Let's fix the Rivian EDV (the "Amazon electric van")

I am an Amazon delivery driver, and I've been delivering packages for almost two years in Oregon. I have driven, worked out of, and generally spent nearly 25% of my entire existence during the last two years inside of a Rivian EDV 700. For reference, the 700 (or 500) refers to the approximate cargo volume in cubic feet, so the 700 is bigger than the 500. I want to talk about some of the few remaining flaws, in my personal opinion, that the US-spec EDVs still have.

I really like Rivian vehicles - not just the vans, which I think are quite good after almost two years of driving them, but all of them. I have done a demo drive of an R1S, as I'm interested in getting an R2 in a few years, so I have some experience driving a consumer Rivian, and therefore I'm somewhat familiar with the similarities and differences between the consumer Rivians and the commercial Rivian van.

Everything in this post comes from a place of love and a desire to provide constructive criticism to improve these vehicles and make them better for everyone. Some of this may also apply to the R1S and R1T too, since the EDV is essentially a slightly-modified R1 chassis with a different body slapped on.

Problem

The vans have no brake lights for at least 1/3 of the time they're driving.

Solution

An OTA software update, replacing the turn signal code from the US EDVs with the German van code.

Explanation

This issue is about combined brake light and turn signal function, which is legal in the US. These vans were originally designed and purpose-built to be delivery vehicles, and therefore operate with the hazards on very often while they're on public roads. They also have no third brake light, unlike most vehicles. This means that 100% of US Rivian EDVs have NO brake lights at all when the hazards are activated. The NHTSA's own study found that amber turn signals likely result in a general reduction in the chance of a rear-end collision compared to red turn signals, and separate function of the turn signals and brake lights ("stop lamps") may reduce rear-end collision probability. Most vehicles have a third brake light, so there's always some kind of brake light illuminated when slowing down, but the EDV is apparently not required to have a third brake light. However, it appears as if the German vans are required to have a third brake light, as seen in this photo.

Rivian has built EDV 500s that are on German roads today. The smaller EDV 500 uses (by visual estimation of side-by-side vans) the same brake light as the EDV 700, but because Germany requires amber turn signals separate from the red brake lights, Rivian is already manufacturing safer taillights that can (probably) go on every EDV, not just the ones for Germany. Retrofitting all US vans is the expensive and unrealistic solution to this problem, but because the taillight function itself is all software-driven, the easy solution is to do an OTA update to all vans, putting the code for the German taillights into the US vans. This would make the bottom portion of the brake light be only for turn signal function, and the top portion only for stopping indication. It would also hopefully enable third brake light functionality too. It's an imperfect fix, but would be a massive improvement over what we currently have, and would be nearly free to implement. You can see the German van turn signal in this video at 39 seconds in, if you're really curious.

Problem

The turn signals turn off when they shouldn't.

Solution

An OTA software update.

Explanation

Imagine an ordinary car, where when you turn on a turn signal, and then turn the steering wheel, you hear clicks that correspond to when the turn signal will automatically turn off when you turn the steering wheel back to center. In my experience, it seems to me like the EDV has two such positions, ≈90° ("position 1") and ≈315° ("position 2").

First, turn the steering wheel right, and pass position 2, then activate the left turn signal. Now, turn the steering wheel to the left. As soon as the wheel passes center and hits left position 1, the turn signal will shut off. It seems to me to be a simple software issue that I would imagine is pretty simple to fix (I'm fairly sure I could write the code to correct this).

Anyone with an R1S or R1T that wants to test this in their vehicle, please do so and let me know if this issue also exists in those vehicles.

Problem

There is only adaptive cruise control, not ordinary cruise control. ACC often doesn't work when driving into the sun.

Solution

An OTA software update.

Explanation

The code to fix this is already present in the van! Just allow us to access it as ordinary cruise control. The adaptive cruise control IS ordinary cruise control when there isn't a vehicle in front of the van. I don't understand why cameras are necessary for using cruise control. It's frustrating to have a 25 minute highway drive and continuously get a "Glare on camera" error when trying to use cruise control.

Since I am highly confident these vans will never get anything from the Autonomy Platform, it makes sense to me to replace the highway cruise assist double-tap in the EDVs, that's currently not doing anything at all, to instead just activate ordinary cruise control. One tap down for ACC, two taps down for non-adaptive CC.

Problem

The lane-keeping assist likes to try to drive the van off the road sometimes.

Solution

An OTA software update.

Explanation

This issue relates to the adaptive cruise control problem. If ACC is activated, and then the van ends up driving towards the sun, the glare can cause the system to "see" lanes that don't exist. Much more commonly, the lane-keep assist finds phantom lane lines when the road is wet, which is really terrifying when you're doing 55 mph while it's raining and the van suddenly steers hard to the right or left. I've nearly wrecked a few times because of this specific situation.

Just let us turn off the lane-keep assist, and bonus points to also disable it automatically when the windshield wipers are on or rain sensor detects moisture, for example.

Problem

The throttle curve on the accelerator that prevents >≈5% at or near full steering lock is both a massive safety hazard, and has also resulted in me nearly getting the van stuck multiple times on hills.

Solution

An OTA software fix to adjust the curve and allow us to access more throttle at the extremes of the steering angle range.

Explanation

When I first started driving these vans, we could access full power more or less whenever. This resulted in numerous people giving the vans a lot of throttle at or near full steering lock, which we were told was a direct cause of CV axles pre-maturely failing. We were told that to mitigate this and extend the CV axle life, the vans received an OTA update that altered the throttle curve to prevent almost all acceleration above ≈97.5% steering angle either direction.

In theory, this was a great fix, but in practice, this has resulted in situations where multiple drivers that I work with, and I, have been turning out of driveways onto busy roads, and needed to be at full steering to make the turn without crossing into oncoming traffic. This, however, also prevented almost all acceleration, which most of us were not used to and not expecting for the first few months. I'm aware of multiple near-collisions where vehicles had to brake hard to avoid colliding with us.

Please re-assess the throttle curves and consider internal testing to find a good trade-off between the longevity of the CV axle components and allowing as much throttle to be accessed as possible. This is a very serious safety issue that I sincerely hope is remedied before a major collision occurs as a direct result of this intentional functionality.

Conclusion

These are the major pressing issues that I have found with the EDVs as they stand. I am not sure how many of these issues may also exist in currently road-going R1Ts and R1Ss, but for the EDVs, because there are so many of them already on the roads, I personally believe that identifying these potential safety issues and working on a meaningful solution should be a top priority for Rivian and Amazon.

To pre-emptively address possible arguments for aesthetics, these vans were explicitly designed with Amazon for package delivery. They are meant to do a job, not look nice. Anyone who prefers the look of all-red taillights has a valid opinion, but should reconsider that argument in regards to any vehicle built solely for commercial use, as the EDV is.

I didn't mention all the great things about the EDVs. For example, the comfort, the headroom for 6ft+ people such as me, and how surprisingly pleasant they are to drive, not just for a large van, but for any vehicle in general, all really impressed me at first, and still impresses me today. They're great vehicles in my opinion, and I'd love to see the kinks addressed and resolved to make these vans even better. I feel confident in saying that some of these fixes would also end up benefiting current R1T and R1S, and future R2 and R3 owners.

Also, Rivian, if you see this, I would love to drive one of these EDV 700s around a track sometime....