Not long after a Houston Area Cars & Coffee banned Dodge muscle cars we’ve now got one Dodge Challenger driver responsible for the destruction of four or five Lucid Air electric cars in one wild accident in North Houston. How does this even happen? Terrible luck mixed with, potentially, less-than-great driving.
Last night, a Dodge Challenger left the feeder road of Interstate 45 in the northbound direction when it lost control, jumped a curb, and wrecked itself and five cars, the Harris County Sherriff’s Department told The Autopian today. Why so many Lucid Airs?
Unfortunately for the driver, and their insurance company, where they lost control happens to be the location of the Houston area Lucid Service and Delivery Center just south of Airtex Road. Parked outside of that facility were at least four Lucid Airs by our count. It’s not clear if the vehicles were loaners or customer cars, but whatever they are they aren’t cheap.
I drove the Lucid Air last year and found it to be a highly capable, attractive, and usable electric sedan:
I’ve driven a ton of electric cars and, in terms of range and charging performance, the Lucid Air is right at the top. I put nearly 2,000 miles on one and, while I never approached the 469 miles of promised range, I consistently got close to 380-390 miles of range and returned a miles/kwh in the 3.2-3.6 range. The Lucid is stuck using the CCS public charging network so charging speeds are more limited by the charger than the vehicle itself, but I was still amused to watch it add hundreds of miles of range in the time it took me to go to Sheetz and grab a sandwich.
The downside to this vehicle has always been the price, with the one I tested costing upwards of $150,000. Lucid has since lowered its prices, with the cheapest Air costing about $80,000 delivered. That means that, in one accident, this Challenger somehow managed to write off a minimum of $320,000 worth of cars we can see. If those vehicles were AWD Grand Tourings it could be upwards of half a million dollars with the Challenger included. The sheriff’s office did say five cars were struck, but we can only see four here, so it’s possible the fifth was moved or towed by the time the video below was shot.
How does this happen? Based on this TikTok post from last night, it looks like the road was wet and the driver lost control, jumped the curb, and slowed down their vehicle using the rears of the Lucids, which were parked along the road. You can see the carnage.
@alejandrodante.00 #Houston ????????
Also, “Funky Town” is just a spectacular music choice for this TikTok, so credit to the person who filmed this.
Amazingly, the Harris County Sheriff’s Department informed The Autopian that there were somehow no injuries in the crash, though it’s currently unclear if the driver was cited. We’ve followed up with Lucid to determine if these were customer cars or loaners and will update when we hear.
Images: Alejandrodante.00 on TikTok
This is why I don’t go on 45.
Also, fun part about that Lucid store….they put it at the opposite end of a building that houses a Tesla shop. You literally cannot get to Tesla off 45 or the feeder without first seeing the Lucids. Well played, Lucid.
I don’t think I’ve seen 4 Lucid’s total and I’m barely a little over an hour from the damn factory.
This should help boost Lucid’s stock price a bit, though. Q1 sales bump!
Hope this guy had more than Texas minimums for auto insurance. Otherwise, he’s on the hook for a very expensive lawsuit…
I don’t think ANY state minimum for property damage will cover even ONE Lucid.
Still a whole lot cheaper than personal injury though.
The hero we didn’t know we needed.
The only place you’ll see 4 Lucids at the same time LOL
I actually saw 4 of them at a restaurant in the DC suburbs a couple of months back. After pausing to process what I was seeing I decided it must be a meet-up of the entire Lucid Owners Club.
“But did you die?” “Nah, I Dodged Death.”
Chrysler makes the type of cars that the guy who strapped a JATO pack to his car and launched himself into the side of a mountain would buy. Spend a little money and buy the whole car.
Bro jumped a curb and caught SO much Air!
You get an eye roll and a rec.
We’ll have to see if any videos of the actual crash become available. But it’s possible the Challenger driver caught this much Air without ever leaving the ground.
Totally sick jump bro!
That must have been the fastest purchase of four Lucids ever.
Breaking News; Charger fully depletes four Lucid Airs in under a second!
Edit; Damn it, it was a Challenger.
Challenger huh? Used to be Mustangs that did this shit.
While some people abuse Mustangs they do have a lawful purpose as trackday cars and daily drivers. There is no lawful purpose for the Dodge Challenger.
I mean, a Callenger is just a Dodge Mustang if we’re honest.
Yeah, but now Mustangs have handling.
When did Mustangs not have handling? It doesn’t mean their owners turned into better drivers.
They were never great handlers until recently. Every generation was bested by the GM twins- even the dainty Mustang II was worse than a 2nd-gen F sporting big fat 15s.
I mean, there’s a reason everyone for years was screaming for an IRS. Once the Mustang got that, it became a great handler.
I remember seeing a review (probably old OLD Top Gear) of a Mustang in the 90’s, and being astonished it still had a solid axel. On something that considered itself a sports car no less! Up until then I assumed they were only used on farming equipment, as even the cheap hatchbacks I’d seen had independent suspension.
Even though I’m now informed as to their utility in offroading, it still seems somewhat backward to me that Jeeps etc. use them.
Doesn’t matter to Mustang drivers.
Mustangs hit pedestrians, not cars
Doh
How much you want to bet all those Lucids are totaled?
There is a very high chance.
That’s what I’m thinking. New cars are built to be as disposable as aluminum cans while charging the consumer as much as a vehicle built to last several lifetimes.
For all the jokes about older cars crunching like aluminum cans at least you can fix them for fairly cheap.
Theyre most likely totalled because it’s impossible to get parts for them.
They are most likely totaled because being totaled makes the quickest easiest sale of four Lucids that dealer will make this year…
The first two are 100% totaled.
Hey Mark you mentioned Sheetz, are you PA based?
If he were really PA-based, he’d stop at Wawa.
That western PA burn lol
I am in Western PA close to Altoona where Sheetz is based. No WAWAs but there is a new place making a run at them
I don’t really know anything about the Wawa / Sheetz thing. I know just enough from PA people to understand that for some reason it is a thing to PA people.
Where they overlap it is a thing. I think eastern Pa
That makes sense. They were from west NJ, I mean Philadelphia.
As I understand things from distant Texas, they’re both pretty good and people have individual preferences as to which is better but for all intents and purposes:
WaWa is the Sheetz
What goes through people’s heads, prior to their heads going through the windshield, that driving like this at this location even if they were excellent drivers is a smart thing to do?
Most people believe they are above-average drivers (which is a statistical impossibility): NIH cite here.
And lest you think this is something only average people are subject to, even presumably highly-intelligent people fall victim to the same bias (call it what you want – “Main Character Syndrome” seems to be the latest in-vogue pop psychology term); 94% of professors view themselves as above-average instructors and writers as compared to their colleagues.
There’s a notion of authoritarian bias – that one excels at one’s tasks by virtue of the position. It’s meritocracy in reverse. With cars, the usual understanding is “I have learned through experience that I am a skilled driver, and can therefore handle this car”; the inverse – and dangerous – position being “I have purchased this car, and can thus handle it.”
The dangerous way of thinking gets reaffirmed by said driver doing dumb/stupid/dangerous shit and surviving it. You’ll often see this with reckless outdoorsmen as well; people who routinely go underprepared into the backcountry and who inevitably end up in an article where the first paragraph reads something like “Bob was an experienced hiker who was caught by surprise by a late-spring snowstorm. After a 24-hour long operation by County Search and Rescue, he was extracted and is expected to survive, though several toes did require amputation.”
It doesn’t matter the hobby, the safety-and-etiquette rules exist to handle the 1-10% of cases where violation could result in death or destruction. So Challenger owner, above, has probably driven through rain a few times with minor skids or done a few launches without crashing into anything, and from it formed the notion that even when the road is slightly greasier or wetter or when his tires are somewhat more worn that he can get away with it.
The TLDR: Because he’s gotten away with it before and in so doing has given himself license to discard normal safety-and-etiquette concerns.
All I can say all these people who THINK they are better than everyone are a PITA to those of us who are.
I wonder if reckless outdoorsman is an oxymoron or just a moron?
“Challenger drivers” and “smart” are phrases that do not occur in the same observable universe.
LJ Gibbs would like a word with you. Lol
“Funkytown” stands on its own as a great song. However, “Electric Boogie”, commonly known as “The Electric Slide”, would have been a better choice for this video.
See, I’d have chosen “Electric Avenue” myself…
“Electric Avenue” is too aggressive and while one may be tempted to see the opening verse as fitting the chorus is not.
No, the appropriate match for this carnage is a leisurely:
“Come let me take you on a party ride
And I’ll teach you, teach you, teach you
I’ll teach you the electric slide”
I’m thinking of a true Houston group, The Gap Band.
Gotta Get Up
Eaaaarly in the Mooooorning
Find me another Lu-cid
Sorry man… As a Tulsan I’ve gotta point out that “Gap” in The Gap Band refers to Greenwood, Archer, and Pine — The Greenwood District streets that those guys grew up around here in T-Town.
Great reference, though!
My apologies, I was misinformed.
Isn’t Tulsa where the “Ribbon” is?
I haven’t driven one, but based on my reading of many, many news stories, I think the Challenger gas pedal only functions like an on/off switch. Surely a recall is in order?
It can’t be the case that such a large percentage of Dodge muscle car drivers are just terrible?
Well, at least they aren’t Ram or Tesla drivers…
https://www.thestreet.com/automotive/drivers-in-ram-trucks-are-among-the-worst-study-says
I would say a large portion of Dodge muscle car drivers aren’t terrible drivers but a large percentage of terrible drivers drive Dodge muscle cars. Sort of like the finger saying.
I’ll conceed that point.
So, one encounters a Dodge; did they almost die? Probably not.
But one almost dies in an encounter with a car; was it a Dodge? Probably.
Exactly, you get me. But did you recognize the finger reference?
Maybe?
There is the logic of necessary vs sufficient conditions, or sets and subsets. (a thumb is a finger, but not all fingers are thumbs)
This is a little different, since Dodge drivers(A) and Bad drivers(B) are both independent subsets of All Drivers. It’s just that A ∪ B is particularly large.
You got it. But to refute your argument we are talking digits as the set and fingers, toes, thumbs, Big piggy, etc. Then of course you have to consider smaller markets which is where rare cars and penises make an appearance and why there is always a punishment size comparison of small size pens with small size sports cars which extends further fast cars fast draw on well for example Porsche drivers.
See it holds together as you go deeper. LOL
So all of that was just to make a dig against Porsche drivers? 🙂
No I was trying to keep from admitting you were right so I went to toes.then well penises to get a laugh. Then the way I wrote it got me thinking small cars and small penises, and then hey Porsche. My mind works in a Strange way.
These cars can be pretty challenging to drive.
Sure.
I wonder how many of the actual drivers of these cars realize that?
Bravo
Challenger driver probably fell asleep at the wheel and his lucid dreams turned into a Lucid nightmare.
Challenger driver was not totally lucid.
Don’t drive fast in the rain. You think you’re in control and then you Lucid.
Lucid could use the sales.
(Shrugs)
Hey Matt, Remember that article I suggested about property damage and combined single limits? It’s getting to where cars are worth more than people.
With the exception of “supercars” I disagree. At least it’s a cheap addition to my 6-month premium to get $1,000,000 in “extraordinary medical benefits.”
People will always be more expensive than (99% of) cars.
I was 99% joking.
My b. I suck at textual tone interpretation.
Not at all. I seriously suffer from the same all the time. Ever heard the one about reading the room? I’m not sure I have ever read a room correctly once in my entire life. And I have a hopelessly desicated sense of humor which never helps.
A Challenger driver in Texas crashing into something in spectacular fashion? Color me surprised…
I live in central Texas and spend a lot of time cycling. Worst drivers here are: Challenger/Charger, Mustang, Ram. Something about these vehicles just turns people into inconsiderate assholes.
Don’t forget the Altima
Houston area cyclist here….I find that Infiniti drivers are the worst, followed by pool cleaners, Toyota Camrys for some reason, any Dodge, and bro trucks.
It was a pelican.
https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/weird/driver-distracted-by-pelican-sinks-bugatti-in-omega-bay/1862337/
Oldie but goodie.
This is where I’d like to see one of those cheesy sitcom pushments happen in real life- drivet gets sentenced to work as a detailer and lot porter at the Lucid service center until the value of the damage is repaid. Oh, and he’s banned from driving anything faster than a golf cart
Assign him to be Jerry Seinfeld’s butler.
You think NHK would give me a pilot if I pitched them?
“because he’s MY butler!”
This is basically the plot of Cars
Which is just Doc Hollywood, animated with cars.
What’d I miss?
Crazy to think that my actual and entire house could burn to the ground and be worth less than the damage done by a single Challenger in the rain. I hope there’s CCTV footage and someone tastefully overlays Unreal Tournament QUADKILL announcements on it.
Achievements from the Burnout series would work too.
Itd need a slowmo cam with directional push for extra madness
im trina kill da house
Me steaks were made.