2022 Rivian R1S Owner Complaints

Vehicle was inoperable and over 100F in our driveway, with a flashing "critical high voltage battery fault". My wife injured her hand attempting to get in the vehicle. The service center has claimed that moisture inside the HVAC system caused the High Voltage (HV) battery system to fail, throwing a critical high-voltage battery fault. Rivian is attempting to deny warranty coverage based on this moisture. Linkage to Warranted Component: At 85,690 miles, my vehicle is fully covered under Rivian’s 8-year High Voltage Battery Limited Warranty. The critical high-voltage fault and subsequent component failures were directly caused by water entering the electrical/battery system. Proximate Cause via Known Manufacturing Defect: Rivian has an active Technical Service Bulletin (TSB) regarding moisture ingress via the HVAC assembly for 2022–2024 R1S models. The moisture that caused the battery fault is a documented, inherent design defect of the vehicle, not user negligence or external environmental damage. An inherent defect in an out-of-warranty system cannot be used to void coverage for a failure it causes inside a component that is still heavily protected by an active warranty. The photograph provided by the service center does not depict superficial 'moisture in the HVAC' causing external damage. It shows severe fluid ingress and terminal corrosion inside the Woory Industrial High Voltage Cabin Heater assembly. Because this is an internal, high-voltage powertrain component operating directly off the traction battery system, it falls squarely under Rivian's 8-year / 175,000-mile High Voltage System Warranty. The corrosion present on the high-voltage circuit board is a direct result of the factory HVAC water ingress defect acknowledged in Rivian's technical service bulletins for 2022-2024 R1S vehicles. A manufacturing defect that allows water to breach a sealed, high-voltage housing cannot be used to deny warranty coverage on a high-voltage system that is actively w

NHTSA ID

11743492

Incident

May 13, 2026

All sensors failed. Once vehicle was parked completely and seatbelt was removed, the car automatically took off. It began accelerating on its own, full throttle (Rivian logs were retrieved to show this), then began crashing into multiple cars while still gaining speed. Logs also show that the breaks were applied during this time, but the accelerator was still engaged at full throttle. The car then launched itself into a light post. The car was able to clear the 2-3ft concrete base of the post and the metal beam crashed into the glass roof of the car (which was shattered and thankfully the surfboard racks prevented it from fully crashing into the vehicle - but the racks are completely crushed), the metal post then launched itself into two more vehicles as well as the car itself. Airbag was not deployed at any point, car was going over 30 mph when it finally stopped (the concrete base likely pierced the battery to make the car stop). Logs didn't even note that there was a crash and the vehicle is totaled. We have salvage holding off on destruction so that the EDR can be salvaged and retrieved.

NHTSA ID

11715116

Incident

Jan 27, 2026

In the R1S, there is a crossmember for the 3rd row seating. On low VIN vehicles, there appears to be a trend, including mine personally, that have crossmember bolts that were mis-installed during assembly and have disconnected the threaded inserts from the body and remain unscrewed and loose. This is a primary mounting point used to secure the seating in the vehicle. The service center confirmed that this has occurred and a video was provided to Rivian when requesting repair. (This video is no longer accessible in the app) Rivian's stance is that contrary to online reports of similar issues on low VIN R1S vehicles and mine, this is caused by the end user. Given the number of occurrences, this appears to be a faulty installation issue from unskilled labor.

NHTSA ID

11646688

Incident

Feb 6, 2025

Passenger airbag sensor does not detect passenger reliably. My 13 year old son and my wife both have issues. They are both over 120 lbs, so I think they should trigger the sensor. I have had it serviced for this issue, but it did not fix the problem. It also will detect a person in the seat during a drive and turn off later in that same trip without stopping the car. It seems to me that the sensor needs to be more sensitive. And, once it detects a person in the seat, it should keep the airbag on until the car is stopped and door opened. My wife does not feel safe in the car as it stands now.

NHTSA ID

11614813

Incident

Dec 1, 2022

When I am driving, my passenger sometimes does not trigger the airbag to activate. Depending on how they are sitting, many times the passenger airbag is set to "off" because it can not detect a passenger. The Rivian service center has investigated and mentioned there is no problem and that the passenger needs to sit more upright, but this still seems like a safety issue if we are driving and fail to notice that the passenger airbag is not activated

NHTSA ID

11561958

Incident

Nov 30, 2023

On Monday, December 11, 2023 Myself, my girlfriend, and our two dogs were headed across the I-182 bridge coming out of Pasco, WA to Richland, WA. We were in the far left or center lane (I am not sure which). The highway is three lanes each way. We were at highway speed (the speed limit is 70 mph). About ¾ of the way across the bridge, the vehicle felt like all 4 wheels locked. The vehicle then skidded, turned 90 degree towards the concrete bridge barrier. We struck the bridge barrier nearly head on. The vehicle then rotated off the barrier and landed upright in the far right lane. Airbags fully deployed. There were numerous witnesses who reported seeing what looked like the vehicle’s wheels lock and then the events as described. No other cars were impacted. About 20 minutes prior to the crash I commented that the vehicle alignment was off. I had to keep the wheel at 10:00 or 11:00 for the vehicle to travel straight. I found that odd as the vehicle alignment was fine prior to that. Everyone walked away from the accident although both us were injured.

NHTSA ID

11560132

Incident

Dec 11, 2023