More than 30 days into a service visit, a New Jersey owner's Gen 2 Rivian R1S still has not been fixed after a forward collision warning disabled both Autonomy+ and automatic braking, according to a post in the r/Rivian subreddit.
The repair update sparked discussion about lemon law buybacks, service delays, and the financial trade-offs of owning a high-tech electric SUV.
Here's what to know
Despite multiple repair attempts, the problem remains unresolved. In a post on Reddit, the owner said the New Jersey-based Gen 2 R1S has about 15,000 miles and is less than 24 months old.
Before taking it in, the driver suspected dust on the sensors and cleaned them, but the warning stayed on. After the vehicle went in for service, the owner wrote, "Multiple sensors were replaced, the Autonomy+ computer was replaced — no luck yet."
According to the post, the fault does more than trigger an alert. It also takes Autonomy+ and automatic braking offline. On a relatively new EV, losing two major tech features only adds to the frustration when the vehicle then spends more than 30 days out of service.
Lemon law eligibility quickly became part of the discussion.
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"I just completed a lemon law repurchase of my 2025 R1S," a commenter said. "Checked and it appears that in NJ, your vehicle qualifies as a lemon after 20 cumulative days in service. Even more stringently pro-consumer than in WA where I live, where it's 30 days."
More background
The thread also became a place for other owners to compare notes on possible sensor-related causes. When one commenter asked whether a front license plate might be interfering with the hardware, a different poster said that on a previous R1S, they had to bend the ends of the plate inward "for it to not impact the sensor," suggesting the margin for error may be narrow.
Another commenter pointed to a different but somewhat similar experience tied to a car wash. They said one of their sensors had been pushed into the vehicle, which then set off front-collision warnings, and that a service visit ended with a $250 charge "to push it back in."
Elsewhere in the thread, one commenter said replacing sensors fixed what might be "the same problem" they had dealt with.
What can be done?
Advice in favor of a buyback focused on handling the claim directly. One commenter who said they had already gone through a Rivian repurchase wrote, "If you want to invoke lemon law, you don't need a lawyer," urging the owner to send Rivian a demand letter laying out "the relevant law and the facts of your service issue" and to request repurchase.
The original poster replied, "Got it — I drafted the last notice to repair, but did not send it ... yet to hear back from service center."
The same commenter then said, "Lemon law claims are separate," and pointed the owner toward Rivian's repurchase team rather than the regular repair process.
Not everyone in the thread agreed that a buyback was the obvious next step. One commenter said that if Rivian provided a loaner, they would "ride this out," while another warned that a repurchase could create a new financial problem because "all EVs are more expensive now than they were two years ago, especially Rivians."
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