I just watched
Marques' video on the new Rivian offerings and they look really good. I mean REALLY good! I especially liked the "outdoor" things they added; camp mode turns all the screens red to help keep your night vision, you can fold down ALL the seats to make room for an air mattress, and it knows that there is a tent installed on the roof (I think).
OMG! I almost cried when I saw the scroll wheel buttons on the steering wheel. Those things look magically and are totally something that I would expect from Tesla. My MAIN problem with my MX is that I have to look at the screen to tell where I am when scrolling. For example, I can't respond to a text message without making sure that I've selected "Send" vs "Try Again" or "Read Message". Grrrr!
Rivian's offerings are also great because they are helping to change the narrative. Traditional automakers have been screwing up the EV transition so badly that a large portion of the general public either don't like EVs or don't understand why everyone is so excited by them. The top comment I get from people is "EVs are nice but it's going to be expensive when you have to replace the battery". Do they think we replace the battery every other year or something?
I was kinda interested in getting a truck at some point in the future. The CT is neat but I'm not sure it's as functional as I want/need. The F150 Lightning is very useful but it's large and holds onto to many "traditional" ideals. Plus the Ford software is just terrible and I'm not sure that's going to get better, ever. The Rivian R1 platform is great but it's just too premium for my needs, but the R2/R3 platform looks like it would make a great small truck. The only other option might be if Ford ever decides to make the Maverick a full BEV; that might be something to look at.
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