Rivian pulled 100,700 vehicles off the road because the rearview camera stops working. Not the mirror. The camera. The thing that shows you what's behind your $80,000 electric truck when you're backing over a shopping cart at Whole Foods.
The recall hits 2022-2026 R1T pickups, 2022-2027 R1S SUVs, and the 2027 R2 models. That's every major vehicle Rivian makes. Impressive commitment to consistency. Most companies stagger their f*ckups across model years to spread out the embarrassment. Rivian said no, we're doing this all at once.
The rearview camera display issue means drivers can't see what's directly behind them. Which seems like the kind of problem you'd catch before shipping 100,700 units. But what do I know. I'm just a guy who thinks maybe the thing designed to prevent you from running over pedestrians should work when you buy it.
Retail traders who bought RIVN at $172 in November 2021 are now watching it trade at $11 while the company recalls basically its entire fleet. They're telling themselves this is bullish because at least Rivian cares about safety. They're building a moat. They're disrupting the recall space. Any day now the turnaround begins.
The 2027 R2 got recalled before most people even knew it existed. That's not a recall. That's a birth defect.
Rivian will fix the cameras for free, which is generous considering customers already paid premium prices for vehicles that can't perform basic functions like showing what's behind them. The repair involves updating software or replacing hardware, depending on which part failed. Both solutions require admitting you bought a truck that shipped without working cameras, so pick your humiliation.
Every single person who backed into something because their $90,000 EV couldn't display a rearview image is currently refreshing their lawyer's website.
Photo by Clayton Cardinalli on Unsplash
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