Northeast Florida could be a pretty interesting real-world test for the Traveler

[aaron.p.berger]

New Traveler reservation holder here from Northeast Florida. I’ve been following Scout for a while and finally joined the community.

One of the reasons the Traveler caught my attention is that it lines up almost perfectly with how we actually use a vehicle down here. During the week it’s family duty, commuting and the normal chaos that comes with kids. On the weekends it’s usually the beach with surfboards, SUPs, kayaks and enough gear to make you question every packing decision you’ve ever made.

Florida also seems like a pretty interesting real-world environment for Scout: heat, humidity, salt air, sand, heavy rain, long highway drives and year-round outdoor use.

As Scout gets closer to production, if there are ever opportunities for reservation holders to participate in customer validation, regional events, product feedback or other early programs, I’d absolutely volunteer Northeast Florida and would be happy to provide structured feedback along the way.

Curious what everyone else thinks: what environments or real-world use cases do you think Scout absolutely needs to test before launch?

 

[cyure]

New Traveler reservation holder here from Northeast Florida. I’ve been following Scout for a while and finally joined the community.

One of the reasons the Traveler caught my attention is that it lines up almost perfectly with how we actually use a vehicle down here. During the week it’s family duty, commuting and the normal chaos that comes with kids. On the weekends it’s usually the beach with surfboards, SUPs, kayaks and enough gear to make you question every packing decision you’ve ever made.

Florida also seems like a pretty interesting real-world environment for Scout: heat, humidity, salt air, sand, heavy rain, long highway drives and year-round outdoor use.

As Scout gets closer to production, if there are ever opportunities for reservation holders to participate in customer validation, regional events, product feedback or other early programs, I’d absolutely volunteer Northeast Florida and would be happy to provide structured feedback along the way.

Curious what everyone else thinks: what environments or real-world use cases do you think Scout absolutely needs to test before launch?

Welcome to the community!

 

[J Alynn]

New Traveler reservation holder here from Northeast Florida. I’ve been following Scout for a while and finally joined the community.

One of the reasons the Traveler caught my attention is that it lines up almost perfectly with how we actually use a vehicle down here. During the week it’s family duty, commuting and the normal chaos that comes with kids. On the weekends it’s usually the beach with surfboards, SUPs, kayaks and enough gear to make you question every packing decision you’ve ever made.

Florida also seems like a pretty interesting real-world environment for Scout: heat, humidity, salt air, sand, heavy rain, long highway drives and year-round outdoor use.

As Scout gets closer to production, if there are ever opportunities for reservation holders to participate in customer validation, regional events, product feedback or other early programs, I’d absolutely volunteer Northeast Florida and would be happy to provide structured feedback along the way.

Curious what everyone else thinks: what environments or real-world use cases do you think Scout absolutely needs to test before launch?

Welcome to the forum and thanks for posting. You are a person with great thoughts. I think this has been bounced around several times and suspect there is a long line of us wanting in on the fun but it’s great you’ve joined and shared their stories same great thinking. Here’s hoping it works out!

 

[J Alynn]

New Traveler reservation holder here from Northeast Florida. I’ve been following Scout for a while and finally joined the community.

One of the reasons the Traveler caught my attention is that it lines up almost perfectly with how we actually use a vehicle down here. During the week it’s family duty, commuting and the normal chaos that comes with kids. On the weekends it’s usually the beach with surfboards, SUPs, kayaks and enough gear to make you question every packing decision you’ve ever made.

Florida also seems like a pretty interesting real-world environment for Scout: heat, humidity, salt air, sand, heavy rain, long highway drives and year-round outdoor use.

As Scout gets closer to production, if there are ever opportunities for reservation holders to participate in customer validation, regional events, product feedback or other early programs, I’d absolutely volunteer Northeast Florida and would be happy to provide structured feedback along the way.

Curious what everyone else thinks: what environments or real-world use cases do you think Scout absolutely needs to test before launch?

And BTW you live in a beautiful area. Have visited there once-briefly but great area

 

[Scout_Lookout]

New Traveler reservation holder here from Northeast Florida. I’ve been following Scout for a while and finally joined the community.

One of the reasons the Traveler caught my attention is that it lines up almost perfectly with how we actually use a vehicle down here. During the week it’s family duty, commuting and the normal chaos that comes with kids. On the weekends it’s usually the beach with surfboards, SUPs, kayaks and enough gear to make you question every packing decision you’ve ever made.

Florida also seems like a pretty interesting real-world environment for Scout: heat, humidity, salt air, sand, heavy rain, long highway drives and year-round outdoor use.

As Scout gets closer to production, if there are ever opportunities for reservation holders to participate in customer validation, regional events, product feedback or other early programs, I’d absolutely volunteer Northeast Florida and would be happy to provide structured feedback along the way.

Curious what everyone else thinks: what environments or real-world use cases do you think Scout absolutely needs to test before launch?

Welcome to the community! I'm just north of you in GA and while I get the heat and humidity we sadly don't get the salty air and sand or beach. But you make a really good strong argument that your use case is ideal for the Scout product.

Curious as to what you drive now and if you went full BEV or Harvester?

 

[bwdavis7]

Welcome to the community from SC! About 2.5 hours NW of Blythewood at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Some rugged mountain trails and river crossings. Hills and valleys. And like @Scout_Lookout, plenty of humidity.

Check out Jocassee Gorges.

 

[Broverlander]

Living in Minnesota, I'm going to throw my hat in the ring for the Midwest. Winters are especially tough on cars around here. From heating to below zero temps to snow and ice, it's harsh up here in the winter. I know that companies test their cars up here in northern Minnesota for all these things, but it's still important, I think.

 

[aaron.p.berger]

Welcome to the community! I'm just north of you in GA and while I get the heat and humidity we sadly don't get the salty air and sand or beach. But you make a really good strong argument that your use case is ideal for the Scout product.

Curious as to what you drive now and if you went full BEV or Harvester?

I went harvester. I want the most bang for the buck. Currently own a 22 Sahara 4xe…not thrilled with the Jeep experience. Test drove a R1S and loved it, literally cannot get past the front headlights.

 

[strider]

I went harvester. I want the most bang for the buck. Currently own a 22 Sahara 4xe…not thrilled with the Jeep experience. Test drove a R1S and loved it, literally cannot get past the front headlights.

Same here on the Rivian. Love so much about it mechanically. Cannot look at the front end without throwing up a little. However my 15 year old son thinks they are the coolest and was fishing for an R2 when he turns 16. Not going to happen but maybe when he can afford one on his own he'll get one.

 

[J Alynn]

I went harvester. I want the most bang for the buck. Currently own a 22 Sahara 4xe…not thrilled with the Jeep experience. Test drove a R1S and loved it, literally cannot get past the front headlights.

Still amazes to this day how polarizing those headlights are to people. My wife “thinks they’re cute”. I completely disclaimed it but I get it-personal choice and beauty is in the eye of the beholder

 

[aaron.p.berger]

Living in Minnesota, I'm going to throw my hat in the ring for the Midwest. Winters are especially tough on cars around here. From heating to below zero temps to snow and ice, it's harsh up here in the winter. I know that companies test their cars up here in northern Minnesota for all these things, but it's still important, I think.

That’s exactly what makes this interesting to me. Florida gives you heat, salt, sand and year-round use, SC gives you elevation and tougher terrain, and Minnesota gives you the opposite extreme entirely. If Scout ever does real-world regional validation with owners, you could learn a lot pretty quickly by putting the same vehicle into completely different environments.

 

[Broverlander]

I went harvester. I want the most bang for the buck. Currently own a 22 Sahara 4xe…not thrilled with the Jeep experience. Test drove a R1S and loved it, literally cannot get past the front headlights.

I had and have the same experience. I had a Wrangler a few cars ago and the thing was terrible to drive. Just wandered all over the road. And here in Minnesota, the doors became essentially unusable after a winter or two. I LOVE my R1T. Just love it. Don't love the headlights and wish it were bigger (inside and out) and more rugged looking. Thus, the Traveler!

 

[Broverlander]

That’s exactly what makes this interesting to me. Florida gives you heat, salt, sand and year-round use, SC gives you elevation and tougher terrain, and Minnesota gives you the opposite extreme entirely. If Scout ever does real-world regional validation with owners, you could learn a lot pretty quickly by putting the same vehicle into completely different environments.

That's a really interesting concept. Has any auto manufacturer ever done that? Put cars in the hands of certain consumers before they go live to ferret out any issues?

 

[cyure]

That's a really interesting concept. Has any auto manufacturer ever done that? Put cars in the hands of certain consumers before they go live to ferret out any issues?

Customers I don’t know, but living near the Normal Rivian Plant before they were for sale to the public you knew who worked for Rivian because the engineers had the trucks parked in their driveways.

 

[bwdavis7]

There was a local legend Scout 800 pickup owner around here in the 60's named Lawrence Norton whose Scout had dents in every square inch of the body. Not huge dents, but lots of dents...not sure how it was even possible. Anyway, when my dad bought his new Scout 800, Lawrence asked my dad "You want me to break that thing in for you?" Of course Dad quickly replied, "Noooo!"
That was long before WhistlinDiesel ever came along.

Now THAT, I would say, would be a true real world test!

 

[Jamie@ScoutMotors]

That's a really interesting concept. Has any auto manufacturer ever done that? Put cars in the hands of certain consumers before they go live to ferret out any issues?

No, not normally. We have an entire team of people dedicated to testing and validation. They take the vehicles from rugged Alaska to Death Valley to private test facilities with everything from snow, ice, heat, boulders, mud, sand and more. Eventually we will take them to Moab, Rubicon Trail, Black Bear and loads more. The vehicles get tested from 130+ degrees heat down to -60 degrees in an indoor environment as well. VW's own test track facility has been used already. This is an older video as the facility has expanded a bit with extensive offroad test areas as well, but it give you an idea of some of the testing that is done:

 

[Chuckles]

That's a really interesting concept. Has any auto manufacturer ever done that? Put cars in the hands of certain consumers before they go live to ferret out any issues?

Chrysler built 50 identical turbine cars. They were loaned to average citizens for 3 months at a time. They were required to keep a log and provide feedback. 203 people drove them between 1963-66, logging over a million miles.

 

[J Alynn]

That’s exactly what makes this interesting to me. Florida gives you heat, salt, sand and year-round use, SC gives you elevation and tougher terrain, and Minnesota gives you the opposite extreme entirely. If Scout ever does real-world regional validation with owners, you could learn a lot pretty quickly by putting the same vehicle into completely different environments.

Lancaster gives you wet road salt all winter long and frozen horse droppings from the Amish-it’s an obstacle course for sure. Often wonder what wet salt and crap does to the undercarriage of a vehicle . I’m sure there is a scientific study somewhere

 

[bwdavis7]

@J Alynn ... always talking horse sh...

 

[Scout_Lookout]

I went harvester. I want the most bang for the buck. Currently own a 22 Sahara 4xe…not thrilled with the Jeep experience. Test drove a R1S and loved it, literally cannot get past the front headlights.

No, not normally. We have an entire team of people dedicated to testing and validation. They take the vehicles from rugged Alaska to Death Valley to private test facilities with everything from snow, ice, heat, boulders, mud, sand and more. Eventually we will take them to Moab, Rubicon Trail, Black Bear and loads more. The vehicles get tested from 130+ degrees heat down to -60 degrees in an indoor environment as well. VW's own test track facility has been used already. This is an older video as the facility has expanded a bit with extensive offroad test areas as well, but it give you an idea of some of the testing that is done:

Jaime don't forget to run them through mall parking lots and the dreaded car rider pick up line too. We want a FULLY capable vehicle after all.