Quinlan Ferris

I'm hiring a Head of Social Support @Coinbase, and I'll be honest: the bar is high. I'm looking for someone who is calm under fire, great at social, fluent in crypto and sees every reply as an opportunity to build trust. If that sounds like you, my DMs are open - let's talk!

Finally got to check out and drive a @Rivian R2! For context, I currently own a 2022 @Ford F150 Lightning Lariat (my primary driver) and a 2025 (pre-refresh) @tesla Model Y LR RWD (wife's primary driver). R2 has been a strong contender as the replacement for the Model Y when the lease is up in ~18 months and I have a very early reservation. Additionally, I previously owned a 2022 Rivian R1T Large / Quad that I put about 30k miles on and have previously owned Polestar 2, AP1 Model S, VW ID.4 and other EVs. TL;DR: If you're shopping Model Y and FSD isn't a must for you, this is almost certainly a better car. (Especially as lower trims become available). You won't be disappointed. I could recommend this to just about anyone and know they'd have a good ownership experience. Driving: Excellent. Pedal tuning is more linear than I remember for R1. Easy to drive smooth (similar to Chill on a Tesla) but with full power available and no jerkiness. Regen is strong but not overwhelming. Power feels like a turned down Plaid - it doesn't just give up at speed like many EVs, but rather picks up around 40mph and keeps pulling until high speeds. (This is R2 Performance). Steering feel is good, weight is on the low-medium end and not adjustable. Switching from All Purpose to Sport, I could feel a very slight clunk on the front motor clutch disconnect connecting, but otherwise very smooth. Very glad R2 is rear-biased when cruising vs the front bias of R1. No complaints with how R2 drives. Ride: I drove on "soft" and was impressed. It's not a couch on wheels like a Lightning, but smoother than a Model Y, even on the 20" AT wheels / tires. Overall ride / noise is very solid. Quiet and smooth ride. I don't think anyone will be disappointed. Charging / range: ~230kW peak, 25-29 min 10-80% - fine, not class-leading. 400V-class charging can only be pushed so hard and Rivian pushed it as far as it can go. Better than Model Y. Rivian needs to prioritize V3.5 / V4 sites when routing to Superchargers and @TeslaCharging needs to unlock 500+A to non-Tesla vehicles. R2s are absolutely going to thermal derate V3 cables if it's warm out. On the road, you'll want to prioritize Alpitronic (@ionnaofficial, Mercedes, BP, Walmart, etc) sites for now to get 600A native NACS or you won't get peak performance (won't even get it on Rivian's own network right now, but sounds like that's coming!). I'm very curious how the thermal management will handle a summer road trip. I didn't drive it enough to gauge efficiency myself, but owner reports so far look pretty good (3+ mi/kWh) with mixed driving and heavy acceleration. Universal Hands-Free (ADAS): It's a competent lane-centering and adaptive cruise control system that requires mapped roads currently. I am fundamentally opposed to requiring mapped roads for such basic ADAS functionality. It's not FSD. Hell, it's not even @comma_ai-level yet. I am hopeful that this will improve dramatically over time, but if more than the current functionality is a must for you, I recommend waiting until it's actually available. Don't buy a product based on promises of future functionality. Software: Rivian OS 2.0 is awesome. Snappy, great graphics, clear information. Google Maps-based nav seems to work great. Route planning needs tuning - the test routes I loaded seemed to have very strange charger choices and some notable networks missing for prioritization (Mercedes-Benz HPC for example, where almost every site has 600A NACS). Use the route planning as a starting point, but check it and swap charger stops when needed. As mentioned in charging, needs the ability to route to Tesla V3.5/V4 posts rather than Tesla generically as in the summer the experience will be quite a bit different. (It'll get you where you need to go, but may not be the most optimized route). R1 owners should look forward to OS 2.0 coming to their vehicles as well - it's nice. Haptic Halo / steering wheel controls: I like the concept and scrolling (haptics are excellent) is very cool, but I think the push in / pull back and side-to-side motion require a bit too much force and feels clumsy. This should be software tunable, so I expect this to be improved over time. Not Haptic Halos but related - nice to have both turn signal and gear stalks. Back seat: Probably one of the best features of R2. The back seat is awesome. Not quite Lightning level space (but it's a much smaller vehicle), but notably more useful than Model Y. Plenty of room for 2x rear facing car seats (not sure if you could do 3 across - probably not), even with tall front passengers. Would be an improvement if the rear doors opened to full 90deg vs ~80deg. You can easily fit 4 full size adults comfortably and even fit a 5th if needed. Better than R1 in a smaller vehicle. Impressive packaging work, Rivian. I wish the back seat or front seat areas had a 120V outlet. Frunk: Maybe it was a misalignment of expectations on my part, but I expected the frunk to be bigger. A bit disappointing that I don't think a larger (or even standard?) hard-sided carry-on bag would fit and a stroller definitely wouldn't fit. I would've preferred a bit narrower (side-side) but deeper (front-back) frunk to have it be a more useful shape for things other than golf clubs. "Auto" open but manual close is just as annoying as it is on Model Y and most other EVs. Premium / Performance trims should have a power open / close frunk, IMO. Cargo: I touched on the frunk above, but the rear cargo space is quite good. If you get the compact spare and put it in the sub-trunk, it does seem that it would make the space below the spare challenging to access, so you'd want to plan accordingly, but otherwise cargo room is solid. Having a more squared-off rear profile really helps to make the space useful. Would be nice if there was a 120/240V outlet in addition to the 120V outlet to be able to use for a camper, home backup with interlock, etc. Sound system: The hardware seems solid, but the tuning needs work. Spatial Audio / Atmos on Apple Music is using a weird rear-biased and seemingly center-disconnected sound stage that just doesn't sound right. Spotify sounds good but seems to be too rear-biased and needs a more forward sound stage and better low / high pass filters across the speakers. The headliner speakers don't even seem to be active unless using Bluetooth audio. Somehow, Bluetooth audio seems to sound the best. Given how the speakers sound when playing music via Bluetooth and how the speakers sound individually, I think there's a lot of room for improvement. Hire someone from Tesla to fix this, Rivian! Fit / finish / materials: Charge port door seemed a little flimsy and the frunk was a bit overly hard to shut (wish it was power open / close). Interior materials are excellent (I do have a little concern using a fabricy material under the center screen - if you're like me and brace your hand in that area to use the bottom controls, this could get gross over time if your hands aren't always clean) and seats are very comfortable. Seat ventilation works well and isn't overly loud (more effective than Model Y Juniper / 3 Highland, notably quieter than Lightning ventilated seats). HVAC went unnoticed, which is a good thing. Wheels / colors: The 20" wheels look much better than I expected in person - I expected more like R1 20" AT Bright, but they don't have the machined face and are darker more like normal R1 AT. I'm a fan. Wish you could get these wheels with road tires from the factory for better range rather than having to go up to 21" (which has almost no replacement options) or replacing the tires. Catalina Cove is a lovely color (but I wish R2 had a nice red and a lighter blue option). Dark interior didn't feel too dark. Verdict: Designing, building and selling a compelling mass-market car isn't about being the best at any single category, but rather being adequately good in all of them. The Rivian R2 checks that box and I think they'll sell every single one they make for the foreseeable future. I probably wouldn't spring for the Launch / Performance unless budget doesn't matter - the lower trims will be the ones to get. There's a solid chance we'll get one to replace our Model Y when the lease is up.