Even with a luxury electric car, an old solution helps when almost nothing works: “The first step of a technician”
The cover image is a symbolic image.
What kind of electric car is this story about? The “hero” of this experience, where its battery, toxic charging stations along the way, and ultimately its reset function play the main roles, is a Rivian R1S. This is a seven-seater electric SUV that costs at least €70,000.
The owner of the Rivian and narrator of this self-experienced tech horror story is Marco Arment, a software developer and podcaster. In an episode of “Accidental Tech“, he recounts how a journey through the sprawling border region of the USA and Canada almost turned into a nightmare.
Weak performance, but simple solution with the electric car
In the middle of nowhere, it happened: just as he was leaving a rest area where he had breathed new life into the struggling batteries through fast charging. A warning lit up on the display, something was wrong with the battery. At the same time, acceleration ceased, the powerful SUV was crawling along the road – several hours from home or a technician.
What did Marco Arment do? Lacking any real alternative, he resorted to the oldest trick of all PC users – even as a programmer with thousands of hours of experience.
Turn it off and on again. That is the first step of any technician for diagnostics.
Because ultimately, such an electric car is a computer on wheels.
So just turn the “ignition” off and on again? No, because shutting down the engine and its systems corresponds more to a “standby” than a “shutdown” in modern cars. To really reset the Rivian and reboot it, he had to press a button on the steering wheel as well as a hidden one on the roof of the car. And it worked.
After the car restarted after about five minutes, the engine delivered the expected performance again – without any fuss or noticeable problems while driving.
Did the problem reappear? Yes, unfortunately. During the trip, the bug occurred after each charging session. Thus, there were a few more resets. Marco Arment and his Rivian survived the trip well – and hopefully, the problem has since been resolved by an auto mechanic.
Can such a reboot also help solve problems with other E-cars? Yes, that is a possibility. And as long as you have the opportunity to safely perform such a hard reset, it is probably worth a try. With Tesla, you can either just restart the screen or turn off the car via the touch panel and reboot it. You can read here at Tesla how to do this.
By the way: Most people don’t think of home office when it comes to auto mechanics, but Chris Pyle is the living example of how well that can work with a little courage. The American serves all his clients online and has more than doubled his income in just a few years: An auto mechanic quit his full-time job at Ford to work from home – now earning nearly €160,000 a year
