The I-90 Surge by Out of Spec Studios

My god, can we please have more back and forth conversations that go like this one?

Kudos to the two of you. :)
One of the most polite but knowledgeable arguments I’ve seen, and with a quick resolution too!
 
Kyle tried. The fact I was there should tell you how desperate he was for a knowledgeable Lucid driver, but in my opinion it wouldn't have made a significant difference, at least up to this point.

The circling back in Billings was indeed my fault due to misreading the readout on the charger. But in reality we realized as soon we pulled out of the parking lot and turned around at the next traffic light, so we only lost a few minutes of time at most.

I'll admit that throughout the trip I was more passive and not as assertive as i probably should have been, but that's just my nature. We were consistently arriving at chargers at 5% SoC or less up until this point, and I would argue that we were already pushing the car harder than we really ought to have been, especially as we had to reduce speed multiple times. Looking back I definitively would have charged longer to maintain higher speeds.

I have to respectfully disagree about any bias towards the Porsche. In respect to charging, the numbers really don't lie, and the Taycan can onboard more energy significantly faster than the Air. Unfortunately for the Lucid, the benefits of greater efficiency and longer range disappear pretty quickly on a continuous race like this.

Does the fact that the Taycan is outpacing the Lucid in the race so far indicate the Taycan is definitively the better long distance road tripper or better EV in general? I would argue no, as this race is not really a real world representation of how people travel. If teams only traveled 12-16 hours each day and then stopped to charge overnight as most folks would, the Lucid would undoubtedly be doing much better. I think it's meant to be more of an entertaining thought experiment rather than saying one car is definitively superior to another, aside from perhaps getting from point A to point B across 3000 miles nonstop, which is really a silly comparison, anyways. Also, the Model 3 is ahead of us at this point as well, so it's not just the Porsche.

I'll agree that we did not 100% optimize the car, but the same is true for every other car as well, including the Porsche. Although the Taycan did do really well optimizing overall, we all made mistakes and lost time that we really shouldn't have, and while it skews the times for each team a bit, I feel like it evened out more or less, in the end. I'm pretty confident that if we all did this again that we'd all be at least a little bit faster, but I don't feel like the positions would change significantly.

If anyone feels like this series is a disservice to Lucid or unfairly representing any of the cars, please reach out to Out of Spec and let them know. With enough feedback or suggestions for improvement I think they'd certainly consider revisiting the results in some way, but I'd ask to withhold judgements until the final video. If I or anyone else on the Lucid team did not meet your expectations I sincerely apologize, but I hope you can appreciate that all 3 of us really did our best at the time. I don't feel like we could have pushed the car any harder. Smarter and more wisely, absolutely, but not harder.
To paraphrase my wife when we we’re watching that part where you mis-read the charger “It is one in the morning, of course that is going to happen”. I know I would have been completely out of it at that time of night as we are in bed going to sleep at around 9 pm. How in the world were you guys even coherent?!?!?

In reference to realistic travel times: we do a maximum of 9 to 10 hours a day. Based on the non-race road trip videos Kyle is doing around 14+ hours, so charging speed is a huge thing for his style of road trip. 🤷‍♂️

A vehicle that can do 4 hours of driving on about 60-65% of the battery, and then charge enough to cover another 4 hours of driving in 20-25 mins while we eat is more our speed. FYI even in our gas F150 when we hit a quarter tank we have gas stops planned on road trips thus why that percentage range.

@Shane_SLC what did your wife/immediate family think of you doing this?
 
To paraphrase my wife when we we’re watching that part where you mis-read the charger “It is one in the morning, of course that is going to happen”. I know I would have been completely out of it at that time of night as we are in bed going to sleep at around 9 pm. How in the world were you guys even coherent?!?!?

In reference to realistic travel times: we do a maximum of 9 to 10 hours a day. Based on the non-race road trip videos Kyle is doing around 14+ hours, so charging speed is a huge thing for his style of road trip. 🤷‍♂️

A vehicle that can do 4 hours of driving on about 60-65% of the battery, and then charge enough to cover another 4 hours of driving in 20-25 mins while we eat is more our speed. FYI even in our gas F150 when we hit a quarter tank we have gas stops planned on road trips thus why that percentage range.

@Shane_SLC what did your wife/immediate family think of you doing this?
Haha, yeah, that's about when I go to bed these days, too. The excitement and power naps are what kept me going, at least. I was surprised at how not horrible I felt once we made it to Boston.

12-14 hours is about my limit before I'm done, but that's definitely been easier with my Lucid. Even though it takes a little longer, being forced to stop every 2-3 hours after the first leg really makes it less physically and mentally exhausting.

My wife wasn't particularly thrilled with me going, but she was a good sport in the end. My family was really excited for me and they've been enjoying the videos so far!
 
It's all good. My understanding is each team will do a podcast-style video breaking down the trip from their perspective at some point, and I'll ensure all the positives are emphasized and noted for the Lucid. While the trip wasn't problem free for us, we were all pleased and impressed at how the car performed overall. Hopefully next time Team Lucid will have more knowledge and expertise, as well.
You guys did well so far, admittedly I have fast forwarded through some sections as I have been focused on the Lucid and Porsche. Looking forward to the finish next Saturday.
 
Hey Shane,

We are about 20 to 30 minutes from finishing watching the latest video, and I started wondering:
What were you guys doing different that you weren’t pulling into the charger worried about running out? Was it that you guys were relying on the buffer as that was the last time Jordan showed you guys being nervous pulling into the charger? Or, is it as you hit Chicago and the chargers became more plentiful? Started over charging? Or something else I missed?
 
Hey Shane,

We are about 20 to 30 minutes from finishing watching the latest video, and I started wondering:
What were you guys doing different that you weren’t pulling into the charger worried about running out? Was it that you guys were relying on the buffer as that was the last time Jordan showed you guys being nervous pulling into the charger? Or, is it as you hit Chicago and the chargers became more plentiful? Started over charging? Or something else I missed?
I think we were just better at charging sufficiently on this section of the trip. Those times we had to decrease speed to make it to the next charger cost us some time. Sitting at the charger even longer can be painful at times, but it's worth it if it helps you maintain speed.
 
I've watched the first three so far, and am (im)patiently waiting for the final release.
 
Yup. No one could have foreseen that outcome .... As soon as I saw Dave was in the car, I knew the Lucid was screwed. Should have put him in one of the Teslas, and put Andreas, Jordan or Drew in the Lucid.
 
Yup. No one could have foreseen that outcome .... As soon as I saw Dave was in the car, I knew the Lucid was screwed. Should have put him in one of the Teslas, and put Andreas, Jordan or Drew in the Lucid.
I've only watched bits and pieces of the 4 videos. Even before the "running on empty" and had to be towed situation, Lucid was in the middle of the pack at the last 10-15% (distance) of the race, correct? With Lucid's touted efficiency and range, was that a surprise?
 
I've only watched bits and pieces of the 4 videos. Even before the "running on empty" and had to be towed situation, Lucid was in the middle of the pack at the last 10-15% (distance) of the race, correct? With Lucid's touted efficiency and range, was that a surprise?
I'm about an hour into Part 4, and won't finish until later today or tomorrow. Please don't tell me its the Lucid that gets towed!

One of my critiques of the Lucid is that the GOM isn't as good as it could/should be. The estimated range on arrival is notoriously optimistic. I recent;y want on a long trip in my wife's Ioniq 5, and the I5 with live data being feed to ABRP is the bomb, as far as estimates go. Pretty reliable.

I've never felt I could reply on Lucid's range at arrival estimate. It can be off by as much as 50 miles out of 300 in certain terrain.
 
I'm about an hour into Part 4, and won't finish until later today or tomorrow. Please don't tell me its the Lucid that gets towed!

One of my critiques of the Lucid is that the GOM isn't as good as it could/should be. The estimated range on arrival is notoriously optimistic. I recent;y want on a long trip in my wife's Ioniq 5, and the I5 with live data being feed to ABRP is the bomb, as far as estimates go. Pretty reliable.

I've never felt I could reply on Lucid's range at arrival estimate. It can be off by as much as 50 miles out of 300 in certain terrain.
Sorry I spilled the beans! Apologies!

I agree with your comments RE: Lucid's "optimistic" range projections.

I do a fair amount of long distance (780 miles) driving between my two houses (Phoenix to/from Marin County). Honestly, I found the I-90 Surge videos interesting (but waaaay too long) and not surprising. Unlike other range tests that SoS have done, this "I-90 derby" allows 10 miles over the speed limit and required planning and optimization of charging stops. Without injecting my own opinion prematurely, I think the key lessons to be learned are how each of the teams managed their vehicles to get the best results. The winner, the Porsche Taycan, has a relatively low rated range (compared to the Lucid) but it has a flat (step-wise) and reliable charging curve.
 

The conclusion is finally here! Lucid friends, have mercy. 🙈
Is it public lynching bad? I haven't watched.

I do wonder what the trade-off would be if the same cooling capacity was available in the Lucid. I thought someone mentioned double the capacity in kWh on a recent video.

My hope is Lucid has a drastic improvement in charging curve in the next year or two with a revamp of hardware. Time will tell.
 
Sorry I spilled the beans! Apologies!

I agree with your comments RE: Lucid's "optimistic" range projections.

I do a fair amount of long distance (780 miles) driving between my two houses (Phoenix to/from Marin County). Honestly, I found the I-90 Surge videos interesting (but waaaay too long) and not surprising. Unlike other range tests that SoS have done, this "I-90 derby" allows 10 miles over the speed limit and required planning and optimization of charging stops. Without injecting my own opinion prematurely, I think the key lessons to be learned are how each of the teams managed their vehicles to get the best results. The winner, the Porsche Taycan, has a relatively low rated range (compared to the Lucid) but it has a flat (step-wise) and reliable charging curve.

Damn. The Taycan won. Boo… no need to watch it now.
 
Sees Dave wants it to fail and succeeded in that. All the way he want to talk about cant rather then can. Why out of all the vehicles Lucid has to run below Zero multiple times and why Lucid has to run with less buffer, why Lucid has to travel at lower speeds due to no buffer. So many Why’s for me. Over all i felt it is a deliberate attempt to stage Lucid to fail.
 
Damn. The Taycan won. Boo… no need to watch it now.
After running out of battery, towed, recharged, and got the Boston, the Lucid came in 2nd to last place. Last place was the BMW i7!
 
Sees Dave wants it to fail and succeeded in that. All the way he want to talk about cant rather then can. Why out of all the vehicles Lucid has to run below Zero multiple times and why Lucid has to run with less buffer, why Lucid has to travel at lower speeds due to no buffer. So many Why’s for me. Over all i felt it is a deliberate attempt to stage Lucid to fail.
The Taycan would have won even if Lucid didn't run out of battery. Before it ran out of charge, Lucid was in the middle of the pack amongst the pack of Teslas, Hyundai, etc. when the Taycan arrived in Boston.
 
The Taycan would have won even if Lucid didn't run out of battery. Before it ran out of charge, Lucid was in the middle of the pack amongst the pack of Teslas, Hyundai, etc. when the Taycan arrived in Boston.
Lucid may not be number one due to the charging curved compared to Taycan, this will beat any car. My point is why Lucid has to do a stress test compared to others.
 
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