We’ve seen time after time where Tesla’s Sentry feature has captured video of a person damaging the car or sometimes just doing silly things. Rivian wanted to include a similar but more comprehensive feature and the product of that plan is something they call Gear Guard. Today, they detailed that system a little more for us so let’s go through it.
At its heart, Gear Guard takes a decidedly different path from Tesla’s Sentry mode, the former of which used to depict the sentient computer HAL9000, from 2001: A Space Odyssey, in its center screen. No, Gear Guard uses a fuzzy, somewhat happy-looking bigfoot / yeti type character that looks like he’s come out of hiding in a 1970s era bunker.
He gets triggered to display on the center screen anytime a human is detected within just a couple of feet of the vehicle. Rivian uses five exterior cameras to monitor the area. If that happens, owners will get a notification on their device and any footage that’s recorded will be saved on an internal hard drive in the vehicle. Rivian says that they spent a long time ensuring that bikes and animals wouldn’t trigger Gear Guard the same way.
Related: The Rivian R1T Has Eight Driving Modes For Any Situation
The point, after all, is to deter damage and or theft. To that end, Gear Guard offers more than Sentry thanks to the inclusion of a cable. Gone are the days of locking up a bunch of gear with an exposed lock keyway. This 14-foot cable locks into the bed of the R1T (no word on how or if it can work with the R1S SUV but we see no reason it couldn’t) just below the onboard air compressor.
If it’s tugged or tampered with, it will also trigger an alert that gets sent to the owner of the vehicle. To keep thieves at bay in the meantime, it’s made from braided steel and is covered with a woven nylon jacket. That’s not going to stop the most dedicated thief but it will slow ill-equipped ones down. What’s great about it is that it allows owners to lock up all sorts of stuff from a couple of bikes to coolers or any other gear that might be in the bed.