I fell in love with a car yesterday… and I haven’t even driven it.

My iPhone was getting its battery replaced (thank you AppleCare!). I walked into the Lucid Motors showroom, sat in the Gravity, and had a magical moment.

Let’s rewind with some background first.

I’m a geek. I live in California. We EVs.

We had a Model 3 on release year. Woo hoo could that car go… but as our family expanded we needed “more.” We upgraded to the BMW iX - talk about a spacious rocket ship with range!

The pace of EV technology has, in relative automotive and hardware terms, been moving so quickly. It’s not just the drive that’s evolved. Naturally, I take every opportunity to look ahead to the next class of transportation solutions and geek out. I believe we’ll see flying cars in our time - thanks to companies like Wisk and Joby Aviation - but not for my next ride.

So back to the Lucid Gravity.

After a recent vacation that involved renting a minivan (finally understanding my father’s experience driving a white Dodge Caravan), my wife proclaims:

“Our next car should be a minivan! We need more seats and more space.” [We’re a family of 4.]

Thus, as I scan the future of transportation I’ve been pre-filtered to size == large. Having heard the Gravity is a 7-seater (and yes, I’ve read a whole lot about the car already), I couldn’t wait to see it. While my expectations were high, I have to say they were exceeded.

  • Did it have the space I was looking for? Absolutely.
  • Range? 400+ is going to be the gold standard soon.

But none of those were the magical moments.

An AI-generated portrait riff: the author imagined alongside the Lucid Gravity in the showroom
An AI-generated cameo, courtesy of the showroom - the version of me with a slightly longer beard.

They’re not selling a car. They’re selling an experience.

As a product, it was clear that the Lucid team understood their customer. The tech executive (me) wanting cool, wanting ADAS, wanting luxury, and wanting to be nothing like that guy that drove the Dodge Caravan - while also wanting to make my wife happy on her demands for seats and space.

They had crafted a transportation experience, filled with so many moments of delight from the HUD to the massaging seats that would literally make me work from the car to… well, you don’t really need to hear my love affair with the car.

But at the crux of it, they understood they’re not selling me a car - they are selling me an experience. And that’s what the leaders in this space have figured out: the amazing technology they have created is really just the underpinnings of how they’re going to transform our transportation experience.

The road ahead

While I love to drive, I’m excited by how the prospect of autonomous transport from the likes of Zoox and Waymo (just naming some favorites) are going to enable me to reclaim that transport time for socialization, having a meal, getting some focus work done, maybe even teaching my kids something!

Building a great product is about delivering on an experience.

The pace of change in our transportation experience is accelerating - and I love what I see in the road ahead.