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Things I wish they'd done differently

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WeighingGravity

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S75D, Gravity DE
This isn't really for bugs so much as decisions that were made that might have been approached differently. I acknowledge there are probably many reasons I'm not aware of that led to certain design outputs, but these are a couple of things I wish Lucid had done differently with Gravity. Maybe this can be a constructive criticism repository for future updates and/or midsize:
  • Visors should be connected to power. It seems like a very form-over-function decision was made here. I don't think anyone would care if there was a small bit of wireway between the A-Pillar or the dome light housing and the visor anchors. Instead, we get dim visor lighting that powers on unreliably with the magnetic cover and then powers off after a minute or two (I assume this is an energy-saving feature and not a bug). My wife and daughter, being frequent in-the-car-makeup-appliers, strongly disapprove of this solution. It wouldn't have been a disaster for these visors to have been bigger overall, too, in light of the massive windshield.
  • Door handles and charge door should be metal, not plastic. Both feel like cheap-outs to me - particularly for the door handles, where there are a number of owners reporting issues with inconsistent pull (myself included).
  • Or come up with a non-presenting door handle solution.
  • They need to redesign the AC ducting so that it makes less noise. Holy cow, it is loud. And it's loud in the front even when it's only the rear seating with the fan on high. And sometimes it makes an awful squealing noise. Maybe this verges on bug, but it doesn't seem like something that can be repaired and is more of a design flaw IMO.
  • Bottom of doors is too low. Guaranteed to curb scrape, feels like a lot more risk in Gravity than in any car I have owned previously - which is ironic, given Gravity is my first SUV.
  • Better cameras for backup and blind spots. They're not abysmal, but they're not "compromise nothing."
  • Rear wipers need a stalk, particularly for washing. Trying to hit hold that button while driving sucks. While we're at it, the rear wiper washer doesn't work so well - not unlike any other car I've ever experienced, but I wish they'd come up with a better solution overall. My rear window looks like hell. Others have noted that, perhaps due to aero reasons, the back of the car is usually pretty filthy.
  • I have had decent luck with the steering wheel buttons, probably more than most, but I really wish they had put a raised, tactile feature at the bottom of the D-Pad. They have such a feature in the up, left, and right directions, but none in the down - instead you just go into the double buttons. So if you're not looking, you can't tell how to press "down" and you're more likely to push one of the two bottom buttons.
  • Non-square wheel setup. I wish this had been a bit more conventional. It is going to make tire buying a hassle.
I've focused mostly on hardware issues here.... I know that software features could also be nice to put in this thread, but I do think there are a few other threads out there closer to software desires.

What features would you have liked to have seen done differently?
 
WeighingGravity said:
I don't think anyone would care if there was a small bit of wireway between the A-Pillar or the dome light housing and the visor anchors. Instead,
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I would. No offense, but I think that would look horrible and tacky. That being said, I wished they would have done a redesign from the Air to the Gravity on the visors but guessing Tesla has patented storing them off on the side so it can't be copied.

WeighingGravity said:
Bottom of doors is too low. Guaranteed to curb scrape, feels like a lot more risk in Gravity than in any car I have owned previously - which is ironic, given Gravity is my first SUV.
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Agree. I set the suspension to raise when parked to try and avoid this but have already inadvertently hit the curb with the bottom of the door

WeighingGravity said:
have had decent luck with the steering wheel buttons, probably more than most, but I really wish they had put a raised, tactile feature at the bottom of the D-Pad. They have such a feature in the up, left, and right directions, but none in the down - instead you just go into the double buttons. So if you're not looking, you can't tell how to press "down" and you're more likely to push one of the two bottom buttons.
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I like how the buttons and gestures work on the steering wheel but wish the pads were illuminated at night.

WeighingGravity said:
What features would you have liked to have seen done differently?
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So.... In the Air, the cup holders were too small. Now in the Gravity they're too big. I've had Starbucks cups tip over when turning around corners to a point that I now hold any drink in the cup holder to avoid a potential spillage. The cup holders in the back, I needed to 3D print some inserts to hold things better as they're way too big with no grip at all.

I wish the trays in the back had some form of grip on them. Things go sliding around on them easily.

The 2nd row mechanism is noisy. Sounds like the motor is really struggling to move those seats

The 3rd row stowage could have been better designed to have the seats lock in place or something as at the moment they kind of bounce around

This is all nitpicking though :)
 
I think someone posted a cup holder insert that worked well in Gravity on one of these threads...anyone know where on here that was?

Avoiding spilled lattes in a $100K+ car isn't "nitpicking"
 
The worst thing is that you have to fold the 2nd row seats up manually. My wife literally can't lift the driver's side one, which is the larger of the two halves.

Second worst thing is that the wireless charging is way too sensitive to phone placement, even on new phones with very thin (or no) cases.

I have another thread on the window bottom height being too high for visibility. The door bottoms being low is fixed for us with the auto-raise on Park. YMMV.

The A pillars also block too much visibility. The best I've seen is a 2005 BMW X5, in which the A-Pillars have their rectangular cross-sections oriented at an angle towards the driver to have minimal visual blocking.

HC_79 said:
No offense, but I think that would look horrible and tacky. That being said, I wished they would have done a redesign from the Air to the Gravity on the visors but guessing Tesla has patented storing them off on the side so it can't be copied.
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Double no offense, but I think you're both wrong, and the visors are quite good just as they are. I don't want the wire (heck, we almost never use the mirrors, guess we're not vain enough), and I don't want Model X's way too narrow visors. The visors could be a tad wider, as the sun sometimes comes through the gap at the left or right.

I also don't care about non-square wheel setups. Just give me the best handling and ride performance for the sidewall heights possible.

Second-row seat slide mechanism IS noisy, and what that means for the floor appearance when back is a compromise, as is the exposed stuff under the seat before you fold it back up.

As Kyle Connor pointed out in one of his review videos, the frunk seat cushion when folded in is finicky, and if you don't get it just right the frunk will close on it and not latch.

Metal door handles without heating would be a problem in cold/snow country. I do agree the charge port door feels cheap and plastic-sy, but seeing the trouble the Macan EV has had with both its electrical and mechanical charge port doors I guess I'm not going to complain too much as long as it holds up over time.

The rear trunk raises and lowers too slowly, and doesn't raise high enough. The auto-raise on Park helps a bit for head-banging clearance, though. Right now, the worst thing about the trunk closing too slowly is that the car doesn't auto-lock if you hit the trunk close button and walk away. Hopefully, that's a software fix.

The center console sliding tray is sticky, feels cheap, and can't be slidden if there are cups in the holders. Having a split tray where one piece slides forward and the other piece slides back would be better.

It would be good to add an electronic skylight opaque feature to the Gravity, like the BMW IX has. If possible, have that in the upper half of the front windshield as well so we don't have to mess with manually attached shades.

Make Stealth trim truly stealthy, or have an option to have that body-paint colored.
 
The fascia on the charge port door straight up FELL OFF today. wife was able to snap it back on, but wish they would have made it at least metal. I'm worried about longevity.
 
My biggest hardware complaint lately is that the wiper blades are just terrible and apparently a custom size as there's nothing else that fits. Mine are getting worse to the point I might at least try to make service replace them. I've adjusted them, removed and repositioned them and cleaned them but nothing has fixed them. I dread having to use the washer on the windshield because I know it'll just leave awful streaks obscuring my vision after.
 
Alex2939 said:
The fascia on the charge port door straight up FELL OFF today. wife was able to snap it back on, but wish they would have made it at least metal. I'm worried about longevity.
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I’ve seen that happen once or twice, but it isn’t a common problem. Tell them and they’ll swap the fascia and you’ll be good to go.
 
RandomDesign said:
My biggest hardware complaint lately is that the wiper blades are just terrible and apparently a custom size as there's nothing else that fits. Mine are getting worse to the point I might at least try to make service replace them. I've adjusted them, removed and repositioned them and cleaned them but nothing has fixed them. I dread having to use the washer on the windshield because I know it'll just leave awful streaks obscuring my vision after.
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Clean the blades with rubbing alcohol. Also, you can buy new inserts
 
Smorgasbord said:
The rear trunk raises and lowers too slowly, and doesn't raise high enough. The auto-raise on Park helps a bit for head-banging clearance, though. Right now, the worst thing about the trunk closing too slowly is that the car doesn't auto-lock if you hit the trunk close button and walk away. Hopefully, that's a software fix.
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I don't think that's normal. Mine does autolock after the trunk closes and is very obvious because it gives me a double horn honk in those cases.
 
borski said:
Clean the blades with rubbing alcohol. Also, you can buy new inserts
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I did clean them, it didn't help. I adjusted them to get them as flat as possible too but they still skip and stutter across the windshield.

They no longer have the blades for sale online (actually, did they ever sell the Gravity blades or are they they same as the Air?), you have to go to service to get them (which is what I was told by Lucid). Which is just dumb IMO.
 
The wireless charging pads should have Qi 2 / Magsafe alignment magnets, and be capable of 15-25 watts.
 
Smorgasbord said:
[…] It would be good to add an electronic skylight opaque feature to the Gravity, like the BMW IX has. If possible, have that in the upper half of the front windshield as well so we don't have to mess with manually attached shades. […]
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I would pay extra for this option to block the sun/heat on hot summer days.
 
Saksak said:
I would pay extra for this option to block the sun/heat on hot summer days.
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Yes It getting more reasonable and common in a lot of cars now, lots of Germans, Rivian and Toyota/Lexus using those chromatic glass.
 
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