Out Of Spec Lucid Air ADAS Review--Not great, Bob.

[MGRMLN]

I got my AGT because it was far more of a driver’s car in every way than a Model S Plaid. The Tesla D is is better than the HA on my AGT, at least for now, but that’s a secondary use case, not my primary. For me, the car has to reward the act of driving. That is when my AGT shines. And for the times I must make an office commute, HA works very well for me on my mostly unchallenging highway, bumper to bumper traffic slogs. And I use ACC for the secondary streets. But when I want to drive, it has proper feedback, steering feel and the balance I expect of a high end sports sedan. Yes, the fact that the LIDAR complains when it rains is annoying. Yes, they aren’t using anywhere near the capability of all the cameras and sensors, but I know they will.

 

[illopp00]

I just finished an 850-mile two-day road trip and used HA for most of the trip with no problems. It functioned very well where the road markings were faint or worn nearly completely on RT 95. The rain for most of the second day reduced visibility but there was no problem with the center of lane tacking. The easiest part was the frequent stoppages for construction on RT 95. HA allowed me to monitor the stop-and-go conditions flawlessly without actually driving (I never took my hands off the wheel), as it came easily to a full stop and gently resumed as the traffic began moving. Much of the trip was in narrowed lanes bordered by Jersey barriers. Lots of 18-wheelers throwing up spray but the Air is stable and always felt safe. Yes, the set distance, even at one bar on adaptive cruise control, allowed some folks to cut in front of me for no apparent benefit to them, but the car slowed safely and gradually.

I love to drive the AGT, but it is good to get relief safely from the tedium of highway driving. I do not find fault with the lane change function in HA, as some have reported. If I were to review the AGT I could find trivial flaws, but they mostly involve subjective judgments. The HVAC did not clear the fogging when the dampness increased at about 35-40 degrees outside, requiring me to start the front and rear window defrosters for a few minutes. That was a inconvient, but tolerable. I find the seating position, support and comfort far better than the Porsche 18-way seats either in the newer 911s or the Panamera. Entry and exit for my 5'11"' frame is not as easy as an SUV, but hey, this car is more like a sports car than a large sedan. The view through the rear window is a bit restricted and the exterior rearview mirrors are a bit small, but otherwise, the driving position is extremely good for highway, local, or canyon driving. I never expected FSD. As we have seen with software improvements to HA since it was introduced, I expect further refinements to it and other functions in time. The Air, including ease of charging, is by far the best car that I have owned and is a pleasure to drive.

I just did a 140-mile roadtrip from Michigan back and it worked surprisingly well. It was raining, foggy, misting the whole way back with visibility about 5-8 car lengths. Was definitely helpful to keep distances and speeds lower since you couldn't see what was going on ahead. I was mostly surprised because it usually would complain perpetually about LIDAR needing to be cleaned due to stuff in the way, but it was just rock steady. I also think in the test, there are some conflicting settings in the DD Pro. I always run the car in the most 'defensive driving' settings, IE farthest follow distance and middle/normal reaction time. I noticed he had everything set to late notice. It definitely struggles a bit on curves that are tighter, and you don't keep some torque on the wheel, but I just rest my hand on the lower left of the wheel and gently nudge to keep in the middle of the lane on curves.

 

[petergottlieb]

Why would you uses ADAS? It’s a drivers car. I will never trust my life with assisted driving features. Like the early warning systems but everything else may get you killed some day. I don’t even use Tesla FSD, it is not trustworthy.

I am trying to wrap my head around the whole thing. Tesla is clearly the best system at this point, and yet, when I was car shopping and watching lots of video reviews etc. by people who loved Tesla's FSD, it would seem like it would always almost kill them at some point during their road-trip. It would get laughed-off, "Man, why did my car want to t-bone that truck?!" and I get that FSD was amazing for 99 percent of their trip, but I wouldn't trust my life with it. As for Lucid, it's behind and needs to get better, ideally pretty quickly, but like you, I got the Lucid because I wanted to drive it - and FSD is magical, except when it tries to kill you, even in a Tesla.

 

[HC_79]

I wouldn't trust my life with it.

You’re not supposed to. These are Level 2 ADAS systems and require the driver to pay attention at all times for the exact examples you provided.

 

[momo3605]

I am trying to wrap my head around the whole thing. Tesla is clearly the best system at this point, and yet, when I was car shopping and watching lots of video reviews etc. by people who loved Tesla's FSD, it would seem like it would always almost kill them at some point during their road-trip. It would get laughed-off, "Man, why did my car want to t-bone that truck?!" and I get that FSD was amazing for 99 percent of their trip, but I wouldn't trust my life with it. As for Lucid, it's behind and needs to get better, ideally pretty quickly, but like you, I got the Lucid because I wanted to drive it - and FSD is magical, except when it tries to kill you, even in a Tesla.

The point is not to trust your life with it. If you act like lucid highway assist is self driving it will try to kill you too. The point is to intervene like any L2 driver assist technology. 99% of driving is still better than a highway only driving assist that does 50% of your driving.

Of course you can always say you don’t like driver assists which is totally valid, but when comparing systems, the only that can drive more miles without disengaging is technically the better system

 

[petergottlieb]

You’re not supposed to. These are Level 2 ADAS systems and require the driver to pay attention at all times for the exact examples you provided.

I get that, but ADAS that still requires my full attention, while tempting me to think it doesn't because it's "so good" 99 percent of the time isn't worth it to me - and frankly seems pretty dangerous. I might as well drive. But hey, that's me.

 

[petergottlieb]

The point is not to trust your life with it. If you act like lucid highway assist is self driving it will try to kill you too. The point is to intervene like any L2 driver assist technology. 99% of driving is still better than a highway only driving assist that does 50% of your driving.

Of course you can always say you don’t like driver assists which is totally valid, but when comparing systems, the only that can drive more miles without disengaging is technically the better system

Absolutely, I don't disagree with anything you say. For me right now, even the best ADAS system (Tesla) still isn't good enough to make a car purchase around.