I ordered an RIT in 2019.
No you didn't. You can call it a pre-order or a reservation if you like, but in 2019 all you could have done was to express your interest in buying a R1T by giving them a deposit. You couldn't pick a color, a battery size, or anything else back then. They didn't promise to deliver you a vehicle, and you didn't promise to buy one. This was all clearly spelled out in your deposit agreement. I am very well aware of this because I personally chose NOT to make a deposit in 2018 or 2019 because I did read the agreement and at that time there were no guarantees - and with the state of the company at that time before the infusion of cash from Amazon and Ford, there was no reason to believe that you would have even been able to get your deposit back if they didn't ever get to the point of delivering vehicles.
Understand pandemic delay and spoke with Rivian and was promised delivery last Sept and would be initial production since I ordered larger battery.
Umm, no. And you skipped a step, which was November 2020, when the vehicle configurator first opened up and allowed you to specify the details of the vehicle you wanted. At that point, it seems
you chose the Max pack battery, not the Launch Edition. And at that point, what you were promised was that the LE would ship first. You were
not promised at that time that the Max pack would ship first, they explicitly said in the configurator that the LE would ship first. Rivian initially had the goal of
starting these LE shipments in June, then pushed that back to July, then pushed that back to September. But you were
never promised you would receive a Max pack vehicle in September. It was never even promised that the Max packs would
start shipping in September, however it
was promised that the LEs would ship first.
Max pack R1T pre-orders were not given a delivery window until just recently - the emails went out in late December.
Then Jan, then March, then 3rd qtr, and now 2023 unless i downgrade my order to lower battery.
You seriously misunderstood something then. The email you received in December should have given you a window for your R1T Max pack. My understanding is that
most of the pre-order R1T Max packs are scheduled for late 2022* - search these forums, because there's a thread where people have posted the delivery windows that they received, and that is what I remember from that thread. Because of all the complaining, Rivian is giving you an
option to change to the Large pack to get your vehicle sooner, and making you aware that you can do this without losing your place in line, but it has ALWAYS been the case that if you configured a non-LE vehicle it would ship AFTER the LE vehicles.
*EDIT: I looked up that thread after I posted and found I was wrong - it is the non-LE, non-Max pack pre-orders that are scheduled for late 2022. The Max pack R1T preorders are first half of 2023 because non-Max packs are being produced first.
I was told Tank turn was over the air upgrade, then delayed, then needs bugs worked out, then cancelled. Have not received one iota of positive reports.
Rivian never announced that Tank turn would be included. While they did file for a patent, and while there is at least one video showing that they're working on it, it was never a promised feature. And this goes back like two years - search this forum. I highly doubt that anyone from Rivian told you it would be available - I suspect they would answer a question about Tank turn the same way they answer a question about a more mainstream feature like Car Play. There are a lot of features they've prototyped over the years that won't make it into the first version of the R1T, like 180 degree tailgate and electrochromic roof, and that's expected. They even showed off prototypes of these two features on several occasions, which they've never done with Tank turn. The features you were actually promised were listed in the configurator when you configured your vehicle. If they don't/can't deliver some of those, then perhaps you have a reason to gripe. But complaining about a speculative feature that never emerged is really a problem with you, not with Rivian.
And that's the common thread - it is
your expectations that have been out of line with the actual information that Rivian has provided and the actual promises that Rivian has made.
I reserved my place in line for an R1T in late 2020, and I configured a Launch Edition R1T in November 2020 when the configurator was made available. MY expectation was, because there were about 2 years of pre-orders before me, that I wouldn't get my vehicle until about a year after they started making them. In November 2020, LE deliveries were expected to
start in June 2021 (NOT be totally completed before June - I don't know why everyone thinks the delivery start date === the date they're going to get their vehicle), so I expected my vehicle somewhere around June 2022. Then the initial delivery date for LEs got pushed back to July, then to September. But you know what? When I got my personal delivery estimate email, it said May-June 2022, which is EXACTLY what I expected back in November 2020.
Of course I hoped I would get it sooner, and of course I still hope that production goes well and I will still get it sooner, but so far the delivery date for MY vehicle has been consistent with what Rivian always said.
If you had unreasonable and unfounded expectations, then again that is on you. But you've painted a false narrative that Rivian is constantly breaking promises and that you're not going to get what you "ordered" until two years after the "promised" date and without the "promised" features. That is not the case.
Likewise, you do realize that every company on Earth is struggling with the effects of the pandemic? Many have gone out of business. Many, including most of the established automakers, have long delivery delays and limited availability because of this. There are some products (TP anyone?) that can't be obtained in a timely manner, period, even though they are almost commodity items. To expect a brand new company to be unaffected by this is irrational. I think Rivian has managed this better than some, worse than others, but not much differently than most manufacturers.
The remainder of your post is just pure speculation where you've extrapolated your wrong expectations to predict the future of the company. And while that may happen, the opposite may be true as well, but as your prediction is predicated upon your wrong expectations, it doesn't seem too credible.
Let's contrast Rivian's progress with a similar EV startup that launched back around the same time - the Bollinger B1/B2. I was on the reservation list for the B1 back in 2018 (no deposit required at that time), and the B2 (pickup) was announced about a month before the Rivian reveal in 2018. People were wondering which would be the first EV truck to hit the market. But then in 2019 Bollinger decided to start taking $1000 deposits. At the same time, they announced the MSRP was going to
double and that certain features were being dropped, like AIRBAGS. Yes, that is correct, they decided to ship without airbags, on a $125k vehicle. Needless to say, I did not make a deposit. And Bollinger today is still in business but they're not much closer to production than they were three years ago, as far as I can tell.
By contrast Rivian's progress is remarkable. Their pricing has remained constant, and they've even thrown in some things for free for the LE edition. They have not dropped any features since they finalized the configurator, so what you configured is what you're going to get. They've even added a few small features that weren't originally announced. And they have actually been successful in moving to production. It's a real vehicle. I've driven one, and I am impressed. Likening them to all the failed startups of the past is just wrong.