Rivian fixes infotainment software bug via OTA, around 3% affected
I spoke with Rivian software head Wassym Bensaid today about his last harrowing 36 hours. Rivian’s software team scrambled after an incorrect OS update build was sent out to the company’s fleet with an incorrect certificate. The update hung before it could complete, disabling most of the consumer-facing infotainment features on around 3% of the company’s consumer vehicles, according to Bensaid.
Rivian made Bensaid available to discuss the incident and the OTA fix, which will be going out to customers as early as 9:30 a.m. PT (12:30 p.m. ET).
I think, as a Rivian owner, I’m glad it is going to be able to be fixed via an OTA, but I’m more concerned that this could even actually happen. And it CANNOT happen again.
I asked Bensaid what went wrong, and my understanding is that the software was tested on at least two “developer-build” Rivians that were not affected by the bad certificate before it went out. Of course, the correct version had been tested for over a month on a fleet of at least 1000 test vehicles. But that prerelease subgroup seems like way too few and limited a subset of vehicles to push a live OTA OS update on.
Since the past month, what happened in the final push is the wrong link was selected, unfortunately, with the wrong certificate. So this is what caused the issue. Initially, when we got the reports, there was so we started getting reports around like 5:30pm. Pacific, the reports were a bit confusing in the sense that some people reported bricked cars, others that the cluster and then the camera are still working. So as we were scrambling to get the reports, we wanted to be super conservative, and there was multiple solution paths for us. If cars were truly broken, that would have been a service visit. If parts of the car were still alive, that would have mean, meant probably a way to get them fixed through our mobile service vehicles. And then basically, the team used this opportunity to really zoom out and they came up with a super creative solution, which basically allows us now to fully fix the issue through an over the air update. So we will be sending out a new OTA today, which addresses the issue entirely. So it repairs basically the corrupted image.
Wassym Bensaid
Bensaid noted that Rivian is reevaluating its whole process so that human error can’t ever do something like this again. That means having normal consumer vehicles get the OTA update and tested before sending the update out to more vehicles.
We did not want to go into that line of communication initially, because whether it’s 3% 10% 1% 0.5%, it’s still super important for us. Every user, every customer matters. And Job number one says the last 36 hours was how can we as a team, find the best possible fix for our customers, and then the ranking, the best possible is a remote solution. The worst possible is basically they have to go to service or or they need to tow the vehicle and then the team basically spend a lot a lot of effort. And we managed to come up with really a great solution that helps us to address it remotely. It’s also because we have in place an architecture that has a lot of redundancies and that really allows us to do this kind of operations and actually shows up like once we started understanding what was happening in the field. The vehicle was still operational, the app was still operational on the critical parts of the system was still operational. So the the safety based In redundant based design that we have in place has actually protected us. And then we have used that as a way to basically inject in this case, the recovery solution through a remote fix by leveraging on these safety systems, which is what we will be deploying today.
Wassym Bensaid
The build that was supposed to go out was tested for months on regular vehicles, but a single human copy-paste error sent the wrong build out. That process is also being overhauled so that multiple checks of the build go out before it is released to the wider customer group.
Owners who are affected (again, around 3% of the fleet, according to Rivian) should see an update on their phone app and should initiate the process from there. For those few who don’t use an app with their Rivian, they must call the Rivian service line to initiate the update from there.
Electrek’s Take
All of the above is what I want to hear as a Rivian owner, but as a reporter, I would have also liked the communication from Rivian to be more official. The original Reddit post was timely and better than nothing, but it was also a process to verify the user was really Bensaid. It was over 10 hours before the PR team was even able to acknowledge there was a problem, and only after we had shown them the Reddit post.
I think the whole Rivian team can do better here, and from the vibe I’m getting, they do too.
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GreenPower Motor Company says it’s received three orders for 11 of its BEAST electric Type D school buses for western state school districts in Arizona, California, and Oregon.
GreenPower hasn’t made the sort of headline-grabbing promises or big-money commitments that companies like Nikola and Lion Electric have, but while those companies are floundering GPM seems to be plugging away, taking orders where it can and actually delivering buses to schools. Late last year, the company scored 11 more orders for its flagship BEAST electric school bus.
As far as these latest orders go, the breakdown is:
- seven to Los Banos Unified School District in Los Banos, California
- two for the Hood River County School District in Hood River, Oregon
- two for the Casa Grande Elementary School District in Casa Grande, Arizona
Those two BEAST electric school buses for Arizona will join another 90-passenger BEAST that was delivered to Phoenix Elementary School District #1, which operates 15 schools in the center of Phoenix, late last year.
“As school districts continue to make the change from NOx emitting diesel school buses to a cleaner, healthier means of transporting students, school district transportation departments are pursuing the gold standard of the industry – the GreenPower all-electric, purpose-built (BEAST) school buses,” said Paul Start, GreenPower’s Vice President of Sales, School Bus Group. “(The) GreenPower school bus order pipeline and production schedule are both at record levels with sales projections for (2025) set to eclipse the 2024 calendar year.”
GreenPower moved into an 80,000-square-foot production facility in South Charleston, West Virigina in August 2022, and delivered its first buses to that state the following year.
Electrek’s Take
Since the first horseless carriage companies started operating 100 years ago (give or take), at least 1,900 different companies have been formed in the US, producing over 3,000 brands of American automobiles. By the mid 1980s, that had distilled down to “the big 3.”
All of which is to say: don’t let the recent round of bankruptcies fool you – startups in the car and truck industry is business as usual, but some of these companies will stick around. If you’re wondering which ones, look to the ones that are making units, not promises.
SOURCE | IMAGES: GreenPower Motors.
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While some recent high-profile bankruptcies have cast doubt on the EV startup space recently, medium-duty electric truck maker Harbinger got a shot of credibility this week with a massive $100 million Series B funding round co-led by Capricorn’s Technology Impact Fund.
It’s been a rough couple of weeks for fledgling EV brands like Lion Electric and Canoo, but box van builder Harbinger is bucking the trend, fueling its latest funding round with an order book of 4,690 vehicles that’s valued at nearly $500 million. Some of the company’s more notable customers including Bimbo Bakeries (which owns brands like Sara Lee, Thomas’, and Entenmann’s) and THOR Industries (Airstream, Jayco, Thor), which is also one of the investors in the Series B.
Other prominent investors include Tiger Global, the Coca-Cola System Sustainability Fund, and ArcTern Ventures.
As for what makes Harbinger such an attractive investment prospect, Dipender Saluja, Managing Partner of Capricorn Investment Group’s Technology Impact Fund explains that, “Harbinger has demonstrated a remarkable ability to reach significant milestones far quicker than other EV companies … the market has been impressed by their ability to develop large portions of the vehicle in-house to drive down unit costs, while remaining capital efficient.”
The company plans to use the funds to ramp up to higher-volume production capacity and deliver on existing orders, as well as build-out of the company’s sales, customer support, and service operations.
“Harbinger is entering a rapid growth phase where we are focused on scaling production of our customer-ready platform,” said John Harris, co-founder and CEO. “These funds catalyze significant revenue generation. We’ve developed a vehicle for a segment that is ripe for electrification, and there is a strong product/market fit that will help fuel our upward trajectory through 2025 and beyond.”
The company has raised $200 million since its inception in 2021.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Harbinger.
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There is no state more associated with cars and car culture than Michigan – and the state that’s home to the Motor City has just taken a huge step into the future with the deployment of its first-ever all electric police vehicle.
The 2024 Ford Mustang Mach-E patrol vehicle is assigned to the Michigan State Police State Security Operations Section, and will be to be used by armed, uniformed members of the MSP specializing in general law enforcement and security services at state-owned facilities in the Lansing, MI area.
“This is an exciting opportunity for us to research, in real time, how a battery electric vehicle performs on patrol,” says Col. James F. Grady II, director of the MSP. “Our state properties security officers patrol a substantially smaller number of miles per day than our troopers and motor carrier officers, within city limits and at lower speeds, coupled with the availability of charging infrastructure in downtown Lansing, making this the ideal environment to test the capabilities of a police-package battery electric vehicle.”
The MSP’s Precision Driving Unit is nationally renowned for its annual Police Vehicle Evaluation, which our own Scooter Doll participated in last year, driving the then-new Chevy Blazer EV Police Pursuit Vehicles in a game of “cops and robbers.”
In those tests, the EVs have impressed – but the MSP has been hesitant to commit to a BEV until now. “We began testing battery electric vehicles in 2022, but up until now hybrids were the only alternative fuel vehicle in our fleet,” said Lt. Nicholas Darlington, commander of the Precision Driving Unit. “Adding this battery electric vehicle to our patrol fleet will allow us to study the vehicle’s performance long-term to determine if there is a potential for cost savings and broader applicability within our fleet.”
Michigan joins other states like Wisconsin and California in deploying electric patrol cars and saving big money on fuel and maintenance, with many more out there and many more to come.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Michigan State Police.
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