Amazon. It’s unclear if Rivian has another interested buyer so far, but it would do well to find one soon. Nearly every major automaker from Stellantis to Ford and Daimler will flood the market soon with electric commercial vehicles.

 

[ProjectWHaT]

Rivian is replacing the Meridian branded speaker system with an in-house design as a cost saving measure




Rivian's chief engineer returns to McLaren as CTO. He was originally at Mclaren before moving to Rivian

Rivian Chief Engineer Charles Sanderson Returns To McLaren As CTO

McLaren announces major executive lineup changes, including the return of Charles Sanderson as the Chief Technical Officer after leaving Rivian.

www.motor1.com

McLaren Automotive has revealed that it has appointed three new members to its executive management board. One of them is Charles Sanderson, who left McLaren to join Rivian Automotive. Sanderson was the company's head of software development when he left the British automaker in 2018. In Rivian, he was vice president of vehicle integration and development and became the company's chief engineer in 2019.

With all the recent news for the past few weeks, it seems like they're having a decent amount of internal trouble

I've seen a handful of R1Ts and R1Ss around where I am. I really hope I get to see one up close at a cars and coffee eventually

 

[Keef]

Rivian is replacing the Meridian branded speaker system with an in-house design as a cost saving measure




Rivian's chief engineer returns to McLaren as CTO. He was originally at Mclaren before moving to Rivian

Rivian Chief Engineer Charles Sanderson Returns To McLaren As CTO

McLaren announces major executive lineup changes, including the return of Charles Sanderson as the Chief Technical Officer after leaving Rivian.

www.motor1.com

With all the recent news for the past few weeks, it seems like they're having a decent amount of internal trouble

I've seen a handful of R1Ts and R1Ss around where I am. I really hope I get to see one up close at a cars and coffee eventually

How the **** is engineering your own speakers cheaper than just buying them. Also, when I'm spending $100,000 on a truck it better have the best nuts on the market.

Damn, they must be getting hammered by this market. They're downgrading the visible things that upscale buyers look for.

 

[ProjectWHaT]

A Kenyan conservation program has built a safari truck using the Rivian

This Rivian R1T Safari Rig Looks Like the Ultimate All-Terrain Golf Cart

The electric Rivian R1T makes the perfect outdoor safari truck in Kenya, which also uses it to hunt poachers.

www.thedrive.com

 

[ProjectWHaT]

MKBHD talks to Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe

 

[ProjectWHaT]

Rivian patents Ram Box-like bed storage system

Rivian's patent application includes outside bed sides that fold down to reveal storage compartments.

www.motorauthority.com

Rivian patents new, configurable bed storage system

According to Jonny Lieberman's Instagram, which appears to be for the rumored R1X rather than the R2T that was mentioned in the above podcast

 

[ProjectWHaT]

Due to supply chain issues, Rivian will begin using their in-house motor for their consumer production cars. They were already using it for their Amazon vans

Rivian shifts to in-house motors to boost production

The Rivian-made Enduro motor replaces units made by Bosch in most configurations of the R1T pickup and R1S crossover. Rivian says it will save money and speed up production.

www.autonews.com

Archive link: https://archive.is/cEyCb

[The quad-motor setup] is holding back production, an issue that has dogged the startup since the launch. Rivian has a healthy order bank and a modern factory in Normal, Ill., but not enough computer chips for its third-party motors.

Rivian is now shifting to an internally developed electric drive unit — Enduro — that it expects to break the production bottleneck and reduce costs as it plans its next generation of vehicles.

A shortage of power semiconductors for the quad motors, supplied by Bosch, is throttling output of the R1T and the R1S crossover as customers wait months for their vehicles — or cancel altogether.

Rivian will use its Enduro drive unit in a two-motor design, one at the front and one at the rear, in the R1T and the R1S crossover based on the same platform. The Enduro motor is already being used in its commercial vans.

[...]

Rivian CFO Claire McDonough said at an investor conference in early April that the in-house Enduro design requires fewer critical semiconductors per vehicle. Since the Enduro units use a different semiconductor supplier than the Bosch units, the automaker has greater flexibility to keep assembly lines humming.

"One of the key mitigation tools that we have at our disposal is the introduction and the ramp of the Enduro drive unit this year, which unlocks a new secondary supply base of our power semiconductors within the plant," McDonough said at the Bank of America event, according to a recording posted online.

Rivian introduced the Enduro motor earlier in the year on EDV vans it makes for Amazon, McDonough said. "Our Enduro drive unit launched on time and is ramping according to schedule," she said.

As the Enduro production line ramps up at Rivian's Normal factory, the automaker will have enough capacity to begin introducing them in its consumer vehicles later in the year, McDonough said.

The new drive unit is also key to the development of more mainstream vehicles on a new R2 platform starting in 2026 at a future factory in Georgia, Rivian executives have said. The R1T starts at $74,800 with shipping, and the R1S starts at $79,800 with shipping. Rivian has said R2 vehicles will be significantly less expensive.

I guess this is similar to their move with producing an in-house speaker system. It may have a higher initial investment cost, but with time and less licensing fees, it would probably be cheaper?

 

[Keef]

Due to supply chain issues, Rivian will begin using their in-house motor for their consumer production cars. They were already using it for their Amazon vans

Rivian shifts to in-house motors to boost production

The Rivian-made Enduro motor replaces units made by Bosch in most configurations of the R1T pickup and R1S crossover. Rivian says it will save money and speed up production.

www.autonews.com

Archive link: https://archive.is/cEyCb



I guess this is similar to their move with producing an in-house speaker system. It may have a higher initial investment cost, but with time and less licensing fees, it would probably be cheaper?

Sounds like an emergency measure to keep revenues up to me. If they aren't pushing product then revenue goes down and regardless of profit that really pisses off investors.

 

[ProjectWHaT]

The IIHS tests the R1S

2022 Rivian R1S 4-door SUV

2022 Rivian R1S 4-door SUV - large SUV

www.iihs.org

It surprisingly got an "Acceptable" in the original moderate overlap test

During the crash, deformation in the driver-side floor pan contributed to high forces on the right lower leg which indicates a likely risk of injury.

 

[Keef]

Imagine if the FAA crash tested airplanes for safety.

We wouldn't even be talking about this if drivers were simply trained to not crash into things.

 

[Hayden]

Imagine if the FAA crash tested airplanes for safety.

We wouldn't even be talking about this if drivers were simply trained to not crash into things.

While I agree driver training needs to be improved worldwide, it’s never going to be possible to make regular people undergo anything close to pilot level training to operate a car.

For every 1 airplane in the US, theres over 1100 registered cars. Only a very specific type of person can be trained to fly a plane, whereas cars need to be accessible and usable for the Joe Everyman.

I would also argue that Joe Everyman is actually perfectly capable of driving a car, except when he knowingly does dangerous things.

35% of US car crash fatalities involve DUIs
29% involve speed as a factor
8.3% are due to distraction
…So that’s 72.3% of fatalities caused when Joe knows he’s being silly.

Only 1% of car accidents cause a fatality (thankyou safety features!) and when people are killed, 46% of them aren’t wearing a seatbelt… even though over 90% of people always wear one.

It’s not actually driving ability that’s causing road fatalities, it’s driver behaviour. All the training in the world won’t stop Joe drinking, speeding or texting. People are always going to do silly things, which is why the safety features are so important.

Since 1970 the move towards crumple zones, seatbelts, airbags and safer cars has seen a 2/3rds decrease in fatalities per 10,000 cars on the road. The latest generation of autonomous braking, adaptive cruise, lane assist, driver watch and full autonomy are more about preventing mistakes from happening than actually improving driving; and they show a strong resemblance to the brilliant autopilot system used in aircraft.

 

[Keef]

anything close to pilot level training to operate a car.

They don't need to. They just need to undergo anything close to training to operate a car. Currently, training effectively doesn't exist. It's a sham, a ponzi scheme that "schools" rake in thousands from each student for, and the teacher was an uncertified parent chock full of bad habits and carelessness already.

35% of US car crash fatalities involve DUIs

Lack of responsibility. Drivers should be scared of making mistakes like this.

29% involve speed as a factor

This is my favorite. While there are rules to be followed, saying speed is a factor is like saying weather is a factor in aviation. No it's not. It always exists, it's a constant condition that needs to be planned for and around. People get in crashes in parking lots for crying out loud. Speed is not a factor, lack of discipline and respect for rules is the factor.

8.3% are due to distraction
…So that’s 72.3% of fatalities caused when Joe knows he’s being silly.

Again, lack of discipline. Drivers don't care if they break the rules because there are effectively no consequences. As in aviation, the consequences for "being silly" should be crippling.

Only 1% of car accidents cause a fatality (thankyou safety features!) and when people are killed, 46% of them aren’t wearing a seatbelt… even though over 90% of people always wear one.

I don't care about the fatalities. 100% of accidents cost the economy time and money but apparently the risk isn't high enough. People know that nothing serious will happen and therefore they disregard all consequences. They need to be instilled with a mindset that serious mistakes have extreme consequences, but even tiny mistakes should be embarrassing enough to cause a self-review of why it happened and how to fix it.

All the training in the world won’t stop Joe drinking, speeding or texting.

I don't do those things during critical phases of flight - especially drinking - so something in my training must've clicked lol. You're just confirming that the vast majority of people are careless assholes which I already knew. The problem is they're okay with that. Combine that with a lack of nurturing education and a lack of consequences and you get a madhouse.

Since 1970 the move towards crumple zones, seatbelts, airbags and safer cars has seen a 2/3rds decrease in fatalities per 10,000 cars on the road. The latest generation of autonomous braking, adaptive cruise, lane assist, driver watch and full autonomy are more about preventing mistakes from happening than actually improving driving; and they show a strong resemblance to the brilliant autopilot system used in aircraft.

I already addressed the lack of consequences and everything you're mentioning here is making the problem worse and removing responsbility from drivers, allowing them to be even ********. Every single time some autonomous vehicle makes a horrible mistake and the human didn't peform adequately when needed I smile a little bit because it shows that nobody is ready for what they're getting themselves into. In an airplane, the autopilot or the auto brakes or the autothrottles, even the fancy airliners with autoland capability, those things are not safety tech. That's workload tech. The safety tech is the pilot. The difference between this situation and the driving situation is that pilots are fully capable of controlling the plane at its limits and performing all emergency maneuvers by hand. Drivers simply aren't capable of that. So when you slap auto tech on drivers what results is laziness and a total lack of safety backup. It's incredibly dangerous, and the mindset that drivers and automotive engineers are carrying into this is incredibly dangerous. Nobody's gonna die of course because cars are built like beanbags but it is gonna cost everyone a lot of time and money.

 

[Hayden]

They don't need to. They just need to undergo anything close to training to operate a car. Currently, training effectively doesn't exist. It's a sham, a ponzi scheme that "schools" rake in thousands from each student for, and the teacher was an uncertified parent chock full of bad habits and carelessness already.

As I said, I don’t disageee that more training, worldwide, would be beneficial. I drive to work on a busy road and have experienced a week where every single day, a car rear ended another in the exact same location. Its an exit lane with a long queue, where impatient people cut in at the last minute and cause emergency braking manoeuvres behind them. This is another action people know is dangerous/selfish, but the actual impacts occur when other drivers are following too close or distracted.

Lack of responsibility. Drivers should be scared of making mistakes like this.

If a pilot rocks up to work drunk it would almost certainly be noticed by the crew and definitely result in dismissal. The consequence of drink driving is that you might (if you’re extremely unlucky) be caught by the police or be in an accident. I don’t know the stats but you are infinitely more likely to get away with it in a car, which is why drivers do it and pilots don’t.

This is my favorite. While there are rules to be followed, saying speed is a factor is like saying weather is a factor in aviation. No it's not. It always exists, it's a constant condition that needs to be planned for and around. People get in crashes in parking lots for crying out loud. Speed is not a factor, lack of discipline and respect for rules is the factor.

And this is where I’ll say good luck changing it. No amount of training will make a regular person have the same discipline and respect as a pilot, because they don’t have the same level of consequences. As above, a mistake (or disobedience) in a cockpit will certainly get you fired. After years of study, hard work and a lifetime of dreaming, you would lose your job instantly if you tried to do anything you know isn’t safe.

A driver will likely get away with it, thousands of times, and when they finally do cause an accident or get caught, they’ll just pay their insurance excess or fine and hopefully learn from it.

Again, lack of discipline. Drivers don't care if they break the rules because there are effectively no consequences. As in aviation, the consequences for "being silly" should be crippling.

So what.. take peoples licenses permanently for being on their phone once? How will they get to work? How will they transport their kids?

Also, how do you increase the chances of catching them? A pilot has a crew around that will dob him in at the first offence, drivers don’t. Do you put police everywhere and increase the use of “random” stops, install tons of monitoring cameras?

I don't care about the fatalities. 100% of accidents cost the economy time and money but apparently the risk isn't high enough. People know that nothing serious will happen and therefore they disregard all consequences. They need to be instilled with a mindset that serious mistakes have extreme consequences, but even tiny mistakes should be embarrassing enough to cause a self-review of why it happened and how to fix it.

I work in insurance. Most people do learn from their first embarrassing mistake. They realise that consequences do exist and tend to be more responsible drivers afterward. As is the case with people, they think (and act) like they’re 6ft tall and bulletproof until they realise they aren’t. It’s human nature.

I don't do those things during critical phases of flight - especially drinking - so something in my training must've clicked lol. You're just confirming that the vast majority of people are careless assholes which I already knew. The problem is they're okay with that. Combine that with a lack of nurturing education and a lack of consequences and you get a madhouse.

I guarantee that some pilots are also careless assholes that would rock up drunk if they didn’t have a job that made this a guaranteed recipe for dismissal. I’d also say that some of them have probably been done for drink driving.

I acknowledge it would be a much lower percentage than the general public. As I said from the outset, pilots are a very specific (and disciplined) type of person.

I already addressed the lack of consequences and everything you're mentioning here is making the problem worse and removing responsbility from drivers, allowing them to be even ********. Every single time some autonomous vehicle makes a horrible mistake and the human didn't peform adequately when needed I smile a little bit because it shows that nobody is ready for what they're getting themselves into. In an airplane, the autopilot or the auto brakes or the autothrottles, even the fancy airliners with autoland capability, those things are not safety tech. That's workload tech. The safety tech is the pilot.

The transfer toward autonomy was always going to have some teething issues. I don’t smile when I hear of a driver watching Harry Potter and hitting a truck on auto-pilot but I’m not grieving them either. They know the technology is in development and they still took the (knowingly silly) risk.

The difference between this situation and the driving situation is that pilots are fully capable of controlling the plane at its limits and performing all emergency maneuvers by hand. Drivers simply aren't capable of that.

Professional racing drivers regularly have accidents while on the limit. Not to mention a car should never be reaching the limit on a public road. Speed limits and modern tyres mean you are definitely breaking the law a long time before you are running out of adhesion. (Edit: unless it’s wet, snowing or on a dirt road.)

So when you slap auto tech on drivers what results is laziness and a total lack of safety backup. It's incredibly dangerous, and the mindset that drivers and automotive engineers are carrying into this is incredibly dangerous. Nobody's gonna die of course because cars are built like beanbags but it is gonna cost everyone a lot of time and money.

I know you’re in an efficiency conscious job, but the world is built around things that cost time and money. Just as someone else’s crash might make me late for work, so can roadworks. Just as their crash may increase the insurance premium for my car, so may a natural disaster. We expect these things to happen, it’s built into our everyday life.

I know people are lazy, overly reliant on technology and complacent assholes. Pilots are specifically chosen to weed people like that out, but you will never stop them getting in a car. I’ve said for years, the sooner Joe Everyman has nothing to do with driving his own car, the better.

In the meantime I am very glad to own a car that protects me from these other drivers, who are doing things that they know damn well are dangerous. You can train them all you like (it will slightly help reduce accidents) but it is not addressing the elephant in the room.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

Imagine if the FAA crash tested airplanes for safety.

We wouldn't even be talking about this if drivers were simply trained to not crash into things.

Lot less stuff to hit in the air.

The Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge accommodates more vehicles per hour than there are airplanes in the sky over the entire earth at a given time.

 

[ProjectWHaT]

Rivian teases the R2 on their Instagram story

 

[ProjectWHaT]

According to Eletrek, Rivian will acquire A Better Route Planner

Exclusive: Rivian to acquire ABRP (A Better Route Planner)

The deal could close in as a week – or it might have been completed as this goes to print....

electrek.co

The deal could close in as a week – or it might have been completed as this goes to print.

Sources tell Electrek that Rivian has been in talks to acquire the world’s most popular EV route planning service, Sweden-based A Better Route Planner, or ABRP for short. Financial details weren’t disclosed, but ABRP is a wholly owned subsidiary of Iternio, which lists a small employee count of under 10 people and 8 people on LinkedIn.

Iternio was founded in 2018 by CEO Bo Lincoln and has two pieces – a consumer-facing entity called ABRP and a backend that other entities plug into to provide routing data. Of course, ABRP plugs into Iternio’s APIs.

We’re also told that Rivian has no plans to shut down either the front-end service for other EV owners who still want to use the service for their non-Rivian EVs nor the back end service for other carmakers and services.