Video Summary
The reviewer owns two Rivian cars and has experience with Tesla. The Tesla and Elon brands are intertwined, for better or worse. Being a Tesla owner has gotten weird. This review compares Tesla and Rivian as products and how they work from an engineering standpoint and how they are to live with day to day. This review is objective.Rivian was chosen due to thoughtful, rugged design and capability. It brings the best of what was loved about the Jeep Grand Cherokee and everything great about Tesla. They had placed early preorders back in 2021, before the price hike. The wait was going to be long so a Tesla Model Y was acquired. By 2022, the configuration email came 30 days after the Model Y. Then, there was an announcement they stopped production of the powered tonneau. Then the massive price drop killed equity. This put him on the sideline longer than he anticipated.
Tesla’s autopilot can be used everywhere, while Rivian Highway Assist only works on pre-mapped highways, but unmapped road support is planned for later in 2025.
In Gen 2 there's improved curve confidence, lane keeping, and auto lane change. Tesla’s full self-driving mode is smoother than their autopilot.
Radar cruise is better than Tesla’s cruise system for its smoothness, and closer following distance. Rivian offers hands-free driving monitoring, which is better than torque based sensor on the Tesla.
Quality control is lacking, as evidenced by the author's delivery experience. Being an early adopter has meant dealing with bugs and issues and the current state of service has made that worse. There is less service availability. With long wait times for service. Even mobile service can require appointments months out. Parts shortages mean that some issues are not fixed.
However, the range accuracy has improved, so you can beat the mileage estimate. Also, the ride quality with its independent air-ride suspension which is more comfortable.
The interior of a Rivian has a nice cabin, heated/cooled seats, and good visibility. There are several convenient exterior features. Matrix headlights are also a super great feature.
The Tesla auto wipers performed terribly, while the Rivian windshield wipers are good. But, there’s a long way to go in fixing tech and software problems.
Rivian’s sound system at delivery was terrible, but the sound system quality has really improved since then via software updates. Dolby Atmos is not good. Disabling Spatial Audio, and turning off the Fade mixing is recommended.
In conclusion: Electric Vehicles are becoming popular and more software driven. And despite initial issues with delivery quality and software bugs, a Rivian is enjoyable to drive and delivers a high level of utility.
