2023 RIVIAN R1S Air Bags Problems

On five separate occasions the airbag system on my car has become inoperable. Starting in July 2025 I noticed an airbag error on the display of the vehicle. I brought the car in for service and they replaced the steering wheel. The airbag error occurred again in August, this time requiring replacement of a different wiring harness. The error occurred again and again went in for service in November, this time replacing the front seats, seatbelt control modules, and the airbag module. This past weekend the air bag alert appeared again. Rivian seems unable to fix the issue with the airbags on my vehicle creating a significant safety concern.

Front passenger airbag is inactive for long periods of time while a passenger is seated in the vehicle during operation. This is indicated by the message displaying the airbag as being off. This occurs regularly with an adult seated normally in the seat while traveling at highway speeds, for long periods of time. I reported this to Rivian and they said the car is functioning normally but it does not seem safe that the airbag is turned off with a passenger present in the vehicle during operation. I am listing the latest incident date here but this has been persistent since I purchased the car new in 2023.

the sensitivity of the airbag sensor on the passenger seat is not functioning properly in my opinion. there are times when there is a passenger present and seated, the car is showing that the passenger airbag is off. I took the car to Rivian service center. They indicated that they could not replicate the problem and that to make sure the passengers are over 110 lbs. They also noted that with future software update, they may make it better, which indicates to me that they know there is a problem. I know for a fact that my passengers have been over 110 lbs.

The passenger seat airbag turns off when a passenger is sitting in the seat. I have taken the vehicle to the service center twice for this issue and they insist it is working as intended. This is a major safety issue for myself and children when we are sitting in the passenger seat. Please help in resolving this!

I received a critical safety recall regarding side air bags from Rivian regarding my 2023 R1S on June 14. After multiple attempts by me to connect with their Customer Service, I was informed that a mobile service technician would come to fix the issue on August 26, 2024. This would be more than 60 days after Rivian's initial notification. Additionally, on July 6 2024, when I turned on the vehicle, I was notified of multiple system failures. I promptly created an incident ticket with Rivian on this but have to yet hear back from Rivian. Rivian's lax attitude on getting such critical issues fixed is of great concern. The vehicle is barely over a year old since I have owned it and I feel distrustful of this company and thoroughly disappointed by their nonchalant approach to getting these critical issues fixed.

My right front passenger seat does not detect adult occupants reliably, and therefore does not enable the airbags. My wife is approximately 105 pounds and sits in the seat in a standard upright fashion without leaning back. Her legs are not crossed and are just resting on the floor. it is rare that the vehicle detects her presence and therefore she is rarely protected by the safety restraint system in the event of an accident. I brought the vehicle into Rivian Service and they inspected and said the sensor is working properly and is designed to detect occupants roughly 105 to 110 pounds. They said there is nothing that they can do about it. Every other vehicle I currently own and have owned in the past properly detects her presence for the SRS system.

The Rivian is designed to kill fat people. The Airbag for the passenger seat does not function if there is a large person in the seat or the seat is very far forward with a normal person. When someone sits in the passenger seat the lower left corner of the central display changes from “Passenger Airbag Off” to the passenger climate control display. If you pull the seatbelt all the way out the display reverts back to the “Passenger Airbag Off” sign. The seat belt has to retract about 6 inches back into the B pillar for the climate control display to come back on. If the seat belt can’t retract far enough back into the B pillar, you have to drive around with an inoperable passenger seatbelt. I have been able to duplicate this feature on every Rivian I have tried it on. This has been reported to Rivian. A mechanic was sent to my house to repair this. It couldn’t be repaired as expected. I was told the problem would be elevated to a safety issue and sent to engineering. That was in the beginning of February 2024. No answers or fix yet. I have video of the problem, but mp4 files are not accepted below. Please contact me if you would like video.

The passenger side airbag shows that it is turned off about 50% of the time that my wife is riding in the passenger seat. She meets the minimum weight requirement for passenger airbag deployment. If she moves around in the seat the airbag off light will go out temporarily but usually comes back on within several miles of driving. This vehicle is available for inspection. When this happens my wife or any other passenger is at risk of not having an airbag if an accident was to occur. This issues has been looked at several times by the manufacturer and I was told that the vehicle is operating as intended. No resonable solution was offered. The only solution from the manufacturer was to have the passenger move around or adjust the seat until the airbag came on. Then have the passenger stay in that position for the duration of the ride. We’ve tried this and it doesn’t work the airbag still turns off.

Since the vehicle was new, I have had a problem with the air bag being off when a large person is in the passenger seat. I have reported this to Rivian. Rivian has sent a technician out to fix this. The technician indicated that he could not fix this as planned and would submit it to engineering as a safety issue. I have made multiple inquiries since then and received no information on when this will be resolved. I have also had 3 software updates since then and the problem has not been resolved. I have been able to duplicate the problem on another R1S. If you sit in the passenger seat the passenger climate controls will become available. If you pull the seatbelt all the way out of the B pillar, the passenger climate control will go away and you will get the passenger airbag off notification. If the seatbelt can go back into the B pillar about 8 inches, the climate control setting will return. If you are a large person or have the seat forward and the seatbelt can't retract that far, you are passenger without airbag protection.

My wife does not shows up as a passenger in the front seat about 30% of the time with the seatbelt fastened. She is 105~108 lbs. This is a continuing problem with no fix in sight. Not registering when seated means two key things: 1) no airbag support in case of an accident 2) passenger side climate control doesn't function separately from synced mode. After multiple attempt with the Rivian service center/mobile service, all they can only say that it's within spec. Rivian SC staffs say that SW fix is coming. That was 4 over the air firmware updates ago. Unfortunately the problem is so small in terms of affected population, they have done nothing to date.

Passenger occupancy system seems flaky when my fiance sits in the passenger seat - sometime it takes 30 seconds to register she is there, sometimes it goes off while we are driving if she makes slight adjustments in the seat (while sitting straight and not in any awkward position), which can be dangerous if we were in a near crash situation, her weight shifted causing the airbag not to deploy. Although she is on a smaller side (5’5’’ 110lb) we never had this issue with any car we owned or rented.

Every time my wife gets into the front passenger seat the sensor in the seat doesn’t recognize her sitting down and doesn’t active the passenger side airbag also the climate control is inactive. Rivian claims that there is a seat weight limit but my wife weighs 145 lbs. this happens all the time until my wife moves around enough to activate it. Then sometimes it turns off in the middle of a drive as if there wasn’t a passenger in that seat. This has also occurred with some heavier passengers. Rivian claims nothing wrong with the vehicle. I took delivery at the end of October and the problem still continues.

Longstanding issue with R1S and R1T’s not recognizing a front passenger is present. Many reports in online forums regarding the same problem and ours does not even see a 6’4” 450lb passenger regularly. Other complainants are reporting feedback that it’s ‘within spec’, ‘it’s safer for smaller passengers’, and that ‘you need to sit in the seat properly’(?!). Please do something about this serious safety issue. Thanks.

The passenger airbag does not consistently turn on or stay on with passengers in the seat.

The system does not turn on the airbags for driver or passenger under 140 pounds. This is a safety hazard.

The passenger seat doesn’t recognize a passenger in the seat. Happpens all the time for my wife, who ways 120lbs… there are hundreds of folks who also have this problem with the Rivian passenger seat/driver seats. Huge safety issue.

Intermittently does not register a passenger in the passenger seat (even with a seatbelt on and seat upright in a normal position) such that the airbags are turned off and climate controls are not activated. Passenger weighs more than 120 lbs.

A passenger of lighter weight will not trigger the passenger seat’s weight sensor, rendering the passenger side airbag disabled. The passenger must sit up perfectly straight and center their weight on the center of the seat for them to be properly detected. A service center visit claimed the seats are working as designed, but there is clearly an issue.

Vehicle routinely (>90% of the time) fails to detect occupancy of front passenger seat resulting in disabled airbags and other related safety systems. Our particular vehicle experiences the issue with passengers ranging from 150-425lbs resulting in a significant safety concern. Searching online indicates this is a common issue and repair requests are routinely denied with claims that it is operating correctly. Others have been told it is due to posture or seating position…I’ve never had a vehicle whose safety features were disabled due to poor posture?!

Passenger seat does not detect my 5'4" 110lb wife, thus preventing the airbags from activating. This is the first car we've encountered with this problem. Is Rivian accounting for the fact that the weight occupancy sensor account for the weight of the legs placed on the floor? Please let us know if there will be a recall or a software update to address this.

Passenger seat does not detect light to normal weight/BMI adult buckled in and disables the front passenger airbag. Vehicle service state it is working as intended. Therefore, for all intent and purposes the vehicle does not have passenger airbag.

The front Passenger seat intermittently disables the Passenger Air Bag System, depending on the movement of the passenger. For example, my girlfriend was sitting in the seat, with her legs crossed. When she is in this position, the system disables. If she shifts her weight around, the system reenables. This is repeatable, with numerous members of my family. I had the vehicle in service, and they were not able to reproduce the issue (No trouble found). As soon as I got my daughter, in the care ,the issue presented itself once again. My daughter is 108 lbs.

When my wife, 5 ft 5 in about ~100lbs sits in the front passenger seat (legs and feet forward in a regular up-right position), the airbag does not always turn on. It is intermittent and unpredictable when it turns on vs. off. It even turns off and on while driving. It makes us uncomfortable not knowing if she is protected in a crash. Rivian has told us it's working as expected but the photos show otherwise and they say there is nothing they can do to fix.

Passenger side airbag off sign stayed on while my girlfriend was sitting in the seat. She weighs about 100 pounds. When I sat in the passenger seat, the Passenger side airbag off sign turned off. I weigh about 170 pounds.

I noticed when driving with a passenger (female, approximately 135 pounds) that the screen keeps switching between "PASSENGER AIRBAG OFF" and showing the vehicle detects the passenger (hence the airbag is on). I'm concerned about the safety of my passenger when driving as I do not know whether the passenger airbag will work properly. I took photos and videos of this issue with my vehicle as it is reproducible when driving with this passenger. I took the vehicle to the manufacturer's service center, and they noted: "Followed along with the repair plan created by diagnostics team, notated each step as completed, upon following repair plan was unable to duplicate customer concern, found the occupancy sensor works as expected, The occupancy sensor is very sensitive and dependent upon the weight being distributed equally throughout the seat, if the occupant sits too far forward in the seat the sensor will not detect the weight". The issue was first detected on September 9, 2023 and the vehicle had less than 1000 miles on the odometer.

They have set the sensors for the passenger airbag outside of the acceptable department standards. There are many instances where a person under 120 pounds does not activate the sensor and therefore the passenger airbag is not activated. I have notified the company on several occasions and not been given any response other than they are aware or it is working as intended. It is not worth someone getting hurt to create a response.

When the passenger seat is occupied, we intermittently get a message that the airbag is off (and the heating/ac controls for the passenger side go away). This occurred when the seat was occupied by two of my sons (one 6'1", 145 lbs and the other 5'9" and 155 lbs). We took the car in to get checked and while Rivian noticed the same issue after testing, they said diagnostics found nothing wrong. They checked to see if this was related to the Feb 2023 recall and said it is not. Additionally, we have a loaner R1S and it has the exact same issue with the passenger seat not detecting a passenger is in the seat.