After months of extensive testing across the United States and possibly days before the first delivery, Rivian has suffered their first big crash of a R1T prototype electric pickup truck.
The incident occurred Wednesday afternoon, September 22 in Tustin, California, on the same street where Rivian has its offices. According to a user on Reddit who came upon the accident scene shortly after it took place, it appeared as though the driver of the R1T, reportedly a Rivian engineer, failed to navigate a corner at high speed.
This resulted in the prototype truck jumping the curb, driving through some bushes, then hitting at least 2 cars before coming to a stop in the nearby parking lot. Fortunately the Redditor did not mention any injuries to either the occupants of the R1T or anyone standing nearby.
Image via Reddit
Or it could simply be what happens when an inexperienced driver goes too fast and doesn’t brake early enough or hard enough to successfully take a corner.
Looking at a map of the area where the accident took place it looks like that could be the reason. There is a long straightaway approximately 1,200 feet long before the corner, giving anyone behind the wheel more than enough time to pick up considerable speed on what is, according to locals, a typically quiet road.
Image via Google MapsHopefully this accident is just a case of driver error, and not because of something wrong with the car that ends up delaying deliveries of the R1T any further.
The company was hoping to hand over the first cars to customers in June, but that was delayed until September. The first customer-ready R1T pickup truck was manufactured last week, but with just over a week left in the month, we have yet to hear of an official delivery date.
