The Rivian R1T pickup truck finally gets reviewed
Plus: Science shows how to optimize longevity.
I couldn't scrape up much about RJ Scaringe, besides a smattering of interviews and articles — and all the corporate PR material.
I was set to speak with the founder of Rivian, the electric vehicle company, back in early 2019. I didn’t get around to any old classmates, bosses, or coworkers. I didn’t have a good sense of what I was walking into.
I was a little concerned, but his car brand was brand new, he was relatively new as a CEO, and his two new car models, a truck and an SUV, were years from production. It seemed OK to focus on the future for that interview, which was part of our Future 50 series on innovators who would make a change in the 2020s.
On the phone, Scaringe was more reserved and thoughtful than the sort of gung-ho CEOs who arrive at the C-Suite via a life in sales. His background in technology and love for nature gave me a sense — over the phone, anyway — that he was a quiet, if intense, sort of personality.
I asked him, as any journalist reporting on electric cars will, about Tesla. Read the interview for his thoughts at that moment, but a sign of his contemplative style came a few hours later when he called me back.
He wanted to further add to his thoughts of how Rivian might compete with Tesla, or if it would at all. His mission, he wanted to say, wasn’t about reducing Tesla’s market share; it was about converting more people to EVs: “We’re taking volume from all the non-electric vehicles, and that’s where the market for electric vehicles is going to expand greatly.”
With his new truck — the embargo for its review lifted at 9 a.m. Eastern on Tuesday — he might contribute to that expansion of electric vehicles. It’s our lead story today.
This is an adapted version of the Inverse Daily newsletter for Tuesday, September 28, 2021. Subscribe for free and earn rewards for reading every day in your inbox. ✉️
A prototype of the Rivian R1T at the New York International Auto Show in 2019.
We drove the Rivian R1T and have this review — We always knew the Rivian R1T, the electric pickup truck with a factory based in central Illinois, was packed with clever design features. What was less evident is how well it handles off-roading. Jordan Golson has the review of the long-awaited pickup truck. Here’s a snippet of his review:
Let's set aside the fact that the R1T is electric — that’s well down my list of exciting things about this truck. Rivian has the advantage of zero institutional baggage, so the R1T's designers had a clean sheet of paper to work with. As a result, the R1T is a top-to-bottom rethink of what a pickup should do and be.
Go deeper:
- Rivian founder RJ Scaringe lays out the big future for EVs (2019)
- Who’s driving a Rivian in 2029? (2019)
- Rivian R1T and R1S release date, price, specs, range, and towing
Lunch time at the ol’ factory.
How to optimize longevity — Maintaining an eating schedule may help safeguard your long-term health, reports Nick Keppler:
What links Jennifer Anniston and the Buddha?
Intermittent fasting. In the last ten years, research has found evidence that restricting the hours in which you eat could reduce the risk for obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and other ailments that can stem from an off-balance metabolism.
The body has a network of internal clocks that respond to external cues, one of which is food consumption. Maintaining an eating schedule — and giving your cells a break from processing food — may cut down on circadian disruptions that meddle with the functions of cells and are linked to a host of metabolic health problems. Helpfully enough, the exact time breakdown is already a popular pick for those who practice intermittent fasting.
Go deeper:
- Why intermittent fasting can be a dangerous choice for men
- The most misunderstood part of intermittent fasting isn’t what you think
- Can fasting ward off infections? Mice study reveals an unexpected link
Who doesn’t love a little branzino hot off the grill?
Eat to slow cognitive decline — Sarah Sloat reports on the MIND diet, a hybrid of the Mediterranean diet and the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension diet. And it just passed its latest test:
You are what you eat. But what you eat also shapes who you become.
Decades of nutritional studies repeatedly confirm this. However, missing from the equation was a diet tailored explicitly for brain health. Realizing this, the late Martha Clare Morris, a nutritional epidemiologist, studied foods and nutrients associated explicitly with lower cognitive decline and lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease. In 2015, he premiered the MIND diet.
The MIND diet is a hybrid of the Mediterranean diet and the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension diet (its name is a combo of those two diets). And it just passed its latest test.
Go deeper:
- Ancient men and women in Italy had one key difference in their diets — study
- Scientists role play as Neanderthals to discover a dietary secret
- Could a high-salt diet be the next cancer treatment?
The pursuit of “full self-driving” continues for Tesla.
Tesla Full Self-Driving: Safety score explained — Mike Brown reports that Tesla's full self-driving beta has taken another step forward. Here's what you need to know:
Want to try Tesla’s full self-driving car software? You’ll have to undergo a safety test first.
Over the weekend, CEO Elon Musk announced an update to the company’s electric car software via Twitter. The in-car computer now offers a button to request access to the ongoing full self-driving beta program. Touching the button brings up a disclaimer that Tesla will evaluate your performance as a driver to determine eligibility.
Go deeper:
- Subscribe to Inverse Musk Reads+ Substack newsletter
- Solar car: Tesla’s hidden history revealed
- No unions, big problem: Why Biden might leave Tesla behind
Naomi Watts in 2002. The actress, who has been cast in a Game of Thrones prequel, marks a birthday today.
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- Notable birthdays: Brigitte Bardot (87), Hilary Duff (34), Naomi Watts (53; pictured above), Mira Sorvino (54), Dita Von Teese (49). (Source: AP.)
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