Rivian announces service plan, follows Tesla into mobile service and app-based scheduling

Rivian announced its service plan today, and it’s following Tesla into mobile service and app-based scheduling.

Last month, Rivian announced its plan for charging ahead of the start of deliveries of its first electric vehicles.

With the charging announcement, we noted that Rivian is wisely following Tesla’s lead, and now the startup is doing the same when it comes to service.

While most automakers rely on third-party franchise dealers for service, Tesla decided to own its entire service network, and it has implemented novel service methods like mobile technician and service scheduling through its mobile app.

Rivian today announced similar plans:

• Mobile service vans that come to you
• Remote diagnostics using their vehicle’s connectivity
• Company-owned service centers
• App-based scheduling

The company wrote about its mobile service:

Our fleet of mobile service vans can perform a majority of vehicle care needs at your home, place of work, or wherever your vehicle might be. In many instances, you don’t even have to be present, so you can carry on with your day. Mobile service is available for all Rivian owners anywhere in the US and Canada. As we expand into other markets, our suite of Rivian vehicle care capabilities, including mobile service, will continue to be a key component of our strategy. 

For more extensive service, Rivian plans to have 40 Rivian Service Centers in the US and Canada within the coming year.

The company also explained its remote diagnostic capacity:

Rivian Remote Care enables us to perform comprehensive diagnostics from afar through our connected vehicle platform. Most issues can be identified proactively, thanks to our suite of onboard sensors and associated predictive algorithms. We can often notify you before you even sense a problem.

All of the scheduling for sevice is also handled through the app like Tesla:

Rivian’s Service Platform has been developed in-house as a single end-to-end experience. Your vehicle, app and the Rivian Service Team — all connected through the Rivian Cloud — work together seamlessly to make servicing your vehicle simple, convenient, and transparent.

The company released a sneak peek at the app:

It’s not surprising that Rivian’s service strategy looks just like Tesla’s since it’s being built by the same people.

Electrek did a quick search of Rivian’s service team and found that the senior director of service operations, Noe Mejia, spent seven years on Tesla’s service team, most recently as director of Tesla’s service operations.

Several other top people in Rivian’s service team come from Tesla:

• Savayia Z. Bero, senior manager of mobile service operations at Rivian, was strategic business operations manager of Worldwide Mobile Service at Tesla before joining Rivian last year.
• Andrew Homer, program manager of Mobile Service Operations at Rivian, was staff program manager of Mobile Service Operations at Tesla before joining Rivian just over a month ago.
• Nina Bruno, program director for service operations at Rivian, was senior manager of Worldwide Mobile Service and Fleet Operations at Tesla until last summer.

Tesla and Rivian are currently embroiled in a lawsuit in which the former claims that the latter is misappropriating trade secrets through poaching employees.

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