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Rivian swappable components come to life in new renderings

Published

8 years ago

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The new (and patient) Rivian community has taken a recently published company patent one step further from its concept drawings by creating beautifully colored “digital previews” to bring its described “swappable” modules to life. In five renderings, the team running RivianForums imagined a basic flatbed, two recreational caps/toppers, a side rail module (with and without dirtbikes), and a cargo box utility module.

The patent in question presented a customizable, modular concept for its cars: As imagined, cargo bed components can be swapped out per driver preference, and the cars automatically adjust to whatever is installed. Whether the driver needs a set up for delivery, recreation, etc., there’s a modular component specially designed to provide a solution.

  • The Rivian base flatbed, as imagined on RivianForums.
  • A Rivian cargo box utility module, as imagined on RivianForums.
  • A Rivian recreational cap module, as imagined on RivianForums.
  • A Rivian recreational cap module, as imagined on RivianForums.
  • A Rivian side rail module, as imagined on RivianForums.
  • A Rivian side rail module, as imagined on RivianForums.

It certainly seems that the Michigan-based company’s portrayal of its vehicles as part of an “electric adventure” lifestyle has been happily taken up by its fast-growing fan base; a narrative wherein nature beckons the thrill-seeking traveler to muddy the wheels of their battery-powered Rivian R1T truck or R1S SUV.

Last week, the company’s official Twitter account shared a personality-filled photo of an R1T sitting inside their Plymouth location with a caption stating it was “smiling for the camera”. The subsequent responses to the image further demonstrated an audience excited for Rivian’s future.

A sign above the overhead door behind the happy R1T tweet-pic read, “Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few are dirt”, which is of course very much in line with the feeling Rivian has been promoting. The EV startup recently posted a mood-inspiring series of cinematic videos chock-full of snow, mountain, and trail imagery. It seems that after nine years in stealth mode, this up-and-coming auto maker really wants everyone to keep the idea of an outdoors + EV lifestyle fresh in their minds with Rivian at the helm. They’ve even adopted the #electricadventure hashtag to go with it, and a quick search for the tag generates results full of impressive and exciting images of Rivian’s vehicle lineup that’s set to begin production next year.

The Rivian R1T and R1S have been designed with “megapack” batteries to provide up to 400 miles per charge, and their high-powered quad-motors have been touted to give a 0-60 mph acceleration time of 3 seconds. To support the flexible, adventurous lifestyle of its target market, Rivian has also been developing longer range power solutions for its vehicles, as seen by another recent patent application. For a starting price of $69,000 for the R1T pickup and $72,500 for the R1S SUV before incentives, Rivian’s customers will be treated to both innovative new electric vehicles and a company committed to supporting their travel-centered lifestyle.

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As with Tesla orders, a $1000 deposit via Rivian’s official website will secure a prospective buyer’s place in line for one of the company’s outdoor-focused vehicles. Also keeping in line with what customers have somewhat come to expect during the vehicle pre-order process, Rivian has also begun offering perks as a reward for buyers’ vote of confidence. An invite went out to their “preorder community” this week to attend a private vehicle viewing and celebration in a run-up to the company’s appearance at the 2019 New York International Auto Show. Cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, and a greeting by the company’s CEO and founder, RJ Scaringe, were promised to be part of the event.

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Accidental computer geek, fascinated by most history and the multiplanetary future on its way. Quite keen on the democratization of space. | It's pronounced day-sha, but I answer to almost any variation thereof.

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Tesla wins over Netflix’s Selling Sunset star, who’s now ditching his Bentley

Selling Sunset’s Jason Oppenheim swapped his Bentley for a Tesla and promised ten for employees.

Published

14 hours ago

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October 4, 2026

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Jason Oppenheim, the luxury real estate broker best known as the star of Netflix’s Selling Sunset, has parked his Bentley for good and moved into a Tesla Model Y, and he says Full Self-Driving (Supervised) is the reason.

Oppenheim, who founded The Oppenheim Group, the Los Angeles brokerage at the center of the show, posted a video to X on Saturday evening that he called “the most important video I’ve ever posted.” In it, he rides from Newport Beach to his firm’s Los Angeles office, a trip he put at roughly an hour and 15 minutes, while FSD handles the drive and parks the car without him touching the wheel or the accelerator. He said he handed the Bentley to his father because he no longer has any use for it.

Tesla shared the clip from its main account on X about two hours later, pulling out the quote that has since spread well beyond the Tesla community:

“[FSD Supervised] is life-changing. I was on the phone with my brother last night, and I made him buy one. He literally bought one while we were talking. I’m buying 10 of my employees a Tesla with FSD. It’s 8x safer than the average driver. There’s nothing more important than the safety of you and your loved ones.”

Oppenheim was candid about why the safety pitch landed with him. He admitted in the video that he is a distracted driver who answers emails and texts behind the wheel, and framed the employee purchases as a way to keep his team off their phones while driving. Elon Musk posted “Tesla FSD feels like magic” less than half an hour after the video went live.

The endorsement lands at a convenient moment for Tesla. The company delivered 486,532 vehicles in Q3, beating Wall Street’s estimates and marking its best quarter ever without the $7,500 federal EV tax credit.

Tesla FSD has been subscription only in the U.S. since February at $99 per month, and Tesla said in its Q2 update that active subscriptions hit 1.48 million, up 56 percent year over year, with more than 55 percent of new North American deliveries leaving with FSD attached. That attach rate is the figure Ron Baron cited last month when he told CNBC “the time to buy the stock is now.” At current pricing, Oppenheim’s 10 employee cars alone would add $990 a month, or about $11,880 a year, in FSD revenue.

Tesla AI head Ashok Elluswamy said in July that FSD had logged more than 12 billion miles while going roughly twice as far between collisions as manual driving. FSD also remains a supervised system, so Oppenheim and his employees are still required to watch the road, even as Tesla rolls out v14.3.10 with Automatic Collision Evasion, which can steer or brake on its own to avoid a frontal crash.

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Tesla teases “Halloween Mode” update with Optimus rising from a graveyard

Tesla’s Halloween teaser hides a covered vehicle and an Optimus hand rising from the ground.

Published

3 days ago

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October 2, 2026

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Tesla has started teasing a Halloween software update for its vehicles, with  a short clip on X that reads, “Halloween is coming.” The clip opens on a glowing pumpkin before pulling back to the car’s center touchscreen, where the usual parked visualization has been replaced by a graveyard scene, and the vehicle draped with a white sheet so it reads as a cartoon ghost.

The second detail is a robotic hand clawing its way out of the dirt like a zombie, which looks to be the hand of Tesla’s latest Optimus V3 humanoid robot. While Tesla still has not formally shown Optimus Gen 3 walking around in service, renders pulled from Tesla’s Android app last month gave the clearest look yet, including far more refined hands that Tesla has said carry 22 degrees of freedom. The hand has been the hardest part of the program. Musk has called it the majority of the robot’s engineering difficulty, and Tesla’s patents describe a design driven by tendons with the actuators moved into the forearm.

Tesla Optimus V3 hand and arm details revealed in new patents

Optimus also has a Halloween track record. Last October the robot handed out candy in Times Square, and a costumed “zombie” Optimus shuffled around the Tesla Diner in Los Angeles on Halloween night.

On the software side, Tesla’s 2025 Holiday Update expanded Santa Mode with a Santa sleigh, snowmen, snow effects, and a festive lock chime, so it wouldn’t be too far fetched if we saw something similar but themed for a  Halloween Mode.

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Tesla’s newest feature lets you floor it out of a Supercharger while plugged in

Tesla’s new Emergency Drive Away feature lets owners flee a Supercharger while still plugged in.

Published

4 days ago

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October 1, 2026

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Tesla has given drivers a way to escape while a vehicle is plugged-in at a Supercharger, in the event of an emergency. The company’s charging team announced a new feature on X called Emergency Drive Away, which lets a driver shift into Drive and pull away while the charging cable is still connected to the car.

Until now, a Tesla would not leave Park with a charge cable plugged in. Drivers had to release the latch from the touchscreen, the Tesla app, or the button on the charge handle, then wait for the port to let go. Emergency Drive Away removes that lockout, but Tesla is clear that it comes at a cost. “Use of this feature will damage your vehicle and the Supercharger,” the company wrote, adding that the function is meant for emergencies only and that deliberate misuse will lead to “additional penalties.” Tesla did not say what those penalties are.


The in-car prompt is just as direct, with the warning reading: “Driving with the cable connected will cause damage to your vehicle and the Supercharger. Short camera recordings will be shared with Tesla.” That footage gives Tesla a way to separate a real emergency from someone who simply did not want to wait for the latch.

The feature requires software update 2026.38.3, and Tesla said in replies to owners that it works at every Supercharger in the United States without new stall hardware. Model S and Model X vehicles built before 2021 are not supported, and the company says the feature applies to U.S. Superchargers “for now,” leaving Canada and other markets out at launch.

Tesla Supercharger argument leads to tragic shooting incident

Tesla did not tie the announcement to any specific event, but it arrives two months after a gunman opened fire at an In-N-Out in Twin Falls, Idaho, on August 1, targeting three people in two Teslas at the neighboring Supercharger. One of them, a 66 year old man from Salt Lake City, was killed. Superchargers have been the scene of violence before, including a fatal shooting at a station near Denver in 2023.

In the weeks after Twin Falls, owners pushed Tesla for a native way to escape a stall, and many pointed back to EVject, the aftermarket breakaway connector Tesla sued in 2024 over claims it lacked overtemperature protection. The two companies later reached an agreement that led EVject to recall its earlier connectors in favor of a version with thermal sensors.

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