"The Drive" Reviews the Lucid Air GT

[Wait4Perfection]

2022 Lucid Air Review: A Luxurious Long-Range EV Marred by Software Bugs

The issues ranged from all of the car’s volume not working to a limited-capacity mode that didn’t automatically clear.

www.thedrive.com

The conclusion:
Being an EV pioneer was definitely a thing a few years ago. But as more and more models make it to the mainstream market from older and more established OEMs, I’d bet there are fewer and fewer people who are willing to put up with a startup’s growing pains. Especially when the pricey car itself doesn’t ride nearly as well or has nearly as nice an interior as its German competitors. Do not get me wrong: The Air Grand Touring impressed me mightily with its range and road manners. It’s just up to you to decide if all the other troubles are worth it.

Do current owners agree? Still waiting to get my Touring delivered.

 

[MorganB]

Don't agree. I think the reviewer shows their level of logic by driving all the way to the highway before noticing there was no sound from the sound system, driving the car in turtle mode with the frunk indicating it was open without just giving it a push to make sure it was latched and locking themselves out of the car to perform a software update in 28 degree weather when you are clearly warned that the car will lock itself during the update process. The interior is beautiful and the ride is smooth.

 

[quantum]

Reviewer seems cluless....who drives with frunk warning? Just get out and close the damn thing. Also, who updates software accidentally? He should be praising that Lucid has some buttons unlike other EV's!

 

[Steveinarizona]

He should be praising that Lucid has some buttons unlike other EV's!

Yes. Yes. Yes. Buttons and switches for anything I might want to use while driving. For anything, go ahead and put it in the touch screen system.

 

[HC_79]

It's sad to see the software issues still plaguing the car over 12 months in and showing up in reviews. They're just annoying bugs that Lucid can't seem to shake and won't help the brand when commanding such a high price. Yes, driving around with the frunk open and turtle mode doesn't make the reviewer seem too smart but when it comes to the software, he's experiencing what we're all experiencing.

"great car to drive, software half backed" is not what Lucid wants to be known for as time goes on. Especially when you're asking such a high price for the car.

 

[borski]

It's sad to see the software issues still plaguing the car over 12 months in and showing up in reviews. They're just annoying bugs that Lucid can't seem to shake and won't help the brand when commanding such a high price. Yes, driving around with the frunk open and turtle mode doesn't make the reviewer seem too smart but when it comes to the software, he's experiencing what we're all experiencing.

"great car to drive, software half backed" is not what Lucid wants to be known for as time goes on. Especially when you're asking such a high price for the car.

Time heals all things, especially software with OTA updates. It takes time to build great software. Today vs a year ago is a massive improvement. A year from now will be even better.

 

[CLTGT]

Lucid is a relatively new Company with much more established competition. They get the benefit of the doubt, but not indefinitely. Their runway is getting shorter and shorter as they age and more competition is teased or comes to reality. They need to pray they have the time to "heal all things" Lucid. That is not a given. Their improvement needs to be on a level that discourages potential customers from passing on Lucid in favor of something more stable. It isn't just the software. New car reliability, access to service, range, etc. all weigh in. Lucid needs to take the software out of the "Con" column sooner rather than later. Lucid is very lucky both BMW and Mercedes made such unattractive vehicles.

 

[MorganB]

To be honest I find all the software issues minor. Maybe I'm lucky or the Touring has newer control modules that help? This is not a knock at the GT and Dream owners who when through the 1.0 days which I know was rough. I have had issues with not doors opening for 20 seconds, no sound, back up camera not turning on, surround view slow to display, garbled voice call etc and most are solved quickly by letting the car reset. They are also issues that rarely happen. I've had the no sound once and garbled phone calls twice. The back up camera has been blank a couple of times but with a click on the parking icon to turn it off and back on its resolved immediately. The latest firmware has resolved the car doors not opening which was the most annoying as I sometimes was standing around the car waiting. 95% of the time my drives are trouble free.

 

[joec]

To be honest I find all the software issues minor. Maybe I'm lucky or the Touring has newer control modules that help? This is not a knock at the GT and Dream owners who when through the 1.0 days which I know was rough. I have had issues with not doors opening for 20 seconds, no sound, back up camera not turning on, surround view slow to display, garbled voice call etc and most are solved quickly by letting the car reset. They are also issues that rarely happen. I've had the no sound once and garbled phone calls twice. The back up camera has been blank a couple of times but with a click on the parking icon to turn it off and back on its resolved immediately. The latest firmware has resolved the car doors not opening which was the most annoying as I sometimes was standing around the car waiting. 95% of the time my drives are trouble free.

Same here with my Touring. If anything, the .50 update made my car even more stable. Have not had to do a reset since. All my minor audio issues have not returned. Same deal with the backup cams. The one or two times they did not appear right away, putting it in park and then reverse again resolved it.

It may very well be that the Touring has a certain combination of hardware modules that are just more stable. Or maybe @MorganB and I have cars that were produced right around the same time, and that particular run was "lucky"? Who knows. But I can tell you anyone whose car is running like mine right now will have a very different impression of Lucid than many of the folks here.

 

[Tesla2.0]

I have IT and start-up background, so I am more tolerant than others when it comes to bugs and teething issues. But not all general public are positive recipients of that, especially purchasing a product at this price range. All these repeated bugs of no sound, fob slow response, 360/back up cameras not showing etc. etc. are really all minor and can be easily solved by soft reset or Bobby reset. The scary part is the turtle icon which I am fortunate enough to never encountered.

In order for Lucid to thrive, they need to have positive image of stability, not just demonstration of future financial stability, software stability as well to boost buyers’ confidence. My son loves riding Air for comfort, but he prefers going around places in his smaller agile Polestar 2 which never have to do soft reset since 4 months of ownership. Only problem he ever had was with EA and its mobile app couldn’t remote lock/unlock doors which took them an OTA Update cycle to resolve. Polestar may only OTA update once every 2 months, but each update was meaningful and QA validated not breaking other things to frustrate its owners. To me that is good business execution. Imagine when Lucid releases more Air in the wild, every update create bugs which compound the complaint noise, that is terrible company image. I have owned Air for 9 months, I hope after owning it for a year Air has no more update to reintroduce back old bugs.

Hello, Lucid HQ, are you listening and reading here?!

 

[HC_79]

I have IT and start-up background, so I am more tolerant than others when it comes to bugs and teething issues. But not all general public are positive recipients of that, especially purchasing a product at this price range. All these repeated bugs of no sound, fob slow response, 360/back up cameras not showing etc. etc. are really all minor and can be easily solved by soft reset or Bobby reset. The scary part is the turtle icon which I am fortunate enough to never encountered.

In order for Lucid to thrive, they need to have positive image of stability, not just demonstration of future financial stability, software stability as well to boost buyers’ confidence. My son loves riding Air for comfort, but he prefers going around places in his smaller agile Polestar 2 which never have to do soft reset since 4 months of ownership. Only problem he ever had was with EA and its mobile app couldn’t remote lock/unlock doors which took them an OTA Update cycle to resolve. Polestar may only OTA update once every 2 months, but each update was meaningful and QA validated not breaking other things to frustrate its owners. To me that is good business execution. Imagine when Lucid releases more Air in the wild, every update create bugs which compound the complaint noise, that is terrible company image. I have owned Air for 9 months, I hope after owning it for a year Air has no more update to reintroduce back old bugs.

Hello, Lucid HQ, are you listening and reading here?!

Similar to you, I have an IT background and am more tolerant to bugs but only to a certain extent. I know others are quite happy to wait another year or so but I feel Lucid's window of people being a little more forgiving is closing. Even my patience is starting to wear thin on the same bugs showing up over and over again and not being resolved in OTA's. They need to get some stability into the system sooner rather than later as whilst in the scheme of things these are minor bugs they're annoying. Luxury and annoying don't belong in the same sentence but that's where the Lucid is sitting right now.

The Lucid may be an engineering masterpiece but regardless, they're facing stiff competition from those that have huge brand recognition. Whether those cars are better or not if Lucid can't get these software issues resolved pronto they will struggle to steal customers from those brands. Like you said, the general public are generally less forgiving and when you're asking a premium for a vehicle and trying to build up a brand you can't afford to have lingering issues. Look at the example Tom used in his recent video. The EA location was full and the woman owning the BMW wasn't having it. Yelled at her husband for pushing her into an EV and told him he's taking it back and getting an ICE vehicle. Was it irrational? yes, but these are the people Lucid are going to have as customers. Luxury car owners have a level of expectation and if those expectations aren't met they have no issue cutting their losses and moving on as they have the money to do so.