As stated in today's press release, Rivian will give R1 owners the option of retrofitting their vehicles with gloveboxes.
A single glovebox will cost $3599; putting in two will be more than twice that, $7999.
CEO RJ Scaringe conceded in an interview that "It was not the smartest move to not ship the glove box with the R1s. Our product department had their hands full with the camp kitchen, so they had no bandwidth to decide on the design of the opening latch. We actually have the space in the dashboard for the box, but we couldn't figure out how to design the latch."
This issue has now apparently been solved because the camp kitchen has been discontinued and of the 100 staff on that project, after the firing spree 10 remained and they figured out the latch.
According to sources inside the company, the decision to offer not just the one-glove box option but also two, was approved by the Board in a unanimous decision; that this was BoD-level speaks to the strategic importance of the move.
The rationale to offer both options was optimized by the company's product AI lead, who is not actually a person. The AI, who goes by the name of Pat, optimized largely on the benefit to the ego of R1 owners, who would feel less (one glovebox) or not at all (two gloveboxes) inferior to the R2 owners. The price points were determined by what Pat determined the market would support, given the average R1 owner profile.
A single glovebox will cost $3599; putting in two will be more than twice that, $7999.
CEO RJ Scaringe conceded in an interview that "It was not the smartest move to not ship the glove box with the R1s. Our product department had their hands full with the camp kitchen, so they had no bandwidth to decide on the design of the opening latch. We actually have the space in the dashboard for the box, but we couldn't figure out how to design the latch."
This issue has now apparently been solved because the camp kitchen has been discontinued and of the 100 staff on that project, after the firing spree 10 remained and they figured out the latch.
According to sources inside the company, the decision to offer not just the one-glove box option but also two, was approved by the Board in a unanimous decision; that this was BoD-level speaks to the strategic importance of the move.
The rationale to offer both options was optimized by the company's product AI lead, who is not actually a person. The AI, who goes by the name of Pat, optimized largely on the benefit to the ego of R1 owners, who would feel less (one glovebox) or not at all (two gloveboxes) inferior to the R2 owners. The price points were determined by what Pat determined the market would support, given the average R1 owner profile.
