2023 Rivian R1S

The contact owns a 2023 Rivian R1S. The contact stated that the vehicle was taken for service, and the service tech stated that all three rear seat belts had a wire that had been severed from the buckle. Additionally, the vehicle failed to detect an occupant seated in the rear seats. The dealer stated that the seat belt buckles needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure, and a complaint was filed. The failure mileage was 29,000.

On five separate occasions the airbag system on my car has become inoperable. Starting in July 2025 I noticed an airbag error on the display of the vehicle. I brought the car in for service and they replaced the steering wheel. The airbag error occurred again in August, this time requiring replacement of a different wiring harness. The error occurred again and again went in for service in November, this time replacing the front seats, seatbelt control modules, and the airbag module. This past weekend the air bag alert appeared again. Rivian seems unable to fix the issue with the airbags on my vehicle creating a significant safety concern.

The Rivian is designed to kill fat people. The Airbag for the passenger seat does not function if there is a large person in the seat or the seat is very far forward with a normal person. When someone sits in the passenger seat the lower left corner of the central display changes from “Passenger Airbag Off” to the passenger climate control display. If you pull the seatbelt all the way out the display reverts back to the “Passenger Airbag Off” sign. The seat belt has to retract about 6 inches back into the B pillar for the climate control display to come back on. If the seat belt can’t retract far enough back into the B pillar, you have to drive around with an inoperable passenger seatbelt. I have been able to duplicate this feature on every Rivian I have tried it on. This has been reported to Rivian. A mechanic was sent to my house to repair this. It couldn’t be repaired as expected. I was told the problem would be elevated to a safety issue and sent to engineering. That was in the beginning of February 2024. No answers or fix yet. I have video of the problem, but mp4 files are not accepted below. Please contact me if you would like video.

Since the vehicle was new, I have had a problem with the air bag being off when a large person is in the passenger seat. I have reported this to Rivian. Rivian has sent a technician out to fix this. The technician indicated that he could not fix this as planned and would submit it to engineering as a safety issue. I have made multiple inquiries since then and received no information on when this will be resolved. I have also had 3 software updates since then and the problem has not been resolved. I have been able to duplicate the problem on another R1S. If you sit in the passenger seat the passenger climate controls will become available. If you pull the seatbelt all the way out of the B pillar, the passenger climate control will go away and you will get the passenger airbag off notification. If the seatbelt can go back into the B pillar about 8 inches, the climate control setting will return. If you are a large person or have the seat forward and the seatbelt can't retract that far, you are passenger without airbag protection.

My wife does not shows up as a passenger in the front seat about 30% of the time with the seatbelt fastened. She is 105~108 lbs. This is a continuing problem with no fix in sight. Not registering when seated means two key things: 1) no airbag support in case of an accident 2) passenger side climate control doesn't function separately from synced mode. After multiple attempt with the Rivian service center/mobile service, all they can only say that it's within spec. Rivian SC staffs say that SW fix is coming. That was 4 over the air firmware updates ago. Unfortunately the problem is so small in terms of affected population, they have done nothing to date.

Vehicle routinely (>90% of the time) fails to detect occupancy of front passenger seat resulting in disabled airbags and other related safety systems. Our particular vehicle experiences the issue with passengers ranging from 150-425lbs resulting in a significant safety concern. Searching online indicates this is a common issue and repair requests are routinely denied with claims that it is operating correctly. Others have been told it is due to posture or seating position…I’ve never had a vehicle whose safety features were disabled due to poor posture?!

I was headed straight but stopped so that I could move into a left turn lane. As I got into the left turn lane and was straightening up behind the person in front of me at almost a dead stop the R1S lunged forward and accelerated at a high rate of speed hitting the car in front of me (speed control issue already known on the R1T). The camera footage verifies it. No warning lights went off (forward collision avoidance, automatic emergency braking) that there was a car in front of me and to brake (normally if there is a car in front of you that close and the vehicle thinks there will be a collision the screen goes red and the letters BRAKE come up bold in black, the car will brake if it thinks you may hit something). Of course now all my side sensors don’t work. I am still waiting on diagnostics from Rivian. Additionally, my seatbelt didn’t lock throwing me forward. I have only had this SUV two months with 848 miles. The car in front of me had substantial damage. If anyone had been in her backseat especially a child they would have been injured. My safety was in danger with the seatbelt not locking. I am waiting on the diagnostics still from Rivian. Insurance is waiting on Rivian. There had been nothing like this prior to this incident.