Asheville is one of several cities in America dealing with what some call Biblical devastation due to Hurricane Helene flooding right now. Across all of the tragic stories we’ve heard a bit of good news just popped up surrounding one man and his Rivian R1T.
According to him, the electric truck floated over 100 feet in the flood while abandoned, and when he returned to the vehicle he was able to drive it away like nothing ever happened. That’s especially impressive considering that the exterior of the truck looks like it was just unearthed from an archeological dig site. And wait until you see the cabin.
That leads us to wonder why Rivian doesn’t have its own “Boat” mode for the R1T. If Elon Musk can claim that the Cybertruck is “waterproof enough to serve briefly as a boat, so it can cross rivers, lakes & even seas that aren’t too choppy,” then Rivian should probably call the R1T in this story “Ocean Proof.”
@usedcarmanwnc Hurrican Helene tried to destroy a brand new Rivian truck! Owner thought it was totaled and went to call his insurance when his friends suggests they “Boot it up”! Well by golly it did just that and Booted up ready for more. Interior was untouched and idk how that’s possible with the truck weighing 7000lbs plus ans being moved 100s of feet or more! #Rivian #RivianR1T #riviantruck #RivianR1Tperformance #Rivianinhurricane #RivianHurricaneHelene #flood #uhaul #asheivlle #tunnelroad #swannanoa #swannanoariver #lucky #whatluck #wnc #wncstrong #asheville #ashevillenc
According to the owner, Michael, shown in the video above, he parked the truck across from a U-Haul on Thursday night. It just so happens that where he parked is right next to the Swannanoa River. That’s significant because the Swannanoa saw water levels rise 26 feet above average. That’s six feet higher than the previous record. Two days later he returned to the area to try and find his truck.
It was, according to him, “100-150 feet” away from where he parked it and now sat near a Walgreens completely caked in dirt. Initially, he thought it was a total loss just based on how bad it looked. Unquestionably, the truck looks rough. Even in the video above, which is after Micahel has cleaned parts of it, the bed and driver’s side look atrocious.
Speaking about when they first found it he said “I was with my friend and we were like, okay, it’s totaled, we have to call insurance. He’s like no, just get in it and see, the door handles are opening.” Sure enough, they hopped in and drove away. He even confirmed that it charges just fine as though nothing had happened.
Perhaps the wildest bit is that it might have actually traveled much farther than Michael believes. Google Maps indicates that the distance between the Uhaul and the Walgreens is at minimum some 522 feet. No doubt, water is strong enough to pick up or push a vehicle like this, despite the truck weighing over 7,000 pounds, but for the same vehicle to drive away after is sincerely impressive.
New color options for hurricane Helene survivors. French Broad River Brown
byu/chessforgiants inRivian
Notably, some in the comment section over at RivianForums.com don’t believe that this is all legitimate. There is simply no way to be 100% certain that indeed all of this happened but the time and energy it would take to fake such a stunt seems prohibitive enough before we even get into the ethical questions about it.
Here’s a video of an R1T dealing with deep water; it’s not that deep, but it shows that the truck is built to handle water up to the doors, and for some amount of time.
Why didn’t this R1T suffer the same fate as that Tesla Model X that burned up in a Florida garage recently? Who knows; the battery pack design could be different, then there’s the fact that the water here wasn’t salt water. Fresh water, while still dangerous, doesn’t create the salt bridges that can compromise a battery the way salt water can.
Cybertruck will be waterproof enough to serve briefly as a boat, so it can cross rivers, lakes & even seas that aren’t too choppy
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 29, 2022
The Rivian R1T doesn’t have a “Ford” or “Wade” mode like the Cybertruck does, but it can become very tall when necessary. According to Rivian, the R1T can ford water depths up to 43.1 inches.
Depending on your suspension settings and wheel size, the maximum water fording height of the R1T is 43.1 inches and the height of the R1S is 43.0 inches while all the doors, front trunk, gear tunnel, spare tire compartment and lift/drop gates are fully closed.
That’s 3.59 feet of water. On the other hand, Tesla says that the Cybertruck in “Wade” mode can go into water that is no deeper than 32 inches or 2.66 feet. On top of that, Wade mode only lasts up to 30 minutes so who knows how it would’ve fared in this situation.
All of this led me to just ask Rivian if it has plans for a Boat mode or something similar. It hasn’t gotten back to us, but if this R1T out of North Carolina is any indication, it sounds like it could add this new mode to its repertoire. Of course, maybe a highly-marketed mode isn’t the move; speaking softly and carrying a boat-like truck was probably enough for the Rivian owner in this story.
Holy crap I was driving into Asheville a couple days ago to check on my house (only 2 trees hit it, really not too bad!) and saw an R1T absolutely caked in mud from head to toe driving into a shopping center (Hendersonville Rd near Mills Gap). The Ingles parking lot across the street was covered in mud and sediment from a creek that must have turned into a roaring river during the storm, so I assumed this guy had just been doing donuts for an hour in that lot. Makes a lot more sense that he was fully submerged. These storms (8” of rain in one storm even before Helene hit) were batshit crazy and the damage to lives, homes, businesses, and infrastructure is just so hard to comprehend.
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The owner drove it to his house, parked it in his garage and that night the truck burst into FL a man es and burned down his house. I don’t care if it has a feature if the owner when parking it didn’t deploy it. Where was it parked what direction were the flood waters where did it end up. I expected more from Autopian posting clickbait.
I do believe it. Floods don’t leave a purifying wash of water when they pass through; they pick up mud, shit, trash, and they sling it like a wall of slurry at everything they touch. The Swannanoa isn’t huge, and it’s muddy already. Factor in the extra **twenty-six** vertical feet of earth and trash it’s gobbling up and sweeping away, and I’m not inclined to conspiracy mindedness here.
That said, if the top shot is representative of the state of the vehicle as found, I’d call bullshit. It’s up the windows but not on the windshield except one little bit.
OG reddit pic has dirty windshield, same roofbars, wheels, color, and trim. Window is dirty. Given the fact that looking out the windshield helps significantly when driving, the guy probably cleaned it off.
I think cleaning off all windows helps
Soon to be listed on Facebook Marketplace – a whole lot of cars: “Like new, freshly washed”
For a CT to survive this same event, one would have needed to engage “Disaster Mode” prior to this sudden flood.
Then one would have to hope and pray that water and mud didn’t infiltrate the CT between the poorly-fitted body panels and tacked-on plastic bits.
Afterwards, one would just need to ignore the rust spots on the low-grade stainless steel body panels.
Ok, I’ll be that guy. I’m not 100% buying it. Certain things just don’t seem right.
part is the “archeological dig site” appearance that just seems off. Looks like it was in a mud-slide, not a flood. Floods don’t leave that much mud on vertical surfaces. But, maybe the truck was pushed up against an embankment that sloughed down or something.
Also, unless it filled with water (which they claim it didn’t) It would start to float before water reached the top of its roof (Rivian says it will float in about 3 ft of water) so it seems unlikely that there would be deposits all the way to the tippy top of the roof.
I’ve seen ICE trucks pushed around in floods and then started and driven away so I’m not saying it’s impossible, but my bs-o-meter needle is coming off zero here.
Definitely doesn’t look like the kind of mud you see after a flood from the flood aftermaths I’ve seen. It does look like mud flung up on it, though. Without watching the video, the truck also has no apparent external damage. I guess that’s plausible, but highly unlikely that it traveled over 500′ without hitting anything or being hit by anything else, like massive tons of stuff washed down the river from upstream or even just the other vehicles I assume would be parked nearby. No, I vote parasitic douche trying to suck up attention from a disaster where people lost their lives and entire properties.
I’m with you.
The mud is too uniform and too thick on the vertical surfaces.
The upriver side should look different than the downriver side, and there should be some swirls/etc in the mud as the current went around the truck.
The fact that the door frame of the cab is absolutely spotless makes me think it was definitely never submerged. When they open the door in the tik tok video there isn’t so much as a water spot behind those exterior door seals.
I even struggle to understand how it could be so thoroughly covered in mud and yet be that clean in there.
Remember the Hilux on top gear
To my untrained eye, it just looks like he took it off road and/or threw mud at it. If the mud actually was applied by rapidly flowing water, why does it look so clumpy? The texture reminds me of sprayed concrete.
*Reads weather report calling for historic precip totals*
*Parks fancy truck right next to a river*
*Drives muddy truck to MENSA to get his “World’s Greatest Genius” award*
For further context, there’s a video out there showing the referenced “U-Haul Disaster Zone.” The water was so deep and rushed so fast that trucks and trailers were pulled out of the U-Haul store and littered the nearby intersection. In one video, there’s a U-Haul JH 26-foot Ford F-650 in the middle of the road next to the Walgreens, and the water’s so high the windshield struggled to stay above water. Then it was hit by a semi-trailer floating down the street.
It looks like this Rivian may have escaped the torrent, but what happened in that area was no joke.
Also, about an hour away is Spruce Pine which supplies nearly all the Quartz for the entire planet. If it doesn’t get back up and running soon, there could be another chip shortage.
Obviously, this is secondary to all the lives lost and the total devastation of the storm, which was not kind to very many people from S. Florida all the way up there…Locally, we got over 9 feet of surge and I had fish and snakes just swimming in the driveway. No bueno, all across the board.
The Spruce Pine quartz isn’t the only supply. It is just the cheapest and most plentiful for it’s purity. There are more expensive sources and even some man-made options so I wouldn’t be concerned about supply.
Chipmakers aren’t worried about U.S. quartz mine closures due to Hurricane Helene — many don’t expect significant repercussions | Tom’s Hardware (tomshardware.com)
Interesting. This article I was reading earlier has a different slant…
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/hurricane-helene-shutters-critical-quartz-mines-that-power-the-worlds-electronics-solar-panels-and-ai-180985187/
Good to have multiple sources. Thanks for sharing.
C’mon man, who ya gonna believe? The Smithsonian Institute or Tom?
Watch the videos coming out of Asheville – the flood waters were this mud color and left mud all over the place- in some places there is mud covering stop signs. And the water at times was moving fast so it could have splashed water onto the hood and roof. This was a devastating flood – looks worse than the Vermont floods of recent years. And Go Rivian! They definitely care about their product and not just taking as much cost as possible. If I was willing to do an EV at this point I would definitely be giving the R1T a serious look – this shows just how good the vehicle is. My current mission requirements are currently much better served with a PHEV – and only after I can get more solar panels on my roof.
Wonder how it holds up to car washes ?
Rivian should swap a new truck for this one so they can study it. Even if the flooded interior totals it, having the drive system survive getting washed away like that is impressive.
I’m sure Rivian is pleased with the performance, but my guess is they’d still recommend to “not try that at home.”
A Rivian runs through it. Sounds like a movie, doesn’t it?
Writing this story was a natural fit for…. Rivers.