Driving Gravity - Impressions from 72 year old woman as first EV

[Bdr100]

Thought I would write a little review with inputs from my wife who is a very spry 72 year old, recently retired as high level exec used to using computers, cell phone tech, etc. But far from a big tech expert and when our complex home entertainment system acts up or some of our smart home switches act up, just yells at me to come fix. She has never driven an EV and came into this purchase very reluctantly and has always referred to the Gravity as “His Car”. Upon taking delivery about 3 weeks ago and going through the detailed orientation I asked her if she wanted to drive it home and she responded “Oh hell no!”

After getting home we took the time for her to drive around the neighborhoods and get comfortable with brake regen (we have it set on standard). We did a couple more trips with her driving and me co-pilot until about a week in she got a call to go pick our grandson up from pre-school and she had to take Gravity out solo. After that successful trip, she has done a couple more solo trips (usually to pick up grandson since Gravity is our only car with Car Seat.

Her likes:
1. Very comfortable ride and plenty of pep
2. Likes the squerkle as it gives her good vision of dash.
3. Easily maneuverable for such big interior car (has Dynamic drive with rear wheel steer)
4. Likes big open easy access to back seat for putting grandson in/out of car seat.
5. Absolutely loves the sound system (SSP) and is big fan of Tidal - at least the quality of the sound but still learning how to navigate Tidal’s convoluted menus
6. Has slowly adapted to regen and somewhat one pedal driving and likes it.
7. Almost refused to drive on her own first time when I went through all the how to use key card precautions if fob refuses to work. But proximity lock/unlock with fob has always worked for her (and me) and only made her wait about 5 seconds on one occasion.
8. Likes the blind spot cameras and has no issue with picture quality (since this is a new feature for us, no reference of difference.)

Her dislikes or “Unsure”
1. Would prefer hard switches for more things like mirrors, windshield wipers but is adapting.
2. Profile switch takes a little longer than she would like
3. Information overload with all the screens and having some functions buried into system. Admits she hopes to get more comfortable with time and use
4. Blind spots caused by A and B pillars.
5. Did not like HUD as she found it distracting (so we turned it off in her profile). I had similar opinion at first but have gotten used to it.

She came into this experience of Gravity and new EV ownership very reluctantly mainly due to newness and unknowns. She is now feeling much more comfortable. Hopefully with new 3.3.20 upgrade, my worries of her getting stranded due to fob or key card issues has been greatly reduced or eliminated.

 

[merveille07]

Thought I would write a little review with inputs from my wife who is a very spry 72 year old, recently retired as high level exec used to using computers, cell phone tech, etc. But far from a big tech expert and when our complex home entertainment system acts up or some of our smart home switches act up, just yells at me to come fix. She has never driven an EV and came into this purchase very reluctantly and has always referred to the Gravity as “His Car”. Upon taking delivery about 3 weeks ago and going through the detailed orientation I asked her if she wanted to drive it home and she responded “Oh hell no!”

After getting home we took the time for her to drive around the neighborhoods and get comfortable with brake regen (we have it set on standard). We did a couple more trips with her driving and me co-pilot until about a week in she got a call to go pick our grandson up from pre-school and she had to take Gravity out solo. After that successful trip, she has done a couple more solo trips (usually to pick up grandson since Gravity is our only car with Car Seat.

Her likes:
1. Very comfortable ride and plenty of pep
2. Likes the squerkle as it gives her good vision of dash.
3. Easily maneuverable for such big interior car (has Dynamic drive with rear wheel steer)
4. Likes big open easy access to back seat for putting grandson in/out of car seat.
5. Absolutely loves the sound system (SSP) and is big fan of Tidal - at least the quality of the sound but still learning how to navigate Tidal’s convoluted menus
6. Has slowly adapted to regen and somewhat one pedal driving and likes it.
7. Almost refused to drive on her own first time when I went through all the how to use key card precautions if fob refuses to work. But proximity lock/unlock with fob has always worked for her (and me) and only made her wait about 5 seconds on one occasion.
8. Likes the blind spot cameras and has no issue with picture quality (since this is a new feature for us, no reference of difference.)

Her dislikes or “Unsure”
1. Would prefer hard switches for more things like mirrors, windshield wipers but is adapting.
2. Profile switch takes a little longer than she would like
3. Information overload with all the screens and having some functions buried into system. Admits she hopes to get more comfortable with time and use
4. Blind spots caused by A and B pillars.
5. Did not like HUD as she found it distracting (so we turned it off in her profile). I had similar opinion at first but have gotten used to it.

She came into this experience of Gravity and new EV ownership very reluctantly mainly due to newness and unknowns. She is now feeling much more comfortable. Hopefully with new 3.3.20 upgrade, my worries of her getting stranded due to fob or key card issues has been greatly reduced or eliminated.

Is it still "your car" or has it gotten to "our car"; or we are already in "her car" territory? .
Joke aside. I like the write up. I think we need more stories like this(of uninitiated user).

 

[Bdr100]

Yeah one of my big worries was how I would adapt to regen braking and one pedal driving. Only took a couple days and felt right at home. Bigger issue is readapting to driving the wife’s car without regen now. Took it out the other day and first time I accelerated out of neighborhood and lifted off accelerator, I was like “woah, this thing is not slowing down.” Forgot what coasting was like and actually having to use brake pedal.

 

[merveille07]

Yeah one of my big worries was how I would adapt to regen braking and one pedal driving. Only took a couple days and felt right at home. Bigger issue is readapting to driving the wife’s car without regen now. Took it out the other day and first time I accelerated out of neighborhood and lifted off accelerator, I was like “woah, this thing is not slowing down.” Forgot what coasting was like and actually having to use brake pedal.

Yes; Our brain is powerful computer but it still needs training. You will get used to both in time.

 

[hank-iv]

Yeah one of my big worries was how I would adapt to regen braking and one pedal driving. Only took a couple days and felt right at home. Bigger issue is readapting to driving the wife’s car without regen now. Took it out the other day and first time I accelerated out of neighborhood and lifted off accelerator, I was like “woah, this thing is not slowing down.” Forgot what coasting was like and actually having to use brake pedal.

Yes, I experience this on biz trips when I can't rent an EV. I'm completely a one pedal driver now. There's enough muscle memory that I'm able to adapt after a few hours, but early on it can be a bit scary.

 

[Bdr100]

Update on the wife’s opinion of driving the Gravity. Even though she has gotten comfortable driving it and enjoys the comfort, great sound system, room, etc., she still will only drive it the 2 or 3 times a week she is on pick up grandson duty (as her car does not have car seat.) She just does not trust the Gravity. Yes, key fob and black screens have mostly been eliminated, but all of the other software glitches are still there and she has spent too much time watching me bitch about sound system going silent, Dream Drive failing to engage, HVAC issues, etc.

On a positive note, she really enjoys being a passenger. Even noted last week when we somewhere in my daughters Buick Envision and she sat in back seat, noting that she missed the spacious rear seating of the Gravity.