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It's more of a research vessel with amenities for the pampered. I've been on Falkor (also mentioned in the article) which is their current SOI vessel. It's far nicer than a typical work boat, but certainly not up to the class and sophistication of the actual super and mega yachts I've been on. I never had an opportunity to visit Lone Ranger, but I imagine it's quite similar to Falkor with possibly nicer owner spaces.

I guess you could think of these ships more as SUVs than luxury autos, to belabor the car analogy. They can still be luxurious, but their purpose is more about "going anywhere" and being self sufficient. There is a building trend of "fleet" ships rather than solo ships as well. See Golden Fleet as an example. They have three ships and a plane. Golden Odyssey and Golden Osprey being the 'pleasure craft', and Golden Shadow being a support vessel that carries fuel, toys, machine shop, and the seaplane Golden Eye. It's likely that Lone Ranger could fill a similar role. But it would need to be renamed ;)