One of many greatest complaints Rivian heard from R1S and R1T house owners was the shortage of a quantity knob (and different mounted controls). That’s not completely a Rivian subject, both; prospects all over the place have been asking automakers to revert to bodily controls after going touchscreen loopy the previous couple of years.
However fairly than taking the suggestions in stride and easily giving prospects precisely what they need within the new R2, Rivian tried to be a bit too cute with it.
Picture by: Rivian
The corporate’s new compact SUV introduces what Rivian calls “Haptic Halo” controls. These are two round dials on both facet of the steering wheel designed to function up and down, side-to-side, and in any other case, controlling a number of car capabilities directly.
It’s a good suggestion in concept. As an organization outlined by software program and targeted on streamlining its manufacturing, Rivian says including one-function laborious controls to its autos doesn’t make an entire lot of sense. That’s very true for a car just like the R2, which matches laborious on consolidation in an effort to maintain prices down.
So as an alternative of buttons, we get Halos.
Picture by: Rivian
How the Halos work is definitely fairly intelligent. The left Halo largely controls the audio; roll the dial up and down for quantity, push it left and proper to alter the track, or press all the way down to mute. Scroll up excessive or low sufficient within the decided vary, and there’s actual, precise resistance from the halo telling you ways far you’ve gone. Nifty.
The precise halo manages a couple of various things, however in my take a look at, it’s largely only for local weather management capabilities. Scroll up and all the way down to make the temperature hotter or cooler—easy. However you may also scroll left and proper to function totally different capabilities of the car, or pull again (towards you) on the Halo to regulate drive modes.
You possibly can see precisely how they work right here:
Turning up the quantity or turning down the temperature is fairly seamless, and the resistance on the prime or backside of every management is a pleasant contact, particularly when your eyes are targeted on the highway. However issues get a bit clunky from there.
Urgent down on the Halo to mute audio requires extra stress than you suppose, which suggests you’re certain to by chance scroll up or down as an alternative of merely muting the audio as meant. Pulling again on every Halo additionally takes some pressure, and apart from the drive modes on the suitable Halo, tugging on the left Halo seemingly did… nothing. Possibly it wasn’t programmed but.
When urgent proper and left to handle audio or cycle between capabilities, once more, you’re certain to by chance scroll up and down, and even mute, in pursuit of that subsequent nice track. And while you’re on a technical path—just like the off-road path we tackled—it’s virtually inevitable that your arms will by chance push or scroll both one of many Halo controls as you shuffle the steering wheel.
Picture by: Rivian
A lot of the issue seemingly comes all the way down to the truth that there isn’t a bodily “suggestions” occurring right here in any respect. The Halos as an alternative use a capacitive-touch operate with haptic suggestions, which, as in different autos I’ve examined, is imperfect at greatest.
Am I being hypercritical right here? Completely. The Rivian R2 is an in any other case phenomenal piece of engineering that excels each on the highway and off it, and the Haptic Halos nonetheless work higher than different haptic controls in most autos. However might Rivian have merely added a quantity knob and saved me greater than 600 phrases’ price of digital ink? Completely.
Typically, easier is simply higher—and that ought to have been the case right here.
