Charging an EV at home is generally about as exciting as plugging in your phone. Frankly, that’s the optimal experience in most cases. However, you’re dealing with a whole lot more electricity, often for hours at a time, and cutting corners can have some spectacularly expensive consequences. One Rivian owner appears to have learned that lesson in about the worst possible way.

Photos shared to the Rivian subreddit show an R1S with its entire front end absolutely cooked. Seriously, a lightning bolt might have done less damage. On top of that, there’s substantial fire damage to the garage nearby. According to the Reddit user who posted the images, they stumbled across the aftermath while walking their dog and were told by a neighbor that the fire began while the Rivian was charging through an extension cord.

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That said, it’s a secondhand account. We haven’t found a fire department report confirming the exact cause, so we can’t say definitively that the extension cord started the blaze, nor do we know for sure precisely what type of cord, outlet, or charging equipment was being used. What we can say is that Rivian really doesn’t want owners doing this.

The automaker’s owner’s guide specifically warns drivers not to plug its Portable Charger into “an extension cord, power converter, power strip, or any type of power adapter.” It also warns against using damaged, loose, or worn outlets. That’s key because Rivian’s J1772 portable charger can pull up to 32 amps and deliver 7.6 kW when plugged into a 240v outlet. While it won’t necessarily draw those maximums constantly, it’s still trying to draw significant electricity through the cordage for lengthy periods of time.

The Reddit post itself sparked an interesting debate over whether extension cords themselves are really the problem. Several commenters argued that a properly rated heavy-duty cord can safely carry substantial current, while others pointed to possible problems involving undersized wiring, damaged connections, coiled cords, or overheated plugs. One commenter even suggested the photos appear to show a NEMA 14-50 RV-style extension cord rather than some bargain-bin household cable.

No doubt, extension cords come in all sorts of sizes and qualities. That said, Rivian’s instructions don’t leave room for interpretation. It simply says not to use one. In this case, it appears that advice could’ve kept at least this R1S on the road. Most importantly, the Reddit poster says neighbors confirmed that the owners of the SUV were okay. Hopefully we can all appreciate the reminder that comes from their material loss.

Photos: A Reddit User

Customer deliveries of the Rivian R2 started only three months ago, and already, the electric SUV has been caught up in its first recall. It’s not the only Rivian model impacted either, as tens of thousands of R1S and R1T models are also being recalled over the same issue.

The recall notice says that a software issue in the R1S, R1T, and R2 models falls foul of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. On the face of it, that sounds quite troubling, but it isn’t overly significant and certainly isn’t something Rivian owners should be losing sleep over.

Read: Rivian Service Followed The Wrong Instructions For Years, And One Owner Already Got Hurt

The company says that if the stability control system is disabled in one of the different drive modes, a safety alert will appear on the infotainment screen, asking whether the driver would like to return to a mode where the ESC is enabled. If a driver then puts the vehicle into reverse without making a selection, this notification will remain on screen, overlapping the rear-view camera image, which is a no-no according to safety standards.

A total of 98,828 Rivian models are impacted. These start with 2,481 examples of the 2027 R2, manufactured between April 23, 2026, and August 10, 2026. In addition, 62,259 Rivian R1S models built from March 30, 2022, to August 6, 2026, through the 2022-2027 model years are involved, as are 34,088 Rivian R1Ts built from August 23, 2021, to July 6, 2026.

Rivian says it discovered the issue during internal testing from July through September and adds that before the recall notice was even issued, an over-the-air software update had already rectified the fault in most models. In fact, it says the update has already been rolled out to 96 percent of the R2s involved, as well as 95 percent of R1S and R1T models. Chances are, if you own an impacted model, it was already updated and fixed before the recall.

One of the better arguments for buying a software-defined vehicle is that, theoretically, the ride sitting in your driveway can get meaningfully better years after you bought it. Rivian is putting that promise to the test with what it calls the biggest software transformation the R1 has received yet. Importantly, even first-gen models will get this big new shiny update.

The automaker has begun rolling out software update 2026.31, which moves every R1T and R1S onto RivianOS 2. Again, Rivian isn’t leaving early adopters behind. Both first- and second-generation R1 vehicles get the new operating system, putting them onto the same underlying software stack as the newer R2. The most obvious changes come in the form of layout adjustments.

Read: VW Owner Says A Free Over-The-Air Update Left Him With A $1,600 Repair Bill

Rivian redesigned the interface with configurable quick controls and a media player that can be positioned on either side of the center display. There’s also a new vertical status bar and a substantially reworked settings menu with universal search and context-sensitive controls.

Graphics get an overhaul, too, although this is where hardware differences start to matter. Gen 2 R1s and the R2 use Unreal Engine 5 for real-time 3D vehicle and surroundings visualizations. First-generation R1s stick with Unreal Engine 4, which Rivian says allows it to maintain responsiveness on the older display hardware. That seems like a reasonable compromise. Early R1 owners can’t automatically gain the hardware compute that newer ones have, and yet, they still get many new benefits.

Google Maps And Waze Data Come Along For The Ride

Perhaps more useful than prettier graphics are the new navigation alerts. Rivian is integrating Google Maps information about police presence and speed cameras directly into its navigation system. That information can come from local authorities and third-party sources, along with real-time reports submitted through Google Maps and Waze. On top of that, Connect+ subscribers get even more.

There’s now a dedicated weather app with current conditions, air-quality information, and a 10-day forecast. Subscribers can also create, view, and modify active vehicle trips through the Rivian mobile app. Underneath all of this is what Rivian calls its “Unified Intelligence” platform. Gen 2 R1s and R2s have enough onboard computing power for more local processing, while both generations of R1 receive expanded cloud-assisted voice functionality and refreshed driver-display layouts.

Privacy Settings Made The Cut

Privacy controls haven’t disappeared in the AI shuffle, either. Rivian says owners can disable hotword wake-word functionality, restrict location sharing, and change driver-profile data settings. Perhaps the most interesting part isn’t any individual feature, though. It’s that a first-generation R1 is getting essentially the same software design language as a brand-new R2.

That’s exactly what OTA updates were supposed to make possible, and it’s considerably more compelling than an update that merely moves a few icons around. The 2026.31 update is rolling out now to eligible R1 and R2 vehicles, though Rivian says availability can vary by vehicle.

Photos: Rivian