[Rivinator]

Absolutely bizarre issue - and "fix". I had parked my R1T in open sunlight for a few hours on a 90 degree day. After returning to the truck, and while still sitting in the parking lot, the hood decided to open itself! Got out and checked there wasn't anything blocking the latch or otherwise obstructing anything. Nope, nothing. Closed using the outside button, got back in, and a minute later it opened itself again. After once again inspecting everything and finding nothing obviously amiss, I performed a soft reset. No change. I performed a hard reset next, with the same result. Up and down it went, sometimes right away, sometime after a few minutes.

At this point, I got in touch with Rivian support. They had me remove the top front panel in the frunk to expose the latch mechanism and take a better look (the panel is only held on by magnets), but there was nothing to see. In an attempt to at least get me home, the tech had me turn off the power hood via the service UI, and close the hood manually. This prevented the hood from opening more than an inch or so when it next tried to pop open, as it was still latched. However, it was open enough to trigger the open hood alarm, which limits the vehicle to 15mph if you try and drive somewhere. Good to know if you're stuck out in the wilderness, but wasn't going to hack getting me home in traffic. So we agreed on having the truck towed to the service center, and giving me Lyft/Uber credits to get home.

Two pertinent facts to this story are 1) While troubleshooting, I noticed that the hood to body panel gaps were significantly different between the left and right sides. 2) The truck came from the factory with the underside of the hood unpainted, so they had to have it painted by a 3rd party before it was delivered to me. So my theory was that some fastener did not get torqued correctly when the hood was reinstalled after painting, and once it loosened enough for the hood to move, things were no longer aligned, and the hood latch sensor could not tell the hood was closed. Further reinforcing this theory, I'm pretty darn sure I checked those very same gaps on delivery, and they seemed fine.

But the service manager informed me that what had actually happened had to do with cabin lighting levels (ambient light setting), the rain sensor, and software. And, I was the third R1T with this issue in their shop. Wow. I was told that their engineers were developing a fix, probably to be incorporated in the next software release. In the meantime, I was advised not to change the ambient lighting. He also said that direct sunlight on the rain sensor had something to do with it.

My confidence in this thing is shaken. If something as random as rain sensors and ambient lighting can make the hood malfunction due to software, what's next?

 

[atebit]

Maybe the software engineers at Rivian need to re-read Dykstra’s Go To Statement Considered Harmful.

 

[AmerikanMatt]

While I understand your frustration and would share it if it happened to me, I am surprised that an early reservation holder of a start-up EV company like yourself would be "shaken" by what I would call very predictable growing pains.

If you weren't ready to be somewhat of a "guinea pig" as the company finds and fixes its issues out of the gate, my guess is that you shouldn't have bought right out of the gate.

For what it's worth, my best friend just had his entire rear bumper/panel assembly fall off of his 1-month-old Tesla after driving through a puddle. Tesla's been around awhile too.... so it just goes to show you that new or not, there are going to be issues...... you just get to expect a higher percentage of them when you're driving one of the first 2,500 vehicles produced by a start-up EV company.

Hold your breath... there will be more issues.... probably many more.

Do let us know "what's next" though. We are all jealous that you have yours already.....

 

[ripemandarin]

Well, I have El-cap too, I'm also in Seattle, and I also have a pretty similar issue

It will be 2 months since delivery. I have a home office on the 1st floor next to the garage where my car is always parked.
3 weeks after delivery, I was working and heard the sound of something dropping down in the garage. My phone showed me a notification from the Rivian app that the car alarm was triggered.

I went to the garage, the car was flashing hazard lights with no sound, and the hood was unlatched from the latch but not opened. It was still closed but not secured.

2 weeks ago it's happened again. Exact the same scenario.

3 days ago, I was working in the garage around 3 AM and my Tesla wall charger (which I use for charging Rivian with an adaptor) showed me overheating issue, I unplugged the car to let the charger cool down a bit (it was a hot week here in Seattle). I only unplugged the tesla charger from the adaptor. Adaptor itself was connected to the charging port of the car. 10 minutes later I decided to plug the car again and when I plugged the tesla charger into the adaptor my hood popped up as 2 times previously and the car started flashing hazard lights...

On Monday someone called me from Rivian support regarding my previous issues and I have reported it.

 

[Rivinator]

Well, I have El-cap too, I'm also in Seattle, and I also have a pretty similar issue

It will be 2 months since delivery. I have a home office on the 1st floor next to the garage where my car is always parked.
3 weeks after delivery, I was working and heard the sound of something dropping down in the garage. My phone showed me a notification from the Rivian app that the car alarm was triggered.

I went to the garage, the car was flashing hazard lights with no sound, and the hood was unlatched from the latch but not opened. It was still closed but not secured.

2 weeks ago it's happened again. Exact the same scenario.

3 days ago, I was working in the garage around 3 AM and my Tesla wall charger (which I use for charging Rivian with an adaptor) showed me overheating issue, I unplugged the car to let the charger cool down a bit (it was a hot week here in Seattle). I only unplugged the tesla charger from the adaptor. Adaptor itself was connected to the charging port of the car. 10 minutes later I decided to plug the car again and when I plugged the tesla charger into the adaptor my hood popped up as 2 times previously and the car started flashing hazard lights...

On Monday someone called me from Rivian support regarding my previous issues and I have reported it.

Thanks for sharing. Question: Have you adjusted your ambient lighting at all? This was supposedly a key factor in my situation, yours certainly sounds similar.

 

[ripemandarin]

Thanks for sharing. Question: Have you adjusted your ambient lighting at all? This was supposedly a key factor in my situation, yours certainly sounds similar.

Well, it is turned on all the time with the middle option of brightness. Last time I touched it before the last update. As we know previously after restarting the car ambient light was turning off itself. They fixed it with the latest update, and after I got the update I turned it on and have never touched it again.

 

[Rivinator]

Well, it is turned on all the time with the middle option of brightness. Last time I touched it before the last update. As we know previously after restarting the car ambient light was turning off itself. They fixed it with the latest update, and after I got the update I turned it on and have never touched it again.

I remember playing around with the setting, and pretty sure I left it somewhere in the middle also. I had not messed with it since the last update. How it all relates to the hood opening, I hope to understand someday!

 

[JakeJohn]

Okay, the Portland service center took my R1T in for the same thing 2 weeks ago. They got a new diagnostic tool they wanted to use to see about fixing this problem for everyone. They got it working but said until the next update don’t mess with the ambient light. But here is the secret they told me before the temporary fix. If the hood won’t latch cover the light/rain sensor (windshield in front of rear view mirror) and close it while it’s covered. It totally works. Until they fixed mine I just brought painters tape to stick up there if I had to close the hood.

a lot of people get frustrated at these things but honestly I tell people it’s a huge smart phone. It gets updates and upgrades all the time. If you are not an early adopter then you should probably wait a few years.

I have no regrets with my truck.

 

[archiboy]

I tell people it’s a huge smart phone. It gets updates and upgrades all the time. If you are not an early adopter then you should probably wait a few years.

For years I've been saying our Tesla is not a car. It's 21 computers all networked together with 4 wheels.

I have a request for those of us that haven't seen this issue yet. Beyond not messing with ambient light setting. Could you please post a photo of the mask you put over the rain sensor? It might be helpful for the community if more people experience the issue.

Thanks to all reporting on this issue. These kind of discussions are great to be aware of.

 

[JakeJohn]

For years I've been saying our Tesla is not a car. It's 21 computers all networked together with 4 wheels.

I have a request for those of us that haven't seen this issue yet. Beyond not messing with ambient light setting. Could you please post a photo of the mask you put over the rain sensor? It might be helpful for the community if more people experience the issue.

Thanks to all reporting on this issue. These kind of discussions are great to be aware of.

Sorry, but no picture really, just 2 layers of blue painters tape, 2”x2”. Right on the windshield covering the sensor. I Only put it on to close the hood. I even got to a point where I would cover with my hand and have someone else close the hood. Haha.

 

[Rivinator]

Okay, the Portland service center took my R1T in for the same thing 2 weeks ago. They got a new diagnostic tool they wanted to use to see about fixing this problem for everyone. They got it working but said until the next update don’t mess with the ambient light. But here is the secret they told me before the temporary fix. If the hood won’t latch cover the light/rain sensor (windshield in front of rear view mirror) and close it while it’s covered. It totally works. Until they fixed mine I just brought painters tape to stick up there if I had to close the hood.

a lot of people get frustrated at these things but honestly I tell people it’s a huge smart phone. It gets updates and upgrades all the time. If you are not an early adopter then you should probably wait a few years.

I have no regrets with my truck.

Great tip, thanks for sharing! Confidence restored

 

[iansriv]

Brilliant! Is there a "sticky" with these problems and solutions? If not, there certainly should be.

 

[atebit]

it’s great that you can (literally, in this case) put a bandaid on to work around the problem. But the larger question to me is why are these three seemingly unrelated systems able to mess with each other in this way? An accessory feature like ambient lighting (extremely low priority) shouldn’t be able to influence the behavior of a driver assistance feature like wiper & lighting control (medium priority), and neither should be able to bork the auto frunk release, the activation of which at highway speeds could endanger this vehicle and others around it should the safety catch fail (high priority).
I agree that we shouldn’t expect practically flawless vehicles from Rivian at this point. But the potential for this “bleed over” between unrelated functions IMHO oughta’ve been caught in a design review rather than empirically.
I also think it’s a shame that many like to give EV bugs like this a “pass” because an EV is “a bunch of computers”. Sure, that analogy holds, but the implication is that computers and their programming are inherently buggy and that’s just how it is. I agree that you can’t imagine/iterate through every possible user scenario before first customer ship, but you damn sure can check for things like array bound issues and memory leaks. It seems like the advent of CI has pushed out a lot of these types of defects to only eventually be found in the field.

 

[JakeJohn]

the activation of which at highway speeds could endanger this vehicle and others around it should the safety catch fail (high priority).

to be clear the front trunk latch issue is just an inaction item. It doesn’t release without command. The problem is that It won’t latch when unlatched. If latched it stays latched. I have noticed with rivian that the safety overrides take highest priority.

 

[atebit]

to be clear the front trunk latch issue is just an inaction item. It doesn’t release without command.

Not according to the OP’s OP, where his opened just because his vehicle was just sitting outside, baking in the sun. Like a tortoise. Which is the same thing as a turtle, if you know what a turtle is.

 

[JakeJohn]

Mine popped a warning saying it was broke so I got out and opened it to try to re-close. In a temporary fix I was informed that before I opened it there was a warning it wasn’t working properly. But by me opening it then the latch was unsecured and wouldn’t re-secure. I thought it originally popped but later realized it didn’t, just warned me it wasn’t working. I am the one that actually opened it. I wonder if OP would let us know if there was an warning only when he got in the vehicle or that he walked up he actually saw the hood was open.

Also, I learn something new every day. I was not aware of what a tortoise was. I even just googled it to check it out. You are correct. Just like a turtle. So awesome. Thank you for the enlightenment.

 

[atebit]

Sorry it’s a Blade Runner thing. Sometimes I get carried away.

 

[Rivinator]

it’s great that you can (literally, in this case) put a bandaid on to work around the problem. But the larger question to me is why are these three seemingly unrelated systems able to mess with each other in this way? An accessory feature like ambient lighting (extremely low priority) shouldn’t be able to influence the behavior of a driver assistance feature like wiper & lighting control (medium priority), and neither should be able to bork the auto frunk release, the activation of which at highway speeds could endanger this vehicle and others around it should the safety catch fail (high priority).
I agree that we shouldn’t expect practically flawless vehicles from Rivian at this point. But the potential for this “bleed over” between unrelated functions IMHO oughta’ve been caught in a design review rather than empirically.
I also think it’s a shame that many like to give EV bugs like this a “pass” because an EV is “a bunch of computers”. Sure, that analogy holds, but the implication is that computers and their programming are inherently buggy and that’s just how it is. I agree that you can’t imagine/iterate through every possible user scenario before first customer ship, but you damn sure can check for things like array bound issues and memory leaks. It seems like the advent of CI has pushed out a lot of these types of defects to only eventually be found in the field.

Couldn't have said it better.

 

[Rivinator]

I wonder if OP would let us know if there was an warning only when he got in the vehicle or that he walked up he actually saw the hood was open.

Mine simply opened and closed by itself, after I was in the vehicle. No warning unless I put it in drive, which gave me a warning that speed would be limited to 15mph

 

[Rivinator]

The hood issue has not reared it's ugly head again, I consider it resolved It was likely more of a hardware issue in my case, related to the latch mechanism. Rivian has indicated that an alignment issue with some latches can be compensated by software to a certain extent, but if it's too far off, the hardware has to be replaced. Mine was replaced by the SC, but they told me a software fix was still needed.

As to the software fix, Rivian has stated "the issue resolved with 31.5 is a concurrent use case between the internal cabin light slider, that impacts the frunk behavior at certain brightness due to HW bus interactions. this issue was contained with latest SW."

So now along with all the cool enhancements from 2022.31.5, our frunks should behave themselves!