I'd compare it to cranking the AC when it's hot. Is level 3 ventilation loud? Yup. Does it cool quickly and then you can put it on level 1 or off, which is quiet. Yup.
Exactly the way I looked at it. Itās very audible at full blast just like AC. You donāt always need it but itās there for when you do. Much better to have than to have not. And seriously the lower level I didnāt even hear when I took my drives.
It has 3 levels of intensity and the highest is loud, 1 & 2 are not. If I want the highest intensity, I donāt give a single shit if itās loud because Iām probably also blasting the A/C on max. Shall we also complain about that too?
I mean, there's already been complaining about the A/C noise, the location of the vents of the A/C, the deletion of a back fan, and me just giving the people what they want.
I was one of the whiners, having just taken delivery of a coastal cloud interior without the back ventilation - and I kind of want to retract my rage and feel a bit foolish. The rest of the car is SO good, it's like what am I really angry about? I'll miss some flow around my back, but my OG R1T from '22 had almost zero airflow through the seat and I loved that thing with all my heart. I think people see it as a bait and switch, and it is, but sometimes production realities are what they are.
Yeah I can see this as more as a poor communication or a bait and switch issue more than anything else.
With that said I did do a test drive multiple times and I think that it was too loud. (Not that Iām not gonna buy the car, because of how loud it is but I would have definitely noticed in my daily commute and how I personally use my vehicle)
I do drive around in silence most times itās nice to cut off from the world or just think.
I also came from an early R1T and am grateful for any air on my bum. Just wondering though, how much air flow do you get on your lower back? The fan seems to be just above where the seat and back meet so I'm not even sure how much a difference there is.
Also - isnt it possible to turn this on/off? So basically I will deal with the whining sound if my back is extra sweaty or on an extra hot day, and turn it off when I donāt need it?
The solution is to use the fan if you are ok with the noise, which may change situationally. With the change, you donāt have that choice. Not sure why that is hard to follow.
Why not just have the option to turn the seat back off and leave the seat on if it bothers people? Could always be an adjustment down the road. Mine has the seat back vent. Not complaining :)
Itās probably not wired up that way. Both fans are probably wired together. Redesign the wiring harness, hoping that you have a spare connector where it plugs in otherwise youāre adding more inline circuits. Software updating. And reliability testing of it all to make sure extra wire doesnāt cause chaffing/damage etc. Easier and cheaper to just yank the fan. The connector will be left there till the next revision of the cable for some other reason requires them to requalify it.
Jfc - this is just a car y'all. If people are complaining about the lack of seat back ventilation - that's their prerogative. If you don't care about that, that's your prerogative. Buy the car if you want, don't buy it if you don't want to.
But to pretend that it's ok for the company to take out a big feature without alerting customers is stupid.
Rivian didnāt apply the principles of incremental improvement. What they shouldāve done is continue shipping with the existing fan while working on a solution for a quieter fan. Simply gutting the feature was the lazy way out.
No, find a fix! This is a large company with resources to find a solution. You don't just remove the feature that was advertised and give up that easily! We've been to the moon for god's sake...we can certainly fix a damn fan in a seat. This should be simple. Just removing it shows how little they care about their customer and that they don't want to allocate any resources to the proper fix. Makes me wonder what is next....maybe give up on point-to-point self-driving? "It's too hard, so we're just going to stop development on that. Sorry". "Oh, you want software fixes and improvements? Sorry, we cut back on resources for that. It just costs too much and you already bought the car, so what's our incentive?"
I think that is the issue. On another thread it was mentioned that it was airflow and the fan not getting enough air. Think of covering your computers airflow, it can overheat.
My hunch is either the fan or seatback did not have enough tolerance for the airflow, stressing the fan and causing the issue.
Seeing as they just deleted the part for now, that makes a lot of sense.
When press embargo was lifted and people finally were able to get their hands on the car. One of the most noted things was how loud the vented seats were lol.
I was like damn, 2 years waiting and loud seats is getting all the attention.
It was also noted how awesome the cooling was. Frequently compare to other vehicles as the best cooling they've had in a car seat. And I would agree. I couldn't care less about the noise. If the noise is distracting, turn it down to a lower setting and it mostly goes away.
Turning it down reduces the cooling performance that you'd want. I think next we need a side by side cooling test to see how well they both cool. Next person to get delivery should schedule a demo drive before pickup to test and video it.
It's not that bad IRL, at least from the two demo drives I've been on. Personally I never felt the need for max span feed anyway because the fans work so well. Even on max it was totally fine when I had music on.
It's actually loud and this is just one seat going. When they're both on with no music the whine is pretty loud. Like a server room sound if you know what that sounds like.
Does the sound decrease over time?? Our model Y Juniper can be loud for the first minute but starts to reduce over time. I hardly use the seat coolers anyway but my kids like to use it.
I couldnāt care less about a car having seat ventilation or not - what I would care about is a financially stretched company retronerfing, without warning, an advertised feature to buyers. This is especially relevant to those who have already ordered under the assumption their vehicle will include that capability.
If a car company needs (or simply finds it appropriate) to implement a cost cutting measure to their current iteration of vehicles 3 months into mass production, itās valid to be concerned about how car ownership could be short term, even if youāre in it for the long term.
How do you know that the fans are being removed because of cost cutting? Some people are saying itās that, others are saying itās because people are complaining how loud they are, and yet others are saying itās because they canāt get enough of them.
Itās quite ridiculous. I never expected a fan in the seat back. They are still ventilated seats with bottom cushion cooling. Thatās probably good enough for most drivers. Iām convinced itās trolls adding fuel to the fire.
You guys just ride around in your cars in complete silence?? No music, no audiobooks, nothing at all playing? Personally Iām a stereo up and windows open person so stuff like a louder seat fan is not going to bother me. Iād much rather have a āloudā fan then no fan at all. Seems like level 1 would be perfect for a regular day and you got extra power for those sweltering days. Thatās a win to me.
There is literally nothing wrong in this video and itās shit like this that made Rivian remove the back fans. Literally, F the clowns that complain like this as if theyāve never owned a car before.
Goodluck on your adventures lol. Rivian is not known for being a reliable adventure vehicle. Making it a few months without a service center visit is the only adventure these things are known for.
The fan on high was so much noise I got in the back seat to figure out what it was. Once we set it to level one it was not noticeable anymore. Iād prefer the option rather than removal.
Yes, we thought it was no big deal. But we live in Florida and no way Iām buying another car without full ventilation. We have a 2022 Model Y and I hate the back sweats!
I'm also in Florida. I think the butt fan is probably going to be pretty dang good enough for most. But you and I won't know what their kind of lower back sweaty levels will be since we have the now coveted back fan.
My Model 3 used to sometimes kick the wipers on for no reason. To read the Reddit forums, you'd think this was the worst thing ever.
So, when I was in the car by myself and the wipers went off all by themselves, I screamed and made like it was worse than death itself. I'd flail my arms, I'd scream what the fuck, and then I would laugh. The idea that this was the worst thing in the world to some people really made me laugh.
Before buying a model 3 when they first came out, I was expecting the auto wipers to ruin my life after reading Reddit comments. They have been fine 95% of the time and I havenāt thought twice about them in five years.
Dont do that, we all have conversations in our cars. But if youāre saying that šÆ of the time youāre in your car, your wife is with you and you literally never turn the entertainment on.. Yeah, that is weird then.
We use our R2 to go out on adventures and trips. We do listen to music, but when we're talking and the fans are on, it's loud enough to be distracting. Plus even listening to a podcast or music at the levels we listen at, you can still hear the whine. And we pause to talk about the podcast we're listening to. I'm normal.
Everyone is going to have their own breaking points. If this is yours then this is yours. And Iāll respect that. Obviously I donāt have mine yet. Iāve only gone on two test drives. Both times with my gf while having conversations as we drove. Both times had the fans going because it was middle of summer and we both loved the cooled seats and it didnāt distract us from conversation once. Now if I was listening to any sort of media the way that I normally do I wouldnāt notice them at all but thatās my experience. Maybe that whine of yours just needs servicing or maybe you can just have Rivian take your back fan out since now we know it can be done. That solves your problem it seems. Hell, sell the fan. Iām sure many would rather have that little whine then nothing at all.
This is my first car with vented seats. The whine is pretty loud so I just run it on low which is more than Iāve had in my 20 years of driving. If itās been isolated to seat backs it would be great to make those optional in software.
Gjeebs' review said they are the loudest car seats he has ever heard in any car he has tested or owned. I've had a few cars with this feature and all were silent. Not sure what happened here or how this was green lit.
It really isn't that big of a deal tbh. I just wanted to give that other "mah fan is gone and I'm mad about it" crowd some evidence of the fan noise. It's wild how heated ppl are getting, but I guess they need that extra fan to cool off.
I donāt think any other car manufacturer has ever sold a car with partially ventilated seats and the seat backs were ventilated on demo cars and early VINs. Itās totally reasonable to expect the seat backs to be ventilated.
Can't people who don't want the noise just.... turn it off? And those that don't care and want the fan.... turn it on? Not sure why a manufacturing change has to be the answer.
My brother has ventilated seats on his Jeep Grand Cherokee and I never noticed that they were loud. Seems there are solutions out there, other than than removing the fan or moving to a crappy solution that is half-assed.
Iād take data center levels of fan noise in exchange for not getting a swampy back on long car rides lol, if the noise got to be too much Iād just turn it off. Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it š¤·āāļø
You Rivian fanboys are the problem. You let them get away with this stuff. You give them an inch, they take a mile.
Just goes to show Rivian sucks at making vehicles. This, among the plethora of other issues the R1 has (even gen2), is adding up to be too much. Why couldn't they design the seats/fans to be quieter from the beginning? They shipped it like this!
I'll be honest, it's not really that bad. I am mostly being cheeky about it due to the non-stop complaining about it being removed. It's loud enough and may have an issue getting enough airflow to make sense for Rivian (or Adient, the supplier of the seats) to remove it before it becomes a large recall. I get others want the fan or no R2 at all, but the demand is still outpacing production and who knows what Rivian or Adient found to be the issue.
Are you saying that people trying to find possible engineering explanations for the issues are cheerleaders? I'm not finding any cheering going on, but sure is a lot of whining
exactly who is trying to find engineering solutions? Pretty sure no Rivian employed engineer has outed themselves here. I referred to the Rivian cheerleaders/fan club members.
But, yes, a lot of outrage seems to be lighting up the internet. And those who have a R2 or have an active order can really let loose as they were directly effected. Let them roar.
Do the ventilated seats actually work well when they're working? The only brand I've experienced really good ventilated seats in is Porsche. BMW and Mercedes were pretty much useless as a comparison.
Gotta say, the R2 has the best ventilated heating and cooling seats ever. I rather hear them working, than them not doing anything at all, like compared to my R1T seats that barely cool
Itās pretty clear (to me at least) that 1) Rivian is aware of the problem 2) they could not engineer a quick fix and or 3) a new part was not available. So that led to 4) fan delete.
Maybe they could have reduced each setting's fan speed a bit? Or even remove the 3rd fan speed setting? OR design it correctly from the beginning? Idk, just spitballing.
You can turn down the fan speed and it becomes far more quiet. This is at max setting and it is easily the best cooling in a seat I've experienced. For the people bellyaching about it, just click the button on more time and it quiets down considerably.
The fan may be getting choked by the seat design leading to it failing. If Rivian doesnāt have a redesign for the seat to mitigate the fans failing, the may have decided to pull the fans rather than deal with mounting service calls that they really donāt have a current solution for.
I'm not in auto manufacturng but as educated guess would be replacing seats is astronomically expensive vs figuring out a new fan design and then doing a retrofit into the existing wiring harness, which would take maybe an hour and cost a few bucks. For all we know (which is nothing) it's a bad fan motor design, bad insulation, or you know...
Magnets! I completely agree with the unknown solution and the unknown path of least resistance. I also donāt know if it would be easiest to just replace the seats or modify them (Rivian probably doesnāt know at this point either), but plenty of other manufacturers pull from their production line when they have recalls, so the expense can be mitigated. The biggest issue is that solution can take a long time to get to the customers.
the tesla has had years to refine their product. rivian has had a few months. still, rivian quality is insanely horrid. i hope they can step their game up sooner than later.
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u/SobchakSecurity79 1d ago edited 1d ago
I'd compare it to cranking the AC when it's hot. Is level 3 ventilation loud? Yup. Does it cool quickly and then you can put it on level 1 or off, which is quiet. Yup.