Software Update Cost: Seems like Rivian Owners Do Get a Better Deal Than Most

Rivian Blue · 2025-04-01T08:59:34+00:00

Ever since I got my R1S, I've noticed that the battery range estimation hasn't been the best. Driving a Tesla for the last 3 years, it never had this kind of issue. During my last trip, the driver display shows 255mi remaining. My total trip (including 2 destinations) is 160mi so I believed I should be able to make it easily with a nice cushion. But the center display showed that I would arrive at first destination with 4mi remaining, and run out before the second destination! I knew this was false so I made the drive anyway, and arrived at second destination with 50mi remaining. If I understand correctly, the driver display range is simply the total rated range multiplied by SOC. That makes sense here, since my vehicle is rated for 370mi, 255mi is 68.9%. Coming from Tesla, I expect the number shown in the center display should account for factors like elevation, wind, traffic speed, etc. It's sad that my own mental estimation is better than Rivian's.

Rivian Mom

Active Wheeler

Mar 10, 2025

Considering all the "doom & gloom" lately, another post about Rivian's software architecture reminded me of this screenshot a few days ago in one of the Chevy forums. I'm saying this because I have seen and heard so many Rivian owners complain about how much they pay for a software update and getting to hear this person's experience (who isn't a Rivian owner), I really felt the need to share this.

There was dozens of comments but long story short this guy's truck needed a software update, updates weren't covered by the warranty, and it was going to cost him $341.69.

Imo if their software is at fault, it's something they should fix for free. And probably push it out to all the trucks, whether they've started experiencing the issue or not. Meanwhile us over here at Rivian are getting free software updates pushed OTA every month that actually improve our vehicles.

So as much as we like to complain, at least we aren't getting routinely bent over because of software issues entirely beyond our control.

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