Even with a luxury electric car, an old solution helps when almost nothing else 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, in which 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 the equivalent of 70,000 euros.
The owner of the Rivian and narrator of this personal tech horror story is Marco Arment, a software developer and podcaster. In an episode of “Accidental Tech,” he tells how a trip through the sprawling border region of the USA and Canada almost turned into a nightmare.
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Weak performance but simple solution for electric cars
It happened in the middle of nowhere: just as he was driving out of a rest stop where he had breathed new life into the weakening batteries by quick-charging them. A warning light appeared on the control panel, something was wrong with the battery. At the same time, the vehicle stopped accelerating and the otherwise powerful SUV was only able to crawl along the road – several hours away from home or a technician.
What did Marco Arment do? In the absence of any real alternative, he resorted to what is probably the oldest trick of all PC users – even as a programmer with thousands of hours of experience.
Turn it off and then on again. This is the first step of every diagnostic technician.
After all, such an electric car is a computer on wheels.
So just turn the ignition off and on again? No, because turning off the engine and its systems in modern cars is more like a “standby” than a “shutdown.” To really reset the Rivian and reboot it, he had to press a button on the steering wheel and a hidden one on the roof of the car. And it worked.
After the car had restarted after about five minutes, the engine again delivered the expected performance – without any hiccups or noticeable problems while driving.
Did the problem occur again? Yes, unfortunately. During the trip, the bug occurred after every charging process. So a few more resets followed. Marco Arment and his Rivian survived the trip well – and hopefully the problem has been fixed by a car mechanic in the meantime.
By the way: When it comes to car mechanics, very few people think of working from home, but Chris Pyle is a living example of how well this can work with a little courage. The American looks after all his customers online and has more than doubled his income within a few years: A car mechanic quit his full-time job at Ford to work from home – now earns just under €160,000 a year