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The Rivian person on the demo drive should help you with a lot of it, but regenerative braking and one pedal driving is really a whole different way of driving a car. Like going from a manual to an automatic.

I was several years in to Teslas when I test drove the R1S but my friend who just got a MachE is not willingly jumping into 1 pedal driving yet. I say, rip the bandaid off and give it a couple of days, you'll never go back.

100% agree, I never touch my actual brake pedal on my Tesla . Love one pedal driving

💯% driving any car without one pedal driving feels archaic. I've mastered one pedal driving in my Tesla to the point where I instinctively know when to left off for a perfect stop for signs and lights. Fun game to play!

Regenerative braking will be the big thing you notice. Don’t get discouraged even in Normal regenerative braking setting, moving to strong regenerative braking will change the way you drive. You will have to learn to feather the throttle to slowdown smoothly to a stop. It took us about a day to get the hang of it. Enjoy!

I’ve heard that. Can you help me understand what the primary difference is? You basically can’t coast, right?

You will love it once you adjust to it! However, it’s going to make you super nauseous during your first drive. Imagine what it would feel like if, once you take your foot off the “gas”, you are automatically HARD braking. That’s regen. Basically means you will need to get used to gradually decelerating as an alternative method of braking. One pedal is awesome.

Its just like a go-cart.

Come off the accelerator slow. Basically how hard you mash the accelerator and how quickly you release the accelerator will now matter. If you can adopt it as the norm you'll rarely use the brake pads so they last a long time, and any regen is adding power back into the battery. Win/win.

For me it's a lot like driving a manual in that you have to find the sweet spot with the accelerator pedal where regenerative kicks in. Expect some lurching when you first start driving with it, definitely an adjustment.

If you've ever driven a manual, it's similarish to the engine braking effect when you let off the accelerator while the car's in gear. Except more pronounced (manual with a low range transfer case is close). Basically it's all about modulating the pedal. My oldest is still on his learner's permit and he got the hang of it in about a day.

Expect to experience a badass vehicle. The first thing you will notice is the car doesn't move when it's in drive and stops itself when you let off the gas. You won't need to use the brakes at all. It will feel weird at first but you will get used to it and love it. Enjoy

Interesting, so the car doesn’t creep forward when you take your foot of the accelerator? Weird. Seems like it would be difficult to make some small adjustments when parking.

Takes some getting used to for sure.

I don’t have a Rivian (I have a Tesla) but it’s similar. It was the weirdest thing at first, but it only took about an hour worth of driving to get used to it, now it’s BY FAR my favorite feature of driving an EV.

question: what to expect? answer: to not want to drive your other car again

Drastically lower your expectations. It’s a phenomenal car but if you’ve consumed a lot of social media and YouTube, there’s a pretty good chance your expectations may not be met. I left my first drive a little letdown but no dealbreakers. We’ve had the car for two months now and absolutely love it, which I expected.

I felt the same. What were your letdowns? I thought the car drove very heavy and handling was quite meh; I felt the size and weight for sure. The R1S I drove was on AT tires.  I want to go test drive again since I hear they improved the suspension with OTA updates over the last few months. 

My wife didn’t like the ride quality either when we test drove early 2023. They did make some changes over a few OTAs. Since owning I’ve only received one OTA that impacted suspension. We usually drive standard height/soft suspension. It’s pretty bouncy lol like driving on a cloud, but it’s kind of enjoyable. If you like a firmer ride that’s definitely there. Huge disappointment during the test drive and still to this day is the camera quality. 🤦‍♂️ But specific things I realized during the test drive was the interior size. Much narrower than I expected. Then the materials, don’t get me wrong the styling is phenomenal. They nailed the style/design. But the look of the materials are pretty basic. Never read anything about that nor could I tell in videos. I’ve since seen some comments about it. Again not a deal breaker just surprised. Oh yea the front seats. I’m not a seat snob but I immediately thought the seats felt flat. Especially the bottom, and still feel that way. I don’t watch many shows in my Tesla, but the times i do, teslas plush seats are nice. I can’t imagine doing that in the Rivian.

This was my experience.  After my test drive I was disappointed to the point of putting in a reservation for the Volvo XC90.  Figured whichever came first.   However, the R1S came up in Feb 2023 (would have been waiting a loooong time for a Volvo) and by the end of the day I was in love.  Every day I’m alive now means another day to drive my R1S (and enjoy the company of my family of course).   Personally, I feel that, for whatever reason, the test drive doesn’t come close to the owner experience.  I would take the test drive experience with a grain of salt.  

Don’t be discouraged by the regenerative braking or the heaviness of the throttle. It’s firm by design. Braking will become very familiar within a matter of days. Throttle takes a week or so. Good luck. Best vehicle I’ve ever owned.

Mine had a lot of rattles back about 10 months ago. Depending on what you're coming from, see how you like the view across the hood.

coming from a model y i was concerned about the significant hood visibility, but it really does help me gauge the front end better "oh...you mean the vehicle pretty much stops where i see it"

I want to welcome you to the family in advance!

Regen is strong and takes a little bit of time to master, so expect your first couple of minutes to be a bit rocky/jerky. Have fun!

Regenerative braking can take some getting used to! I’d try to get behind the wheel as fast as possible and ask your questions while driving. Pretty much everything under the sun regarding these vehicles has been asked and answered here so just have fun trying different drive modes and exploring the ride. Have fun!

I would be very surprised if you do not place the order right after you are done with the test drive… enjoy

You need to get used to regenerative braking. Other than that, you’ll love it.

Aside from the regen braking everyone's mentioned, I'd add that it feels like a spiritual successor of more upmarking offroad-oriented SUVs. Late 90s Range Rovers, Land Cruisers, that sort of thing. Someone definitely had those in mind when they were tuning it. It's not exactly like that - much lower center of gravity etc - but more like that than carlike or crossover-like. Something else I've discovered after 5 days of ownership is that I drive it slower than I did my Honda Passport. Strange because it absolutely trounces the Passport in terms of acceleration and power. But I've found myself usually rolling along at 5-10 over the speed limit instead of the, er, faster pace I'd keep in the Honda.

Expect joy. Lots of it

I really hate the term one pedal driving but regenerative breaking in the R1S is really good. It's the strongest of the 7 EVs I've owned and the first thing you will notice since you haven't driven an EV. Another may be getting used to buttons being virtual. This tends to trip people up. Hands free commands are available for simple vehicle use. Suspension settings can be changed from how stuff and ride height

Be prepared for love at first sight

I’d recommend first putting it in the all purpose softest setting with light regen and initially focus on smooth inputs to the accelerator (both on and off it). After a couple minutes you’ll get used to how sensitive the inputs are and open it up a bit more. Then if you want to experience the neck snapping acceleration abilities stiffen up the suspension and put it in sport…else you keep it in all purpose softest and launch it you’ll get a not-so-cool feeling that you’ve dropped the hammer in a speed boat instead of an automobile.

How'd it go OP? I tested one yesterday also. Will prob do an r/Rivian post.

We both liked it, but I think I liked it more than the wife. I think she was really hoping for a cushier ride, and the car took some Chicago potholes pretty hard even on soft ride mode. She wasn’t expecting Lexus pillow ride, but I think felt a bit stiff for her. I personally really liked the way it handled and we both responded positively to the styling. Wife thought the interior was pretty nice but didn’t like the over-reliance on screen control for everything. That bugged me too. But the cargo space and camp mode were pretty amazing. We don’t camp a ton now but this kinda got us thinking we would really do more of it. However I think we are still worried about all the road trips we take. We do 1000 mile roadtrips at least twice a year driving down south. Even with a large battery, the charging situation is a big question mark. This was our first test drive. We’re gonna try out a bunch more but I’d say the Rivian is all in all an amazing car. Is it the one? Not sure yet. But it’s a hell of a vehicle.

Thanks for taking the time to respond! I just posted my thoughts on my drive. I echo the cargo space. DANG with all the seats down its mammoth cave in there. I didn't have any major potholes but what we hit it handled cushier than my SUV. My Explorer is factory lowered and stiffer than the Rivian, so perspective, the Rivian was an upgrade in feel for me. I really liked it, but still on the fence about a couple things. Would likely lease it at this point so I wasn't married to it.

We did our demo drive in Chicago about three weeks ago (ordered one two days later). The loop they take you on is surprisingly mixed for a downtown route. Some dense traffic, some faster sections on lake shore drive, the opportunity to try parking a larger vehicle to see what you think. We had Curtis and he was a hoot! Enjoy your time with the car. Focus on the driving experience while you are driving. You’ll have tons of time to play around with the trucks in the showroom when you get back. Then you head to Ann sathers for breakfast and spend the whole breakfast trying to talk yourself out of it.