First impressions of the Rivian R1S compared to a Tesla 3

We’ve had the Tesla 3 now for five years already. I don’t have too many gripes with it except a few things:

• I have to manually close the trunk (fixed in later versions and I don’t feel like paying $600 for Tesla to give me the power liftgate)
• I hardly ever use the frunk because I’m not getting my hands dirty by pushing down on the hood (whoever thought that was a good idea should be fired.)
• As good as autopilot is, the random braking on the highway (hasn’t happened as often lately but still random braking on autopilot.)
• I think it’s too low to the ground and getting in and out isn’t as easy as getting into the Y.

Those are just tiny gripes; I still enjoy driving the Tesla. With that said, I picked up my dual motor Rivian R1S this past weekend. I was shocked the car was ready because just a few weeks ago, they said the ETA was in 2024 Q1. The Rivian rep who helped me with the car told me I was his 4th dual motor customer, so I guess I was near the top of the dual motor list.

After a few days of owning the Rivian, here are some differences:

• The Autopilot is YEARS behind Tesla. While it can’t change lanes by tapping on the stalk (I don’t even want this feature) or even turn on while driving down neighborhood roads, it has issues activating on the highway even. It needs that certain icon on the dash that shows it can be enabled and even on the highway in Seattle, I didn’t see the icon for a while. And it beeps at you to take over a lot. This reminds me of when I first got the Tesla Autopilot and it wouldn’t slow down on highway curves and I had to disengage it to take over. I’m sure eventually Rivian’s Autopilot will get better (but prob not as good as Tesla’s.)
• The car is TALL. It takes effort to get in and out. I’m 5’11 and on the ‘standard height air suspension,’ it requires a bit of hip flexor mobileity to get into the car and when I get out, I probably “fall” an inch to the ground. It reminds of when you set your seat too high on the stationary bike and it takes effort to get on and off it. Now, you can set the car to “kneel” mode where it drops the car to help you get in and out, but my friend and I both agreed that would put unnecessary wear and tear on the air suspension, so I’ll just deal with it for now.
• With that said, it drives really tall, which I like. It reminded me of driving a Toyota 4Runner that I rented in New Orleans not too long ago.
• The doors require 50% more effort to close. At this point, I know how much effort I need to swing the Tesla 3 door for it to close. With the Rivian, I feel like the door doesn’t want to close the last 10% of the way, and so you have to put 50% more effort into closing the doors. Right now, about 33% of the time, I’m having to open and re-close the doors.
• Having Alexa integration is nice. You can be driving and say “Alexa, play Taylor Swift on Tidal” and it’ll do it. I think she can do navigation too but I haven’t tested it out yet. She’s pretty fast and accurate too.
• Regen braking – In the Rivian, there’s 2 modes – super aggressive regen braking or normal regen braking (which is similar to Tesla.) There doesn’t seem to have a “rolling start” mode where if you let go of of the gas pedal, the car rolls a bit forward. You always have to push on the gas pedal to get hte car to move (maybe they’ll add the rolling start feature later.) However, the Rivian does “Hold” the car once you come to a complete stop, which I assume would prevent rollbacks on hills.
• I didn’t realize this until I first charged the car using the mobile charger. The Rivian gets about 15 miles per hour when charging on the mobile adapter (pulling 32amps) while the Tesla gets about 30 miles per hour on the mobile charger. Due to the weight of the Rivian, it uses almost two times more electricity than the Tesla 3. I don’t think people realize this until they get 2 different EV’s at the house. Most people just want to know how far they can get on one charge, but they don’t think about how long/how much it’s going to cost them to drive those miles.
• The frunk is actually usable. In the old 3’s (not sure about new ones,) you had to unlock the frunk with the screen or app. Then you had to manually push down on the frunk for it to pop open and then manually lift. Sorry, ain’t nobody doing all that, especially if your hands aren’t free. With the Rivian, you just push a button in the app or push a button on the car and the frunk autmotically opens. And the frunk space is much larger, so definitely more usable.
• Backup camera resolution looks like 720p compared to the 3’s 1080p. At least the screen is bigger and they also show you a 360 degree view when backing up.
• The location of the car handle when you’re in the car kinda sucks. I miss the push button on the armrest of the 3. On the Rivian, it’s behind your left thigh, so you have to reach down to unlock the door from inside.
• It is nice that the door handles pop out when you walk close to the car (I think the X does this) and then retracts and locks the door when you walk away. However, similar to the 3, there have been times already where I’ve walked up to the car and next to the door handle and the car is still locked.
• My friend raves about the sound system in his R1T, but I don’t know, I may not be an audophile guy but I just thought it was fine. I think there’s too much space in the car for it to sound engulfing. I feel the 3’s sound system was a bit better.
• It’s quieter than the Tesla 3 on the highway. I hear the latest Tesla 3 models are quiter than they used to be.
• The acceleration on the Rivian is nice once you factor in the weight vs the Tesla. The Tesla 3 feels “zippier” but no acceleration complaints with the Rivian. The acceleration I care most about is the 60 to 75mph acceleration and that was adequate.
• I think the built in flashlight and the speaker is a gimmick, but whatever, it’s a cool talking point to show friends
• Side mirrors have the blindsight indicator built into them
• While the seats are adequate I feel the 3’s leather seats are softer and more comfortable.
• Doesn’t appear there is a self parking feature like in Teslas
• When backing up, the 2 side windows don’t move down so you can see the curb like in the 3.
• The rain sensor seems better than the Tesla

I’m sure there are more differences between the two, but these are the ones I’ve noticed over the last few days of driving the Rivian. Overall, I’m enjoying the car so far and no regrets buying it. I think if you don’t need the space or you won’t be going off-roading, then I’m sure a Tesla Y would suffice.