Rivian Owner Sees ‘Ghosts’ in His R1T, But Tech Experts Have a Different Explanation

A Rivian R1T driver got spooked while driving through the woods after his electric truck’s sensors showed multiple people surrounding the vehicle despite no one being there.

The eerie clip, posted by TikTok user Dominic Armand (@dominicarmand), quickly went viral, sparking debates about whether Rivian’s advanced driver-assistance systems were detecting ghosts—or simply misreading the environment.

Viral TikTok shows Rivian detecting invisible “figures” in the woods

In the viral video, Armand slowly drives through a wooded area at dusk as his truck’s dashboard display shows blue human-shaped figures walking around the vehicle. “My truck is saying there’s people around me,” he says, panning the camera to reveal an empty road.

As more “people” appear on the screen, he adds, “There’s no one here.” Later videos showed that the “people” have followed the R1T owner home to his garage. “So the spirits are multiplying in the garage,” the EV driver stated.

ADAS false detections are common across EV brands

Experts note that advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) can sometimes register “ghost” pedestrians due to radar or camera interference. Similar incidents have been reported by Tesla owners, including one case cited by the University of Nebraska Medical Center where a Tesla detected human shapes while driving near a cemetery, Motor 1 reported.

In reality, objects such as tree trunks, signs, or heat variations can momentarily confuse the vehicle’s vision algorithms. While Rivian hasn’t commented on the video, such cases highlight both the sophistication, and limitations, of AI-powered detection systems as automakers continue refining sensor accuracy in challenging conditions.

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