My First Rivian R1S Test Drive

[Rivian Blue]

It was my first time driving an electric car that wasn't a Tesla.

So after seeing a couple of Rivian owners around the city, I suddenly felt intrigued about how cool the headlights appeared. On a sunny Monday morning, I decided to go for a test drive in the R1S, which was the refreshed version, and wow, what a beautiful car. Interior, exterior, all amazing. I loved the way you get in the car, turn it off, the material, the finish, the gorgeous sunroof—the list goes on...

The software was a pleasure to use with a beautiful UI, but I found the route calculation to lag when I tried to change routes or missed a turn. I'm not sure if that was a local issue or not, but it was considerably slower than what I was used to with Android Auto.


This was the day of the test drive. One of my best pictures ever...

Also, the automatic brake was suuuuper aggressive. There was a moment during the drive when the car just stopped, made the warning sound, and flashed red because a street cone was near the car. It freaked me out a bit. There was another moment when the car slowed significantly, but not to a full stop, when someone opened a car door on a narrow street.

That all being said, I was sold on the car from the jump but really wish I could just rip the acceleration onto an on-ramp during my test drive. I made my R1S reservation immediately, and I honestly could not wait till the delivery day.



I thought about leasing the R1S a couple of times, but then I felt like I'd really love to bask in all of the feeling of driving the R1S again after a year and some months. That would definitely feel a lot more fun, and it actually did.

Thanks for reading my thought dump!