- #CARS 2 VIDEO GAME MAKING INTERFACE MORE COMPLICATED DRIVERS#
- #CARS 2 VIDEO GAME MAKING INTERFACE MORE COMPLICATED UPGRADE#
My time in the Rivian R1T would have to wait until the following day.Įarly the next morning, and after an outdoor breakfast served on the Rivian Camp Kitchen, a safety check and briefing, we set off for the main event. (TechCrunch, not Rivian, paid for my travel and accommodations. The drive would end in Breckenridge, a popular ski town that sits at the base of the Ten-Mile Range. From here, reporters drove about 100 miles along Interstate 70 up and into the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. The press drive started for everyone - except me due to a late plane arrival - at the Denver International Airport. Those two items are on my list once I get the vehicle to myself for a few days. The vehicle’s thermal control and battery management system allows for the vehicle to tow up to 11,000 pounds and a DC fast charge rate of 140 miles in 20 minutes at 200 kilowatts - neither of which we were able to try. This setup also sends power to the wheels that need it most, depending on the situation, which manages slip and helps control vehicle rotation. The four motors independently adjust torque, which provides traction control in a variety of conditions. How Rivian architected the quad-motor drive - in which a dual-motor drive unit is on the front and rear axles - is worth noting here since I was able to experience why its design matters. That’s a lot of numbers that loosely translate to power, performance and the added benefit of a planted feeling even while accelerating through turns. The powertrain includes a 135-kWh lithium-ion battery, four motors for all-wheel drive and a single-speed transmission that produces 835 horsepower and 908 pound-feet of torque. (The two-layered frunk, or front trunk, pictured below, being one such example.) The result, in this case, is a truck with a low center of gravity and 68 cubic feet of cargo space, which the designers and engineers provide in thoughtful ways that consider customers of all heights. This gives Rivian the flexibility and hopefully cost-efficiency to make numerous vehicles using the same foundation. This skateboard chassis integrated all of these pieces together, which means different top hats - or vehicle bodies - can be placed on top. The R1T features a skateboard architecture that houses the battery pack, drive units, an independent air suspension that would prove handy, and thermal and lower body structure.
#CARS 2 VIDEO GAME MAKING INTERFACE MORE COMPLICATED UPGRADE#
The Launch and Adventure editions, for instance, come standard with an off-road upgrade with reinforced underbody shield, dual front bumper tow hooks and air compressor, as well as interior accents, 100% recycled microfiber headliner and “Chilewich floor mats.” However, Rivian’s “Adventure package” trim, which starts at $73,000, is nearly identical in terms of offerings. The Launch Edition, which comes with special badging, is no longer available. The R1T that I drove was a Launch Edition version in glacier white and equipped with Pirelli Scorpion 20-inch all-terrain tires, putting it at about $75,000, excluding the $1,075 destination charge. In addition to its Illinois factory, Rivian has facilities in Palo Alto and Irvine, California and Plymouth, Michigan and an office in the U.K. Since then, Rivian has raised billions of dollars ($10.5 billion since 2019) expanded its Normal, Illinois, factory hired thousands of employees (more than 8,000) landed Amazon as a commercial customer and, most recently, filed confidentially for an IPO. Rivian operated in secret for years before it revealed prototypes of its all-electric R1T truck and R1S SUV at the LA Auto Show in late 2018. The company, which started in 2009 as Mainstream Motors before adopting the Rivian name two years later, has undergone explosive growth in terms of people, backers and partners in the past few years. The first production Rivian R1T electric pickup truck in “Rivian blue” rolled off the assembly line earlier this month at the company’s factory in Normal, Illinois, marking a milestone more than a decade in the making for the automaker and its founder and CEO, RJ Scaringe. Now it faces two more tests: production and delivery. Rivian has delivered on the desirability and drivability fronts.
#CARS 2 VIDEO GAME MAKING INTERFACE MORE COMPLICATED DRIVERS#
Rivian is in the rarefied position of aiming to bring the first electric truck to market in the U.S., making it a vehicle that drivers will covet and doing it to scale. It’s even harder to mass-produce that vehicle all while maintaining proper fit and finish. It’s difficult for established automakers to anticipate and then tick every box on consumers’ wish lists. What Rivian has accomplished with the R1T is no small feat.
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