The Rivian R1T is the coolest pickup truck ever made. Not only do I believe that to be true (okay, I do find older trucks to be cooler, but I’ll assume Doug means “coolest when new”), but that’s also the title of former Jalop, YouTube baller, and auto sales businessman Doug DeMuro’s recent video. Watch as the King of Quirk ogles over the quirkiest new pickup truck in the world.
You may have already seen this, because it’s from five days ago and has 1.3 million views, but if you haven’t, now’s the time.
I’m not nearly the quirk fetishist that Doug is, but even I couldn’t resist getting excited by the Rivian’s wacky features. Seriously, look at how thrilled my dopey face looks in this thumbnail of my own quirk-related R1T video:
I felt a bit guilty making that video above and writing my article “Your Guide To The 2022 Rivian R1T Electric Pickup’s Incredible Gadgets,” because even though Doug doesn’t own a patent/copyright/trademark on the term “quirk” or on the concept of showing people automotive gizmos, he’s the best at the game. The GOAT.
It was clear to me that my tour of the Rivian’s quirks was only ever going to amount to a pack of Great Value brand Oreos. You know, the cheap vanilla paste-filled chocolate sandwich cookies that will do in a pinch when real Oreos are nowhere to be found, but let’s be honest, nobody gets excited picking this up off the shelf:
But I had no choice. There were too many quirks — ones that I couldn’t be expected to resist showing you, and ones that you dear readers shouldn’t have been expected to wait for. It was a quirk overload for all of us.
Luckily, my work held back the tide of demand for the real Oreos, though deep in the comments section, it was clear that folks were gathering pitchforks and torches. The people had grown tired of Twist & Shouts:
Anyway, the real Oreos showed up before any sort of violent YouTube/Jalopnik overthrow, and of course, they are as great as ever. Behold Doug DeMuro, the man of the people — the quirk discovering maestro — digging into the quirkiest pickup of our time:
The video isn’t three hours as YouTube commenter Robert Curran joked, but at 45 minutes, it is long for a Doug DeMuro video. And it should be; the R1T is one giant automotive quirk, thanks in part to the fact that it is “a total clean-sheet look at a pickup truck,” as Doug puts it. (Plus, of course, it’s electric, meaning it offers certain packaging advantages, and its onboard battery can be used to power lots of cool accessories).
Doug shows the Gear Tunnel, Camp Kitchen, and under-bed storage. He digs into the infotainment system and shows the rear Gear Guard setup. I won’t write out everything he shows, since I basically wrote a whole article on it. Instead, I’ll just say: If you’re a fan of Doug’s Quirks and Features videos, you’d be remiss not to watch him review the ultimate quirky pickup.
While you’re at it, it’s worth checking out Doug’s assessment of the R1T’s off-road capabilities, because I find the footage to be a fantastic display of the vehicle’s four-motor four-wheel drive system’s abilities and drawbacks:
Read my in-depth article on the R1T’s off-road chops here; in my article, I discuss — with input from the R1T’s lead drivetrain engineer — how the truck’s four-motor four-wheel drive system works. You can see a lot of what I’m talking about in Doug’s off-road footage above — the controllers send varying amounts of current to each motor depending upon traction conditions, constantly monitoring grip and wheelspin to give the truck the best shot of ascending the grade.
This is the first soon-to-be-mainstream off-road vehicle that I know of that has Individual-Wheel Drive (IWD), but it certainly won’t be the last. So it’s just cool to see how this all works for the first time.