Hacker News Reader

Comment by protastus | Hacker News Reader

I think the valuation is driven by the delivery vans rather than the R1T.

The world desperately needs electric delivery vans. Rivian already has Amazon as a customer and as an investor. That's an outstanding combination.

The R1T is a super heavy, niche pickup truck for wealthy American households (DINK?) who like camping in style. It's not a truck for the industry, and it will not come close to the F150 in utility.

I totally agree the Cybertruck is a design from a comic book and I have no idea how it would pass pedestrian safety regulations. But the Cybertruck being a bizarre vehicle doesn't imply there's a big market for the R1T.

View on HN

I think you both are right. You assume that people make investment decisions based on pure data. It's the delivery vans for Amazon and the Ford deal that's going to drive profits and numbers. But please don't underestimate the value of being visible. Rivian's truck looks really good and being recognizable will definitely drive share price as well.

Both the delivery van and truck/suv will be production constrained by battery supply for many years to come. Honestly they should just build whatever has a better margin with the battery supply they have until they are not cell constrained anymore.

In Australia at least they have already said it would not be street legal:

https://www.news.com.au/technology/innovation/motoring/motor...

And hints of the same coming out of UK and EU.

Isn't the whole reason manufacturer make SUVs, that legislators realized way back, that it would be unreasonable to apply regular pedestrians safety standards to off-road vehicles, which were a small niche back then? Then subsequently manufacturers exploited that loophole with SUVs, saying that their huge and tall gas-guzzers, which are sure to murder any pedestrian who dares to wander in front of it, are made made for 'offroading'. I think the Cybertruck is the logical extreme of that line of thinking, where they dropped all pretense of pedestrian safety.

Yes, which is largely why I like the cybertruck. I live where people almost exclusively drive huge vehicles like the biggest SUVs or trucks. The cybertruck is the nearest to driving one of them that I’d want to go if only for the sake of my safety.

From a personal point of view I understand your reasoning, but people in sedans are safe when everyone else is in a sedan - likewise they are safe in a regular SUV, when others are in regular SUV. I don't think this vehicle toughness arms race is to the benefit of the customer.

In the US there are no pedestrian safety regulations.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com