Amazon, GM in talks to invest in electric pickup truck maker Rivian: sources • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon, GM in talks to invest in electric pickup truck maker Rivian: sources

#61

Post by leetcrew » Wed, Feb 13, 2019, 1:26 PM UTC

jschwartzi wrote: post #10

The only thing I really take issue with on this truck is that the spare tire is accessed through the top of the bed. There are two reasons you don't want to do this in a truck: 1.) The bed needs to be very strong because people routinely put weight on dunnage in the bed, and the door doesn't appear to be corrugated to withstand load. 2.) If you want to change your flat tire you need to unload everything in the bed, w…

> If you want to change your flat tire you need to unload everything in the bed, which will be a huge pain in the ass on the side of the road.

aren't you already supposed to unload your vehicle before you jack it up on one side? maybe it's different for "work vehicles", but my car comes with a puny little jack that's only strong enough to support the weight of the car when there are no people or heavy items inside. I suspect the hardpoint on the car itself isn't designed with much more headroom than the jack.

Re: Amazon, GM in talks to invest in electric pickup truck maker Rivian: sources

#62

Post by leetcrew » Wed, Feb 13, 2019, 1:29 PM UTC

kwhitefoot wrote: post #42

greglindahl wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was fun watching car spares shift to mini-spares, and now many high-end cars don't have a spare.

In over forty years of driving I have had only one flat that wasn't just a slow leak. And the weather was so bad that I chose to slowly drive home, about fifteen miles, on the flat rather than change the wheel. The next day I drove another couple of miles to a tyre supply company and just had the tyre replaced. Not sure if I would be so quick to do it in a modern car with alloy wheels and an even mass distribution bu…

weird things happen sometimes. two weeks ago, I got a razorblade embedded in one of my tires exactly parallel to the tread. I think it happened while I was parking. I came out of the store only twenty minutes later to find my tire at 0 psi.

Re: Amazon, GM in talks to invest in electric pickup truck maker Rivian: sources

#63

Post by RankingMember » Wed, Feb 13, 2019, 1:29 PM UTC

TylerH wrote: post #4

mlacks wrote: post #2

Why do auto makers seem to be so against working with Tesla to bring electric vehicles to market? Now that I think about it, it seems like most car companies are trying to do the electric thing on their own, and if they do ask for help it’s from somebody that’s sort of out of their industry and not a direct competitor (yet). This is in contrast with for example how Mazda is working with Toyota on hybrid drive, and ho…

It's likely that Amazon and GM want far more control in the car manufacturing process than someone like Elon Musk would be willing to give. So it's not so much why Amazon and GM aren't willing, but that Musk isn't. Rivian makes superb trucks, but it's incredibly small right now and not likely to last a long time without some kind of deep-pocket investment... especially considering its business strategy is as much an…

> Rivian makes superb trucks

I want EV makers to succeed, but these vehicles haven't even launched yet (won't until 2020), so how can you say that? We'll know what kind of truck they really are once the general public gets their hands on them.

Re: Amazon, GM in talks to invest in electric pickup truck maker Rivian: sources

#64

Post by dsfyu404ed » Wed, Feb 13, 2019, 1:33 PM UTC

leetcrew wrote: post #61

jschwartzi wrote: post #10

The only thing I really take issue with on this truck is that the spare tire is accessed through the top of the bed. There are two reasons you don't want to do this in a truck: 1.) The bed needs to be very strong because people routinely put weight on dunnage in the bed, and the door doesn't appear to be corrugated to withstand load. 2.) If you want to change your flat tire you need to unload everything in the bed, w…

> If you want to change your flat tire you need to unload everything in the bed, which will be a huge pain in the ass on the side of the road. aren't you already supposed to unload your vehicle before you jack it up on one side? maybe it's different for "work vehicles", but my car comes with a puny little jack that's only strong enough to support the weight of the car when there are no people or heavy items inside. I…

>aren't you already supposed to unload your vehicle before you jack it up on one side?

Eh, maybe?

You have to take the totality of circumstances into account. The jack (depending on the style, some are better than others) can probably take the weight in most circumstances. The vehicle can probably also tolerate the extra weight so long as it's not grossly overloaded or rusted. Whether you have any problems is going to depend more on the details of the location more than anything else.

You could go on Reddit and score a bunch of virtue points for saying nobody should ever jack up a vehicle in less than perfect circumstances but I think in the overwhelming majority of real world situations you do not need to unload the vehicle.

Re: Amazon, GM in talks to invest in electric pickup truck maker Rivian: sources

#65

Post by dsfyu404ed » Wed, Feb 13, 2019, 1:42 PM UTC

jschwartzi wrote: post #10

The only thing I really take issue with on this truck is that the spare tire is accessed through the top of the bed. There are two reasons you don't want to do this in a truck: 1.) The bed needs to be very strong because people routinely put weight on dunnage in the bed, and the door doesn't appear to be corrugated to withstand load. 2.) If you want to change your flat tire you need to unload everything in the bed, w…

What really annoys me is that the under-bed spare (or any "trunk in bed" type feature) makes having a proper drop in liner impossible. A drop in liner increases the durability of a pickup bed by an order of magnitude and is all but required for certain use cases if you don't want to tear up the bed in short order.

Re: Amazon, GM in talks to invest in electric pickup truck maker Rivian: sources

#66

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Feb 13, 2019, 2:24 PM UTC

clouddrover wrote: post #12

mlacks wrote: post #2

Why do auto makers seem to be so against working with Tesla to bring electric vehicles to market? Now that I think about it, it seems like most car companies are trying to do the electric thing on their own, and if they do ask for help it’s from somebody that’s sort of out of their industry and not a direct competitor (yet). This is in contrast with for example how Mazda is working with Toyota on hybrid drive, and ho…

> I’ve always wondered why a business model for them isn’t to just provide the skateboard platform for other companies to build upon Volkswagen beat them to it. Volkswagen has developed their MEB electric car platform which they will use across their VW, Audi, SEAT, and Skoda brands: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_Group_MEB_platform https://jalopnik.com/the-fascinating-engineering-behind-vws-... VW is also…

[deleted]

Re: Amazon, GM in talks to invest in electric pickup truck maker Rivian: sources

#67

Post by chiph » Wed, Feb 13, 2019, 2:29 PM UTC

yyyymmddhhmmss wrote: post #16

jschwartzi wrote: post #10

The only thing I really take issue with on this truck is that the spare tire is accessed through the top of the bed. There are two reasons you don't want to do this in a truck: 1.) The bed needs to be very strong because people routinely put weight on dunnage in the bed, and the door doesn't appear to be corrugated to withstand load. 2.) If you want to change your flat tire you need to unload everything in the bed, w…

>you need to unload everything in the bed, which will be a huge pain in the ass on the side of the road. Who says that’s even going to be possible? It sounds like a complete design flop to me.

Honda stores the spare in the in-bed trunk. But there's also a threaded insert in the front of the bed where you can attach the spare. Either because you needed all of the trunk room for tools/golf-bags, etc., or in case of getting a flat while you were hauling gravel and couldn't open the trunk.

Re: Amazon, GM in talks to invest in electric pickup truck maker Rivian: sources

#68

Post by chewyland » Wed, Feb 13, 2019, 2:36 PM UTC

jschwartzi wrote: post #10

The only thing I really take issue with on this truck is that the spare tire is accessed through the top of the bed. There are two reasons you don't want to do this in a truck: 1.) The bed needs to be very strong because people routinely put weight on dunnage in the bed, and the door doesn't appear to be corrugated to withstand load. 2.) If you want to change your flat tire you need to unload everything in the bed, w…

I'm surprised it even has a spare. Really surprised.

Re: Amazon, GM in talks to invest in electric pickup truck maker Rivian: sources

#69

Post by mikestew » Wed, Feb 13, 2019, 2:38 PM UTC

leetcrew wrote: post #61

jschwartzi wrote: post #10

The only thing I really take issue with on this truck is that the spare tire is accessed through the top of the bed. There are two reasons you don't want to do this in a truck: 1.) The bed needs to be very strong because people routinely put weight on dunnage in the bed, and the door doesn't appear to be corrugated to withstand load. 2.) If you want to change your flat tire you need to unload everything in the bed, w…

> If you want to change your flat tire you need to unload everything in the bed, which will be a huge pain in the ass on the side of the road. aren't you already supposed to unload your vehicle before you jack it up on one side? maybe it's different for "work vehicles", but my car comes with a puny little jack that's only strong enough to support the weight of the car when there are no people or heavy items inside. I…

The hard point of the car is part of the frame on every vehicle I can recall. And I recall a lot, because back when I was a mechanic I had to find those points to get the car on the hydraulic lift. One had to be careful of rusty VW Beetles as unibody as kind of a new thing, and a lift could punch a hole through the floor of a rusted Beetle if one wasn’t careful.

Anyway, enough resume flouting. Yes, you should unload your truck before changing the tire. What if that 1000 lbs. is pea gravel? Still unloading it first, Dr. Safety First? If I had 1000 lbs. in the bed and I had a flat? I’d change it as is. It won’t be the smartest thing I do that week, and I am going to keep my hands out from breaking the vertical plane of the wheel well as much as possible. But I am confident that the solid point of the frame will hold it, and even the puny jack is likely stringer than it looks.

But in reality, if I had a load, I’d just call AAA or a mobile truck service. They carry really nice heavy-duty jacks. Flat tires are such a rarity these days, I’d roll the dice on paying someone $200 to change my tire.

In the end, if you’re that worried about it, do what we did when I was kid with our old ‘63 Chevy: throw the spare on top of the load when you’re done loading. Doesn’t fix the jacking problem, but at least the spare is accessible.

Re: Amazon, GM in talks to invest in electric pickup truck maker Rivian: sources

#70

Post by radicalbyte » Wed, Feb 13, 2019, 2:49 PM UTC

oakesm9 wrote: post #49

The Fully Charged YouTube channel did a great piece of this car: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMfxJEfb4lw If you're interested in electric cars then it's well worth a subscribe.

Their channel is fantastic, it's like what the core of Top Gear used to be before it jumped the shark and turned into the circle-jerk that was the last season.

I've always hated large vehicles and trucks because they're so unwieldy. The Rivan however looks amazing. I can see myself buying one in a few years.