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Rivian delivers more power and tech to its revamped EVs
Rivianhas convert 600 parts on its R1S SUV and R1 MT cartridge motortruck in a bid to drive down manufacturing costs , while improving performance of its flagship vehicle .
The end goal , which will play out over the coming year , is an existential one . Rivian lose about $ 38,784 on every vehicle it birth in the first quarter of 2024 , according toits earnings account . And the automaker wo n’t have the unexampled , cheaperR2 SUVon the road until the first half of 2026 .
That leaves Rivian with one road : deal more R1S and R1 thyroxine vehicles without losing money .
Image Credits:Rivian
The clock starts now . Rivian has recently started producing the second - generation R1 T and R1S , with the first delivery beginning as betimes as this week .
The solution of Rivian ’s second - contemporaries reboot is an all - electric truck and SUV with improved ride character , more powerful drivetrain option and other bell and whistles , including an electronically tinted sunroof and a so - call in “ launch modality ” that can catapult the new R1 T quadriceps femoris - motor trim from a deadlock to 60 mile per hr in less than 2.5 heart - pumping seconds .
But you would n’t know any of this just by looking at the 2d - multiplication electron volt .
Image Credits:Rivian
Rivian has left the exterior of the 2d - generation R1 short letter mostly untasted — with the exception of a new light feature of speech that provides a charge status bar across the front , Storm Blue key semblance and wheels — a determination that executives told TechCrunch was designed .
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Instead , Rivian has focused its cause on reworking the guts , change everything from the battery pack and abatement organisation to the electric architecture , interior seats and detector stack . There ’s even a redesign software system user user interface that provides elaborated exemplification - corresponding graphics using Unreal Engine as well as deep consolidation with Apple and Google .
“ Some change are pocket-sized , some changes are big , but every single aspect of the experience of the R1 will amend with this platform , ” Rivian ’s read/write head of software package , Wassym Bensaid , told reporter in a media briefing ahead of the official launching .
upright integrating is the underlying root word here . Rivian still has suppliers . But its engineers , designers and factory workers are responsible for making more parts of the R1 EVs than ever before .
Image Credits:Rivian
Rivian now designs , engineers and crap its motors in star sign , for model . The fellowship is also responsible for redesign a heat ticker - based thermal system to ameliorate rider temperature comfort and saving range , and for developing a new electrical architecture and compute chopine that reduce the number of electronic control unit ( ECUs ) used to keep in line the fomite from 17 different ECUs in its first generation to seven . This new zonal computer architecture allows Rivian to cut more than 1.6 miles of wiring from each fomite — a 44 - pound exercising weight savings — and to build its vehicles quicker , according to director of electrical scheme Kyle Lobo .
Rivian says it even internally develop the 11 new mellow - solution camera that , along with five microwave radar , make up its sensing stack and support its refuge and sophisticated machine driver assistance scheme .
Drivetrains and batteries
The second - generation Rivian R1 batting order has four primary configurations : double - motor , performance dual - motor , tri - motive and quadruplet - motor . Once a customer moves beyond the drivetrain , there is an array of battery multitude selection and other features that advertize the price tag ever higher . Rivian has also redesign the battery modules in the large and max battery face pack , which executive say make them easy to build and service .
Both the dual - motor and performance twofold - motor drivetrains can be configure with three different electric battery packs . The al-Qaeda variation , the threefold - motor with a received shelling pack , start at $ 69,900 for the R1 T and $ 75,900 for the R1S. Notably , this version is fit with a atomic number 3 - iron inorganic phosphate - ground battery that provides an EPA - estimated 270 mi of range .
From here , the barrage fire ranges and the prices tick higher with the dual - motor large mob and dual - motor max pack trims . The R1 T double - motor and performance two-fold - motor with a max pack start 420 miles of scope . The R1S , in a similar configuration , can travel an estimated 410 miles on a single charge .
Image Credits:Rivian
Rivian has dialed up the choice by adding a tri - motor drivetrain trim — only available with the max battery pack — that uses two motors in the rear and one in the front . This combo delivers 850 HP , 1,103 pound - foot of torsion and a zero - to-60 mph clip of 2.9 second . The tri - centrifugal max face pack trim , which has an estimated mountain range of 380 miles , starts at $ 99,900 for the R1 tetraiodothyronine and $ 105,900 for the R1S.
Rivian rounds out its offerings with a quad - motor max pack trim , which deliver an middle - pop 1,025 horsepower , 1,198 pound - feet of torsion and an off - the - stock to 60 mph acceleration time of less than 2.5 seconds when using the so - call “ launching mode ” feature .
Google, Apple and autonomy
Rivian has put effort towards developing and improving its own software system stack , which includes everything interrelate to literal - clock time operating systems ( RTOS ) that manage the car , such as thermic dynamics , ADAS and safety organisation , as well as another layer related to the infotainment system .
Engineers expend free RTOS and safe RTOS as the footing of its operating system for vehicle restraint .
Meanwhile , Rivian ’s infotainment system has two operating systems . QNX is the emcee operating organization , which is only used for safety map , and an heart-to-heart source variant of Android Automotive for everything else . Bensaid said the companionship is move by from QNX to a Linux - based software package .
Image Credits:Kirsten Korosec
On the autonomy front , Rivian utilize a combination of Linux and free RTOS software system .
“ It ’s been really a continuance ; since day one we ’ve been super intentional about have our own ECUs , our own computers , and our own software , ” Bensaid said , describing the society ’s long - term access . “ Gen one was rage up the internal knowledge to get to a orbit - based computer architecture . And now that we have those foundations , we ’re able-bodied to move to a zonal - based computer architecture , which is much more challenging from a technical standpoint . ”
Only two companies — Rivian and Tesla — have a true zonal computer architecture , Bensaid take .
Image Credits:Kirsten Korosec
“ This is what the industry is callingsoftware - defined fomite — a term that is absolutely abused , ” he added .
The company has also develop its own middleware software , which intercommunicate with the literal - time ECUs , the infotainment ECUs and the swarm .
These rich - in - the - weeds details weigh because theoretically , Bensaid explain , Rivian can take any office in the infotainment system and fetch it over to a peregrine phone or a third - political party app . In other words , this let for customers to have a connected car and hint that Rivian could modernise its own app store while maintaining surety .
All of this effort shows Rivian ’s utmost interest in controlling the total experience . So , perhaps it ’s not surprising that Rivian ’s 2nd - propagation R1 bloodline does not offer the democratic smartphone projection feature of Apple CarPlay or Android Auto . And it likely never will , according to Bensaid .
Instead , Rivian is working with Google and Apple to mix the products that customer want most : medicine , single-valued function and electronic messaging . For representative , Rivian owners will now be able to employ car keys in Apple Wallet on iPhone and Apple Watch , or with choice Google Pixel devices , to unlock and originate up their vehicles or share key digitally .
Rivian is also found a new subscription Robert William Service called Connect+ that will give client access to more Apple and Google products for $ 14.99 per month , or $ 149.99 annually . Later this summer , Connect+ customers will be able-bodied to pour video ( while parked ) via Googlecast , which includes 3,000 apps as well as access to Apple Music . Rivian also worked with Apple to bring its Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos to the railway car .
Rivian said it also design to desegregate voice assistants Siri and Google Assistant in the vehicle .
The caller has taken a similar in - mansion - is - best approaching to its “ Rivian Autonomy Platform , ” which will fall standard on all 2nd - gen R1 fomite and let in 11 cameras , five radiolocation sensors and a information processing system that is 10 time more powerful than the previous organization .
Rivian may utilise the Logos “ autonomy ” but its system is not self - drive , or even close . The ripe driver aid system , which TechCrunch test , postulate the driver to stay alert with their hand on the bicycle .
The system includes adaptive sail ascendency , which maintain speed and aloofness behind vehicles on the highway , and a highway assist feature of speech that mechanically tip , brakes and accelerates on prime highway .
Rivian is also releasing a premium rendering called Rivian Autonomy Platform+ , which will be offered for detached to second - generation R1 customers for one year . Later this summer , the system will flap out a lane change on command feature of speech that will mechanically move the vehicle into another lane when the machine driver activates the turn indicator .
