[jclicky]

Excellent exploded view of the tonneau cover, discussion of the misalignment issues, diagnosing some of the root causes. “Everything about this system is packaging constrained…there’s not a ton of room here [above the gear tunnel]…” to stack the assembly of tonneau cover pieces.

Still no idea of solution or ETA, but some ideas of how Rivian could improve the design:

 

[derekmw]

I'm glad they confirmed you don't have to worry about tiny pieces of dirt that will break the covers. lol

It does make a lot more sense how the misalignment occurs and gets jammed. Sounds like their suggestion of deeper channels for the gears in the slats/panels, combined with larger gear and thicker rod may help a lot. That spring mechanism for stacking the panels seems like a hard one to solve and/or come up with a different kind of design

 

[K3jp]

Never had a manual cover stick

 

[BrianGoodwin]

Lack of sufficient 'validation' is an understatement. No chance that Rivian tested that much at all, they would have predicted the issue with even moderate testing. From a design standpoint I appreciate that they were working with a very small storage cavity, but a single motor in the middle or two small motors at each end was the only logical way to make it so it would work for years.

We have something like this issue on Miata PRHT folding hardtops (generation NC 2006-2015). The system tends to break eventually, but at least Mazda had the design sufficiently validated such that it generally lasts a decade before they start to fail. Rivian's setup is often failing on delivery day.