All About That Squircle

[hmp10]

I. LOVE. THE. SQUIRCLE.

One of my chief worries while waiting for our Gravity was the squircle steering device. The yoke we had on our Tesla Model S Plaid was the most odious thing I had ever experienced in driving a car, and over a year of living with it never improved things. We finally replaced it with a steering wheel but still had to live with those ridiculous little black and unintuitive turn signal buttons.

Although I got a little more optimistic about the squircle after the brief test drive of the Gravity, I remained worried that it would be hard to live with over the long haul.

I've now driven around 1,000 miles with the squircle and can pronounce it the best car steering device I've ever used. It's intuitive. Hand-over-hand maneuvers are no problem. Holding your hands at either the 9-and-3 or the 10-and-2 positions is a piece of cake. If you like to rest your hand on top of a steering wheel, the squircle has such a place, and it's in easier reach. If you like to hook your thumbs over something to give your hands a rest you can do so over the touch pads. And . . . you have that expansive unobstructed view of the glass cockpit.

Throw the variable-ratio steering into the mix, and Lucid has a winner on its hands that I hope never to be without in another car.

IT'S. JUST. THE. BEST.

 

[9point81]

I. LOVE. THE. SQUIRCLE.

One of my chief worries while waiting for our Gravity was the squircle steering device. The yoke we had on our Tesla Model S Plaid was the most odious thing I had ever experienced in driving a car, and over a year of living with it never improved things. We finally replaced it with a steering wheel but still had to live with those ridiculous little black and unintuitive turn signal buttons.

Although I got a little more optimistic about the squircle after the brief test drive of the Gravity, I remained worried that it would be hard to live with over the long haul.

I've now driven around 1,000 miles with the squircle and can pronounce it the best car steering device I've ever used. It's intuitive. Hand-over-hand maneuvers are no problem. Holding your hands at either the 9-and-3 or the 10-and-2 positions is a piece of cake. If you like to rest your hand on top of a steering wheel, the squircle has such a place, and it's in easier reach. If you like to hook your thumbs over something to give your hands a rest you can do so over the touch pads. And . . . you have that expansive unobstructed view of the glass cockpit.

Throw the variable-ratio steering into the mix, and Lucid has a winner on its hands that I hope never to be without in another car.

IT'S. JUST. THE. BEST.

Agree 100%!!! I just had my wife's EV9 this morning to drive and was like good gawd! Was this steering wheel always so big and unweildy??? I love my squircle and never want to give it up!

 

[yadaBaga]

Will third that. Really loving the squircle. Was annoying to drive another car with regular steering wheel after it.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

I. LOVE. THE. SQUIRCLE.

One of my chief worries while waiting for our Gravity was the squircle steering device. The yoke we had on our Tesla Model S Plaid was the most odious thing I had ever experienced in driving a car, and over a year of living with it never improved things. We finally replaced it with a steering wheel but still had to live with those ridiculous little black and unintuitive turn signal buttons.

Although I got a little more optimistic about the squircle after the brief test drive of the Gravity, I remained worried that it would be hard to live with over the long haul.

I've now driven around 1,000 miles with the squircle and can pronounce it the best car steering device I've ever used. It's intuitive. Hand-over-hand maneuvers are no problem. Holding your hands at either the 9-and-3 or the 10-and-2 positions is a piece of cake. If you like to rest your hand on top of a steering wheel, the squircle has such a place, and it's in easier reach. If you like to hook your thumbs over something to give your hands a rest you can do so over the touch pads. And . . . you have that expansive unobstructed view of the glass cockpit.

Throw the variable-ratio steering into the mix, and Lucid has a winner on its hands that I hope never to be without in another car.

IT'S. JUST. THE. BEST.

Yeah in both my test drives I realized it made driving easier than a big round wheel, they really nailed it.

 

[borski]

Yeah, color me surprised, but I like it a lot. With each drive, I find myself lowering the wheel a bit more, and now it’s entirely below the screen. It’s perfect.

It’s even gotten me lowering the wheel in the Air. I don’t care about seeing the top of the screen, now that I know the comfort of having the wheel lower.

 

[Neilnaples]

The squircle is fine - it’s very similar to the cybertruck “wheel” (which I traded in for the gravity) - except the cybertruck had steer by wire. One of the more interesting changes in the cybertruck. The cybertruck was more sensitive but the gravity is more responsive if that makes sense?

 

[timpossible]

They should release a squircle version for the Air!

 

[iThinkEV]

I'm surprised as well. Now when I drive other cars with wheels. 1st, the wheel feels so big now, like HUGE. and my usual seated positioning, now seems that the steering wheel is set very high, since I'm so used to the squircle being so low. It's weird. But I find myself missing the squircle when driving other cars. Maybe the cybertruck is onto something.

-iThinkEV-

 

[jered]

100% agree. I was concerned about this in the showroom, but it's great to drive. The only problem we've run into is that my husband likes to sometimes hold with one hand at 12 o'clock, which blocks the driver monitoring camera and causes alert nagging.

 

[hmp10]

100% agree. I was concerned about this in the showroom, but it's great to drive. The only problem we've run into is that my husband likes to sometimes hold with one hand at 12 o'clock, which blocks the driver monitoring camera and causes alert nagging.

True, but that would probably be the case with a conventional wheel, too.

But I thought the driver monitoring camera was not yet active. Or is it just the facial recognition software for automatically setting profiles that's not yet active?

 

[jered]

True, but that would probably be the case with a conventional wheel, too.

But I thought the driver monitoring camera was not yet active. Or is it just the facial recognition software for automatically setting profiles that's not yet active?

The driver monitoring is active, but afaict all it does is nag you to look at the road, stop for coffee, etc. Facial recognition doesn't exist in the production build yet.

 

[Ron_Burgundy]

I love the squircle. I am like “why doesn’t everyone do this”? I really like how it feels and it handles well and lets me see the entire display.

But, I often hold my hand at the top middle and the awareness camera gets upset quickly and says it can’t see me. So, it’s definitely quite active, but no Face ID, etc.

 

[Shadowjack]

I test drove the GT yesterday and had no issues with the squircle. That said, under heavy acceleration, I felt like the steering was either wobbly or pulling to the left on the demo vehicle - essentially like torque steer, which surprised me. The Lucid advisor who was along for the ride thought it had something to do with the suspension automatically lowering. Has anyone else observed this?

 

[hmp10]

I test drove the GT yesterday and had no issues with the squircle. That said, under heavy acceleration, I felt like the steering was either wobbly or pulling to the left on the demo vehicle - essentially like torque steer, which surprised me. The Lucid advisor who was along for the ride thought it had something to do with the suspension automatically lowering. Has anyone else observed this?

Not I, and I've certainly put our Gravity Dream through its acceleration paces. Blazingly quick, stable, and straight as an arrow.

 

[Ron_Burgundy]

Same here. No issues except lowering my efficiency - which is to be expected. But it’s worth it. Steering is like it’s in rails no matter acceleration, speed, etc.

The studio and demo cars are often referred to as “pre production”. That’s unfortunate if the demo drive ones really are because my production Gravity is fire. …as my kids would say.

 

[hmp10]

No issues except lowering my efficiency . . .

And how . . . but worth every kWh.

 

[borski]

I test drove the GT yesterday and had no issues with the squircle. That said, under heavy acceleration, I felt like the steering was either wobbly or pulling to the left on the demo vehicle - essentially like torque steer, which surprised me. The Lucid advisor who was along for the ride thought it had something to do with the suspension automatically lowering. Has anyone else observed this?

Is it possible it was the lane keep assist trying to keep you in the lane? I don’t have this issue on our Gravity fwiw

 

[XTesla]

The squircle is fine - it’s very similar to the cybertruck “wheel” (which I traded in for the gravity) - except the cybertruck had steer by wire. One of the more interesting changes in the cybertruck. The cybertruck was more sensitive but the gravity is more responsive if that makes sense?

Interesting, the steer by wire combined with rear wheel steer and the steering wheel and the indicators as buttons on the wheel combines to be fantastic in the Cybertruck. Any one of those features is pretty useless by themselves (or even just plain bad in the case of indicators as buttons) but they combine to make something great.

I'm going to hypothesize what might be happening with the steering, and maybe someone can confirm or correct...
* The Cybertruck has steer by wire, so the steering ratio (how much the wheels turn compared to the steering wheel) can be based to a large extent on your speed. So at low speeds a slight turn of the wheel makes a significant difference... and ultimately things work well at high speeds with small adjustments as well as low speeds with large adjustments.
* The Gravity has a variable steering ratio that is affected by how much you turn the wheel. So small adjustments at high speeds and large adjustments at low speeds are good.
Then I'd hypothesize that low radius turns at low speeds are what is felt as "reactive" where the gravity wins... but small movements at low speeds are much more so in the cybertruck, felt as "sensitive".

We're still toying with the idea of switching our Gravity order to a Buzz (save money, get much more storage space and better leg room for large backseat passengers) but I keep thinking the Buzz isn't a car I could use for many years whereas the Gravity might be a 10 year car for us if it has the features we like from the cybertruck.

 

[Ron_Burgundy]

Interesting, the steer by wire combined with rear wheel steer and the steering wheel and the indicators as buttons on the wheel combines to be fantastic in the Cybertruck. Any one of those features is pretty useless by themselves (or even just plain bad in the case of indicators as buttons) but they combine to make something great.

I'm going to hypothesize what might be happening with the steering, and maybe someone can confirm or correct...
* The Cybertruck has steer by wire, so the steering ratio (how much the wheels turn compared to the steering wheel) can be based to a large extent on your speed. So at low speeds a slight turn of the wheel makes a significant difference... and ultimately things work well at high speeds with small adjustments as well as low speeds with large adjustments.
* The Gravity has a variable steering ratio that is affected by how much you turn the wheel. So small adjustments at high speeds and large adjustments at low speeds are good.
Then I'd hypothesize that low radius turns at low speeds are what is felt as "reactive" where the gravity wins... but small movements at low speeds are much more so in the cybertruck, felt as "sensitive".

We're still toying with the idea of switching our Gravity order to a Buzz (save money, get much more storage space and better leg room for large backseat passengers) but I keep thinking the Buzz isn't a car I could use for many years whereas the Gravity might be a 10 year car for us if it has the features we like from the cybertruck.

Super interesting analysis. Haven’t driven cybertruck, but feels “right”.

Our issue with the Buzz was limited range and “meh” driving experience.

FWIW - I’ve had folks as tall as 6’ tell me they have plenty of space in third row of our Gravity while someone who was 5’10” was sitting in front of them. Technically, ID Buzz has more space there, but don’t discount the space in the Gravity. We have an X and had an R1S and those were effectively useless third rows for anyone over, say, 5’5”…

 

[XTesla]

Super interesting analysis. Haven’t driven cybertruck, but feels “right”.

Our issue with the Buzz was limited range and “meh” driving experience.

FWIW - I’ve had folks as tall as 6’ tell me they have plenty of space in third row of our Gravity while someone who was 5’10” was sitting in front of them. Technically, ID Buzz has more space there, but don’t discount the space in the Gravity. We have an X and had an R1S and those were effectively useless third rows for anyone over, say, 5’5”…

Yeah the reviews of the Buzz are rather variable. 75cu ft behind the second row is unbeatable in a vehicle of that size... although strangely one youtube review complained bitterly about the lack of cargo space as all the extra space had been turned into extra legroom for the 2nd and 3rd row passengers.

The youtube reviews of the Gravity have been very positive on the space for large passengers (our kids are 13 and 15 and almost 6 feet already) even though my spreadsheet of data from reviews shows the space behind the second row in the 7 seat Gravity is only 48cu ft (about the same as the R1S and only slightly more than the ev9). Another source said 56cu ft but given that the frunk is 8 cu ft I'm guessing that it was "total cargo space with the 3rd row folded" or else was for the 5 seat gravity with the extra space from having no 3rd row.

Other than cost my only concern with the Gravity is cargo space with 4 people + number of skis... given that last year we took 120cu ft of cargo plus 14 pairs of skis on our family ski vacation in the cybertruck. I think we can pare down to the 48+8 cu ft plus 6 pairs of skis on the roof... and maybe a chuckbucket on the hitch.