[Warning - long post upcoming….]
In response to the original post on this thread, I use Dream Drive every day. It’s not ‘pro’ yet because I still have to touch the wheel every 0.5 miles. Until that time when it doesn’t require me to touch the wheel, it’s basically lane centering plus adaptive cruise control. It works great. It is a game changer for me having these features on any car I get. The car almost never crosses the lines. It doesn’t ping pong back and forth. I still pay plenty attention to the road to make sure there isn’t debris, a big pothole, or a sharp turn. The most recent update to HA helped a lot because it allows me to gently put my hand on the wheel and the car will slowly nudge in that direction. This is helpful when passing a truck and I want to be left of center rather than dead center. Taking my hand off the wheel after passing the truck and the car will move back to being dead center in the lane.
Is it worth it? For me, a big yes. I love the fact that the car drives me on the highways yet I drive it on the side roads. Highway driving is boring and not very exciting. Set the cruise control. Turn on lane centering. Turn up the music. And then confidently take your hands off the wheel and relax. Keep alert and touch the wheel every 20-30 seconds (not necessary to jerk the wheel, just lightly touch it) and it will continue until you need to get off the highway. I drive a lot. It totally changes the driving dynamics having this feature. I have similar features in my Mustang Mach-E and in my Kia Sorento. The Mach-E is more advanced because BlueCruise tracks your eyes, chin and forehead so it knows if you are not looking at the road. It doesn’t require you to touch the wheel at all which is amazing. The Kia is quite good, but not as good as the MME or the Lucid. I need to pay more attention to the road when in the Kia because its not great at keeping dead center.
Compared to Tesla? I can’t because I don’t have much experience with AutoPilot. I think the HA and lane centering is similar. The Lucid only works on highways and can’t change lanes (which isn’t important for me). There’s no phantom breaking in the Lucid and it only requires a gentle touch of the wheel to tell it you are still paying attention, so I think in this aspect it’s better.
There is one flaw which I hope Lucid corrects because it’s a safety issue which was programmed in. If you take your seat belt off even for a second (to take something out of your pocket, for instance), the Lucid will immediately stop Dream drive, causing it to simultaneously go out of both HA and adaptive cruise control and aggressively slam on the breaks (because of regenerative breaking). This is very dangerous because when cruising on a highway at 70 mph with traffic with your hands off the wheel and your foot comfortably resting on the floor, the simple act of pushing a spring-loaded button will immediately cause the car to slam on the breaks, a danger to you (who no longer has the seat belt on), all your passengers, and all the cars behind you. Adding to the confusion are loud BING BING BING noises inside the vehicle warning you of something you already know - that your seat belt is off. It almost caused a major accident for me. Thankfully the car behind me swerved in time to miss me. It all happened in about 2-3 seconds at very high speeds. It was really upsetting. I’ve been driving over 35 years and occasionally taking off a seat belt while on the highway is not a big deal. It doesn’t happen often, but its always temporary. The car should NOT react so aggressively and so dangerously. The car should stay in Dream Drive mode which is far safer than kicking out of it. If the seat belt isn’t put back on for say 0.5 miles, then there could be warnings. Needless to say I wrote a detailed email to Lucid explaining the incident.
So, yes Dream Drive is worth it for me. It’s one of the best features in the car. I use it every day and love it. Just beware if ever you need to take take off your seatbelt because the car will then do about the most dangerous thing I can think of - slam on the breaks at highway speeds regardless if are cars behind you.
