Gravity Test Drive writeup

[Bus Driver]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and predict that Dream Drive Pro 2 will not approach FSD's capabilities. But it will be a great companion on long highway drives.
Gravity is a much more capable, sophisticated, comfortable, and practical vehicle than the Model X - outside of FSD.

Good to hear. And just what I wanted to hear. We will be getting rid of the family Model X and replacing it with the Gravity Tesla FSD be damned.

 

[zoomzoom]

Regarding the door closure and auto close....I played with the doors quite a bit in the showroom

1. Doors feel solid and close with a nice thunk. They are heavy in a good way. They seem very high end to me coming from a Subaru.
2. Front door's first stay open detent is fairly far out. If you gently soft swing the door open it will swing back to you. This will be low key annoying for a small percentage of neurotic owners.
3. If you just close the door like a normal human there is no catch and then soft close. It just closes.
4. You have to close the doors insanely softly for the soft close to kick in. The weight and inertia of the doors closes then with even a light tug and goes right through the soft close. So lightly in fact that if I were to open and close the doors with normal use I can't imagine the soft close even becoming active more than 1% of door closes. I even tried to modify the effort I used to close the doors and it was hard to pull so lightly that the soft close performed its action.
5. The soft close has a catch and then click sound when it closes but it's not distracting and doesn't sound cheap or anything. Never been in a rolls Royce but the sound is completely fine and somewhat reassuring that I can be more comfortable believing it's fully closed.

 

[tjhappel]

I actually prefer the dream drive on my gravity to the newer versions of ap. It’s for highway only and I’m totally fine with that. I probably drive 700–800 miles a week with it engaged and I can confirm it has less issues than Tesla. No phantom breaks and it always errors in the same spot so easy to be ready for. Tsla ap can be hard

 

[hmp10]

2. Front door's first stay open detent is fairly far out. If you gently soft swing the door open it will swing back to you. This will be low key annoying for a small percentage of neurotic owners.

I've been called neurotic, but the Air front doors have been driving me crazy for several years. If you push the door hard enough to go the furtherest detent, it usually bounces back off the stop hard to enough to sail right past the prior detent and back onto you. If you don't push it hard enough, it won't hold at a detent and falls back on you.

I had so much else on my mind during the test drive visit that I didn't think to check the Gravity doors. I'm just hoping the position and depth of the door detents is one of those Air peccadillos that got addressed with the Gravity.

 

[hmp10]

I actually prefer the dream drive on my gravity to the newer versions of ap. It’s for highway only and I’m totally fine with that. I probably drive 700–800 miles a week with it engaged and I can confirm it has less issues than Tesla. No phantom breaks and it always errors in the same spot so easy to be ready for. Tsla ap can be hard

In a recent video review of the Gravity, the reviewer said he was in a Model Y the night before that had FSD engaged when the car drove through a fence. He discusses it at 0:25:

 

[Pragmatic]

The doors on the Air are quite annoying the detents are way too soft. I have an upsloping driveway. Keeping the door open while getting in or out is a chore. With the low roof . At least once a month the door closes on my leg.

 

[scsmx]

I actually prefer the dream drive on my gravity to the newer versions of ap. It’s for highway only and I’m totally fine with that. I probably drive 700–800 miles a week with it engaged and I can confirm it has less issues than Tesla. No phantom breaks and it always errors in the same spot so easy to be ready for. Tsla ap can be hard

Thanks this is helpful. Does it only do mapped roads or any highway?

 

[tjhappel]

I've been called neurotic, but the Air front doors have been driving me crazy for several years. If you push the door hard enough to go the furtherest detent, it usually bounces back off the stop hard to enough to sail right past the prior detent and back onto you. If you don't push it hard enough, it won't hold at a detent and falls back on you.

I had so much else on my mind during the test drive visit that I didn't think to check the Gravity doors. I'm just hoping the position and depth of the door detents is one of those Air peccadillos that got addressed with the Gravity.

I agree totally!!!! Have the exact same issue and I did in fact check with gravity. Seems resolved or at least substantially better.

 

[msaunders9430]

Had my test drive today.

Two takeaways for me:

1. The location of the cockpit screen works for me. The "head-up" part is redundant for me. My head will already be up and looking out the windshield.The HUD will be more of a distraction. Speed and navigation info can be obtained with a quick glance of the eyes without even moving my head. The AR tech that will provide suggested lane change and road hazards is not tech I was planning to rely on. I know me; even if AR shows something ahead or suggests a lane change, I'm still looking to confirm with my own eyes.

2.Out with Mojave Purluxe Premium and in with Tahoe Leather. Between posts here about the durability of Purluxe and hesitations from more than one SA, I'm going with leather. Also, Tahoe with Aurora Green (AG) looks spectacular compared to AG with the dark Mojave . Love the contrast.

Suggestion: If you arrive early enough or can stay after your drive, consider asking the person that will be driving, if you can sit in the second or third row during their drive. The view back there is awesome! If you have someone who will be a frequent passenger back there, consider the possibility of motion sickness. The space is so open around and above along withthe view above.

 

[GMan]

I've been called neurotic, but the Air front doors have been driving me crazy for several years. If you push the door hard enough to go the furtherest detent, it usually bounces back off the stop hard to enough to sail right past the prior detent and back onto you. If you don't push it hard enough, it won't hold at a detent and falls back on you.

I had so much else on my mind during the test drive visit that I didn't think to check the Gravity doors. I'm just hoping the position and depth of the door detents is one of those Air peccadillos that got addressed with the Gravity.

It's interesting because when I closed the Gravity doors, I specifically remember thinking the door felt lighter to operate than the Air. By lighter, I mean less force to open or close.

I then took a look at the door and came to the conclusion it made perfect sense because the Air doors are longer.

All subjective - no measurements taken. Just something I noticed as a long time Air owner.

 

[jered]

We stopped by the Natick, MA studio today and spent about 30 minutes climbing in and out of all the parts of the Gravity.

On the doors -- I might not be that picky about doors, but they are fine with me. They are not "soft close" doors, but they have motorized catches. So you can slam them shut, but you can also push them closed. They do not auto-open like our X. The rear doors also have auto-cinching latches.

I'm pretty obsessive about a lot of things, but apparently not the doors. They were good doors. They felt solid. The 90-degree opening for the back doors was great. They are not as elaborate as the doors on our X, but the rest of the vehicle is much nicer. I'm sorry I'm not saying much useful here.

 

[JoeMa]

Both GGT we saw at KOP yesterday had soft-close doors. Both were spec'd with what appeared to be every option.

 

[jered]

Both GGT we saw at KOP yesterday had soft-close doors. Both were spec'd with what appeared to be every option.

Did you try slamming one (well, closing hard)? Lucid calls the feature "Auto-Cinching Doors (Soft-Close Doors)" and I think that's more accurate; further up-thread (https://lucidowners.com/threads/gravity-test-drive-writeup.12073/post-269166) another forum member compares them to the Air (favorably) and the S-Class (unfavorably). The main feature is to catch a gently closed door, rather than to soften a firmly-closed one.

Regardless, I was not unhappy with the doors, but this is pretty far down my list of concerns. I'd need to spend more time with them to make a meaningful comparison to my X doors, which also have auto-open/self-presenting doors but which can be... a bit aggressive at times.

 

[JoeMa]

I wouldn't describe it as slamming any of the doors but I did swing them shut normally and they closed fully. But when I lightly touched the door to the latch (not fully closed), the soft close pulled them shut the rest of the way. I did this on every door and soft close worked for me. I wasn't aware they were calling something else but it is indeed soft closing which is what most manufacturers call the feature.

 

[DeaneG]

I found Gravity's soft-close doors to work identically to the Air's, though they seemed a bit more refined than those on my 2022 AGT.

 

[zoomzoom]

We stopped by the Natick, MA studio today and spent about 30 minutes climbing in and out of all the parts of the Gravity.

On the doors -- I might not be that picky about doors, but they are fine with me. They are not "soft close" doors, but they have motorized catches. So you can slam them shut, but you can also push them closed. They do not auto-open like our X. The rear doors also have auto-cinching latches.

I'm pretty obsessive about a lot of things, but apparently not the doors. They were good doors. They felt solid. The 90-degree opening for the back doors was great. They are not as elaborate as the doors on our X, but the rest of the vehicle is much nicer. I'm sorry I'm not saying much useful here.

Yes, this is exactly as I’d describe them. They will not slow a heavy closure but they will auto latch if the door is closed ultra gently. I played with it a while and had to SUPER modulate my pull strength to 5% normal ‘I’m closing the door now’ to even get the soft close to play a role. Otherwise the inertia of the heavy door just closes without needing the auto latch.

Essentially it’s a non-feature feature as far as I’m concerned. Will kick in almost never.

Doors are nice, no complaints.

 

[Bdr100]

Yes, this is exactly as I’d describe them. They will not slow a heavy closure but they will auto latch if the door is closed ultra gently. I played with it a while and had to SUPER modulate my pull strength to 5% normal ‘I’m closing the door now’ to even get the soft close to play a role. Otherwise the inertia of the heavy door just closes without needing the auto latch.

Essentially it’s a non-feature feature as far as I’m concerned. Will kick in almost never.

Doors are nice, no complaints.

Sounds very much like what I have on my Mercedes GLE, swing the door firmly and door shuts normal with no action from soft-close mechanism. But say you have hands full and do the hip bump to close the door, it swings partially closed and then the soft-close mechanism finishes the closing process. Without this, I would have had to put down stuff and close door again. Not a “must have” feature but kind of nice at times.
My other car, a Mercedes convertible, has such big heavy doors that they slam shut almost every time, no soft-close needed.

 

[bryway]

Sounds very much like what I have on my Mercedes GLE, swing the door firmly and door shuts normal with no action from soft-close mechanism. But say you have hands full and do the hip bump to close the door, it swings partially closed and then the soft-close mechanism finishes the closing process. Without this, I would have had to put down stuff and close door again. Not a “must have” feature but kind of nice at times.
My other car, a Mercedes convertible, has such big heavy doors that they slam shut almost every time, no soft-close needed.

Same with BMW from my perspective. I’ve owned two 7-Series in the past (2012 and 2016 sequentially) with the soft close feature, and owning those cars trained me to *not* slam the doors. When i’d enter the car, I would simply pull it closed, until I triggered the soft close / latching feature. So much quieter (luxurious / civilized) than slamming with force. What’s funny is the fact passengers who frequently traveled with me in those cars started out pulling or pushing the doors shut with slamming force, then noticed my own ingress / egress behavior and started doing what I did. Definitely upped the feeling of luxury when everyone quickly but quietly pulled their respective doors shut, then let soft close take care of the rest.

My 2022 Model X Plaid is another story altogether. Although all doors are auto open / close, they absolutely terrify my passengers — even my partner who rides in the car with me pretty frequently. The behavior (due to sensors reacting to the environment depending on where the vehicle happens to be) is unpredictable, which adds to folks’ trepidation when approaching the car. And the soft close feature requires the front doors to be slammed with force (the motorized auto-close feature slams the door, then ‘soft close’ latches it closed). Looking forward to getting back to more traditional doors with the Gravity.