Hi all,
Lots of road trips in here I get it. I wanted to share our particular journey in a 2023 Pure as a veteran of owning a GT and 2+ years of ownership and nearly 70k miles in two Airs. My wife and I drove from SoCal to Washington DC recently and here are some things we learned about the cars over 2,923 miles.
Our vehicle and driver combo was a 2023 Air with DDP, 19" wheels, 5 mph over the speed limit and yours truly for the entire trip for consistency. We used Lucid Navigation exclusively and charged at EA, EVgo and ChargePoint. All out of convenience not out of necessity.
First off, "follow the highway" is reiterated by the Lucid Navigation. A LOT. Even when on a highway without any turns ahead. We deduced it happens when the map resizes itself and (presumably) checks for new routes ahead. It seemed to happen every 10-15 mins. This could use some work.
Often times, when routing to a city, the navigation was unable to find a route. If I searched "Vail, Colorado" via typing on the search, it would return Vail as a location but it could not navigate to it. This was on 2.2.10 at the time. When searching for a specific location within Vail, it did fine.
Different painted lines in each state would cause the Highway Assist to behave differently. Exits and on ramps that did not have the painted dotted lines would cause the vehicle to auto-center on the double-wide lane that was created as exits and on ramps occurred. This is common in the other brand that begins with a T, too.
When navigating beyond the range of the current SoC, the vehicle will look for a stop around 15% SoC remaining. This is an excellent buffer and we appreciated the flexibility to go a little further if we felt up to it. Also, the charge remaining at stop was fairly accurate if I remained within 5 MPH of the speed limit. Anything over that, SoC at destination ticked lower as we drove along. My recommendation? Don't stress ABRP or similar. Put it in the Lucid Nav and enjoy the drive!
I would like to see a navigation algorithm to arrive at the destination the "fastest." On one occasion, we were driving from Kearney, NE to Joliet, IL. The default Lucid Nav had two long-ish stops over that 624 mile journey. The ETA was 5:48pm local time. I forced an additional stop and it dropped it to 5:22pm local time. Quick charges in the sweet spot led to a faster over all segment.
Rest stops, like those found along interstates for easy on and off, need EV chargers like Indiana and Ohio. That was super-convenient! Other places had chargers at Loves or similar truck stops. Which was OK. But the travel rest stops were neat and a quick place to charge that I would normally stop at with an ICE vehicle.
Lucid Nav accounts for time spent at charging stations when calculating ETA. For instance, if you were to drive straight through, you might arrive at 5:10. But if you need to charge for 20 mins along the way, the car will tell you that you will arrive at 5:30. It does not, however, account for time zone changes when displaying the ETA outside of the timezone you are traveling to.
Distracted and drowsy driver sensitivity need work. I turned them off. I would like to have kept them on the entire trip but the annoying alerts persisted despite me paying attention and without sunglasses.
The car needs road data for HA. It would drive into a turn at 80mph carrying too much speed for the corner. It needs data for suggested speed to start to slow the car as it approaches. Interestingly, it does slow when in Adaptive Cruise if you start to put some steering angle in. So, I know the car is smart enough to realize "hey! this is too much body roll. Let's chill!"
The high beams are premature to turn on when on dark stretches of highway for my liking. I would be passing someone and the lights would kick on as I started to pass their rear left tire essentially blinding them if they looked in their side mirror.
And finally, it took 2,312 miles to find our first non-working EA charger. Sure, there were times we had to wait for a plug-in, but there was an entire station offline because they were upgrading to the new 350kWh chargers. Can't complain about that I guess.
Finally, if any of you vulture "journalists" on here decide you want to quote any part of this above, you are not permitted unless you include this:
The overall journey in our Lucid Air was incredible. It behaved, above all, like a well mannered touring car that is suited for long distance trips despite the EV label. I say label because at this point, it should just be considered a car that a family can vacation in. You shouldn't worry about charging or range or the "can I make it" mentality. It out paced us in our required rest stops as humans. It drove comfortably and smoothly and we had zero mechanical hiccups or warning lights or any other issue that would require service. It safely and reliable got us to our destination. It started many conversations of "what is that?" or "who makes that?" to even "Wow! I finally get to see my first Lucid!"
Fun trip. Low stress. This country is beautiful. And what a way to see it behind the wheel of the Lucid. If you own one, drive it confidently and go explore!
Lots of road trips in here I get it. I wanted to share our particular journey in a 2023 Pure as a veteran of owning a GT and 2+ years of ownership and nearly 70k miles in two Airs. My wife and I drove from SoCal to Washington DC recently and here are some things we learned about the cars over 2,923 miles.
Our vehicle and driver combo was a 2023 Air with DDP, 19" wheels, 5 mph over the speed limit and yours truly for the entire trip for consistency. We used Lucid Navigation exclusively and charged at EA, EVgo and ChargePoint. All out of convenience not out of necessity.
First off, "follow the highway" is reiterated by the Lucid Navigation. A LOT. Even when on a highway without any turns ahead. We deduced it happens when the map resizes itself and (presumably) checks for new routes ahead. It seemed to happen every 10-15 mins. This could use some work.
Often times, when routing to a city, the navigation was unable to find a route. If I searched "Vail, Colorado" via typing on the search, it would return Vail as a location but it could not navigate to it. This was on 2.2.10 at the time. When searching for a specific location within Vail, it did fine.
Different painted lines in each state would cause the Highway Assist to behave differently. Exits and on ramps that did not have the painted dotted lines would cause the vehicle to auto-center on the double-wide lane that was created as exits and on ramps occurred. This is common in the other brand that begins with a T, too.
When navigating beyond the range of the current SoC, the vehicle will look for a stop around 15% SoC remaining. This is an excellent buffer and we appreciated the flexibility to go a little further if we felt up to it. Also, the charge remaining at stop was fairly accurate if I remained within 5 MPH of the speed limit. Anything over that, SoC at destination ticked lower as we drove along. My recommendation? Don't stress ABRP or similar. Put it in the Lucid Nav and enjoy the drive!
I would like to see a navigation algorithm to arrive at the destination the "fastest." On one occasion, we were driving from Kearney, NE to Joliet, IL. The default Lucid Nav had two long-ish stops over that 624 mile journey. The ETA was 5:48pm local time. I forced an additional stop and it dropped it to 5:22pm local time. Quick charges in the sweet spot led to a faster over all segment.
Rest stops, like those found along interstates for easy on and off, need EV chargers like Indiana and Ohio. That was super-convenient! Other places had chargers at Loves or similar truck stops. Which was OK. But the travel rest stops were neat and a quick place to charge that I would normally stop at with an ICE vehicle.
Lucid Nav accounts for time spent at charging stations when calculating ETA. For instance, if you were to drive straight through, you might arrive at 5:10. But if you need to charge for 20 mins along the way, the car will tell you that you will arrive at 5:30. It does not, however, account for time zone changes when displaying the ETA outside of the timezone you are traveling to.
Distracted and drowsy driver sensitivity need work. I turned them off. I would like to have kept them on the entire trip but the annoying alerts persisted despite me paying attention and without sunglasses.
The car needs road data for HA. It would drive into a turn at 80mph carrying too much speed for the corner. It needs data for suggested speed to start to slow the car as it approaches. Interestingly, it does slow when in Adaptive Cruise if you start to put some steering angle in. So, I know the car is smart enough to realize "hey! this is too much body roll. Let's chill!"
The high beams are premature to turn on when on dark stretches of highway for my liking. I would be passing someone and the lights would kick on as I started to pass their rear left tire essentially blinding them if they looked in their side mirror.
And finally, it took 2,312 miles to find our first non-working EA charger. Sure, there were times we had to wait for a plug-in, but there was an entire station offline because they were upgrading to the new 350kWh chargers. Can't complain about that I guess.
Finally, if any of you vulture "journalists" on here decide you want to quote any part of this above, you are not permitted unless you include this:
The overall journey in our Lucid Air was incredible. It behaved, above all, like a well mannered touring car that is suited for long distance trips despite the EV label. I say label because at this point, it should just be considered a car that a family can vacation in. You shouldn't worry about charging or range or the "can I make it" mentality. It out paced us in our required rest stops as humans. It drove comfortably and smoothly and we had zero mechanical hiccups or warning lights or any other issue that would require service. It safely and reliable got us to our destination. It started many conversations of "what is that?" or "who makes that?" to even "Wow! I finally get to see my first Lucid!"
Fun trip. Low stress. This country is beautiful. And what a way to see it behind the wheel of the Lucid. If you own one, drive it confidently and go explore!
