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- Innovative rear wiper design. Rivian created a unique rear wiper system for the R2, hidden in a heated trough to prevent freezing.
- Complex engineering challenge. The design required developing a completely new system due to the vehicle’s unique structure.
- Integrated and functional solution. The wiper is seamlessly integrated, allowing full glass drop without obstruction.
- Team effort and dedication. Significant time and effort were invested to achieve this innovative design.
Bottom line: Rivian’s R2 features a groundbreaking rear wiper system, showcasing the company’s commitment to innovative design and engineering.
AI assisted, editor reviewed
The Rivian R2 was designed and engineered differently than the R1. In the name of cost, both for Rivian to build and for consumers to have to pay, the R2 was designed through simplification. Except for one bit: the rear window wiper. That is one piece that is complicated.
Rivian Chief Design Officer Jeff Hammoud, told The Drive, “Yeah, that was something we spent a lot of time debating.” The reason? As the automaker’s CEO, RJ Scaringe put it, nothing like it existed today.
Joel Feder
“Where we wanted to have a rear wiper on the drop glass, but we didn’t want it to sit on the body. And so you’ve seen probably cars that have wipers on the body, and then we also didn’t want to put it, we couldn’t put it, in the spoiler, because it was a pass through. And so, we actually hid it in that ledge, which is complex, because there’s not any wipers like that. So we had to develop and design a complete wiper system from scratch,” Scaringe said.
This led to challenges, according to Scaringe. “We had to design a way to deal with all the obvious challenges of that, let’s say, it fills with water, and it’s cold outside, how does it not freeze? So it sits in a heated trough. We had to design for ways for it to have a snow mode, so it pops up, it stays out,“ Scaringe said. He continued, “and if you’re in a cold climate, you can set it to pop up just so that there’s no risk of it getting stuck. So there’s a ton of work that went into that. We actually put out an image of it in a cold chamber testing, where the whole car is covered in ice, and the wiper’s still working.”
Rivian R2 Standard with a glass-mounted rear wiper Joel Feder
Hammoud told The Drive, “You can see on the version that doesn’t have it [referring to the wiper in the trough], attached to the glass [pointing to the base Standard trim]. You don’t have to worry about it because it’s integrated. So for this vehicle [referring to the Premium and Performance trims with the inset wiper design], because we have the pass through a spoiler, we can’t put it in the back of the spoiler, right? Because it just doesn’t work because it’ll wreck the pass through, which we need for aero. So the other option was we could attach it to the body. Aside from it looking bad, even if it’s attached to the body, you still need a way for it to get off the glass. “
Hammoud continued, “So, I think we came up with a really nice solution that’s very well integrated and hides it, and that way you can get full glass drop. And that way when you’re pulling things in and out of the vehicle, it’s not in the way. Because that’s the other problem with the ones that are attached to the body during the way when you’re pulling stuff out.”
But creating an entire rear wiper system from scratch was a hurdle. Scaringe noted, “There’s a whole team that had to work on that.”
“Sweat, nights, and weekends to get that to come together, but it was, as a finished product, what we hope a customer sees is they see it just, as a beautiful detail, and then they’ll [think], when they pull the thread, and they’re like, oh, wow, they’ve thought of you developing the trough properly and developing all the kinematics properly, but those are great details,” Scaringe said.
Scaringe closed the topic by saying, “Came out well. It was hard.”
Got a tip about how a product was engineered? Drop us a line at tips@thdrive.com
As Director of Content and Product, Joel draws on over 15 years of newsroom experience and inability to actually stop working to help ensure The Drive shapes the future of automotive media. He’s also a World Car Award juror.
