After over a year of ownership, I still don't understand the entry/approach software of this car

[Tym]

3. Those who live in the North East where it rains frequently and/or don't like looking like a dork standing next to their car waiting for the phone and/or fob to connect and unlock the car/ pulling the card out and waving it on the B pillar looking for a miracle as we get soaked!

I fumbled around this particular set of frustrating problems for weeks after the May 2024 delivery of our afflicted Air Pure. Ultimately, I left just the departure on should I forget to manually lock, or it just doesn't take and I don't notice because it is pouring rain. I have retreated to the battery-eating fobs exclusively and maintain a large inventory of CR2032s that are changed monthly. My wife's fob is rarely used and still drains the battery in a month's time. The fob just works better, assuming that the battery has enough juice left to execute the request as a month is sometimes too much time. Less than 36 hours after I took delivery the first fob battery died leading to the first use of the "card".

The access issues have been frustrating, for sure, but have been far exceeded by the insultingly poor performance of the sound system. I will just reset the system, yet again, and concede that is another rant for another day. Don't get me going about the navigation system that can't find chargers, and directs me to take random exits off the freeway then get right back on!

When I open the garage door to empty the trash and I see the Air parked there, my heart sinks. I once loved this car, now it is officially a love/hate relationship, mostly hate. I have endured numerous issues since the day I took delivery of my 2024 AirPure in May. I have yet to speak with anyone that can explain how the radio could play TWO STATIONS AT THE SAME TIME! My wife is afraid of the poltergeist that haunts this cursed vehicle and will only drive it when I am present and have convinced her that it will be OK.
I am seriously considering finding a place to park it, eating the remainder of the lease and find something more reliable and less frustrating. My bad, I shoulda taken the 18 month lease, not 36. I have taken delivery of 12 new vehicles since 1984 and this Air is, by far, the worst of them. The 1995 Chevy S10 had a voracious appetite for fuel pumps and blinker switches, but it never stranded me on a busy interstate off ramp necessitating the notorious winch of shame. Worse still, Lucid never could determine why the vehicle failed!
Meanwhile, the LUCID SURVEY email lurks in my inbox...

If the problem is that bad, turn off passive lock. Now the car is always unlocked. never have to wait again.

 

[RMSko]

2025 AT that I've only had a couple of weeks, but while I was prepared to deal with unlocking/locking problems, I haven't had any so far. Maybe once I had to stand by the driver's door for an extra four seconds before the system detected me, but otherwise it's been fine. Importantly, mine is the only profile that's set up and we've never switched drivers, so maybe it's a multiple-profile thing. If it goes to sh*t when I add my wife, her fob, her phone, etc, I'll let you all know.

This is also my situation. I got my Air about a month ago and I'm the only profile. So far I have not had any issues with either the fob or the mobile key (once I got the mobile key to link). Interestingly, I have it set to "while using" instead of "always on" and it seems to work fine. I see no difference between this setting and always on. The only annoying issue is the Lucid app keeps asking me if I want to switch to always on.

 

[Steveinarizona]

Good point. The type of Bluetooth that Bobby mentions is apparently part of the issue? Another could just be the flat door handles needing to pop out to be used. Not sure how other EVs are with consistency for this, but I'd easily be willing to give up a few miles of overall range for the car to open like my BMW (or likely any other keyless entry vehicle).

My GV60P is pretty consistent. I walk up to the car and after about 1 second the door handles pop open. If I have been using the trunk and then I lock the car, I usually have to touch the spot on the door handle to get the door handles to pop open. BTW, this pretty much works the same whether I am using the fob or the phone as my digital key.

My GV60 uses near field communications to unlock the car doors. Lucid uses a combination of near field communications (for the key card) and bluetooth for the fob. So perhaps the use of bluetooth instead of near field is part of the problem.

 

[jlongii]

Software 2.6.16 on my air gt so up to date. Now getting the message in the app that the “Passive Unlock is temporarily disabled. Operate lock manually.” Don’t remember seeing this alert before. Apparently there is some set number of times that if the car detects the mobile key but you don’t enter the vehicle it disables the passive unlock. I guess this is good information to have. Still doesn’t address many of the issues posted here.

 

[borski]

Software 2.6.16 on my air gt so up to date. Now getting the message in the app that the “Passive Unlock is temporarily disabled. Operate lock manually.” Don’t remember seeing this alert before. Apparently there is some set number of times that if the car detects the mobile key but you don’t enter the vehicle it disables the passive unlock. I guess this is good information to have. Still doesn’t address many of the issues posted here.

The behavior isn’t new. The push notification letting you know about it is.

 

[codys21]

Software 2.6.16 on my air gt so up to date. Now getting the message in the app that the “Passive Unlock is temporarily disabled. Operate lock manually.” Don’t remember seeing this alert before. Apparently there is some set number of times that if the car detects the mobile key but you don’t enter the vehicle it disables the passive unlock. I guess this is good information to have. Still doesn’t address many of the issues posted here.

Yea there's an official reply somewhere stating the car unlocking 10 times in a row without being opened triggers it. Then passive unlock is disabled for 4 hours. After that 4 hours, if the car is passively unlocked again without being opened, it triggers it again and passive unlock is again disabled for 4 hours.

It's hilarious how often this happens to me. It's basically every 4 hours now because the car just continuously unlocks because of how poorly the passive unlock is calibrated.

If only the car had "normal" door handles that unlocked upon touch, and not upon guessing if someone was close.

 

[borski]

If only the car had "normal" door handles that unlocked upon touch, and not upon guessing if someone was close.

Just turn off passive unlock, and it does.

Then when you walk up, just press the door handle and it’ll open fine.

 

[knewman]

Just turn off passive unlock, and it does.

Then when you walk up, just press the door handle and it’ll open fine.

It'll open fine... eventually and if the car is in the right mood. I tried using passive unlock for a brief period because I'd been left standing in the rain or juggling groceries hopelessly pushing on the door handle one too many times.

 

[Bdr100]

First off, I am not a Lucid owner but do have a Gravity on order. I have two big concerns that LUCID had better get corrected. Regardless if it is an ICE car or EV, it should open IMMEDIATELY when needed, lock and stay locked. When you hit the start button (if it has one) and select drive, it should DRIVE (reference issues others are having with latest OTA update.) It should not require you to hard boot the system, open and close doors, run down the block to distance myself from the car, open apps on your phone, etc. They should just work.

The first time my wife runs up to the car in a driving rainstorm and has to fish her phone out of purse, hunt for the Lucid app, and click the open button because the Lucid did not recognize her or respond to touching the door handle, I will pay holy hell for selecting this vehicle. On another thread in this forum, there is a discussion about the low Consumer Report reliability rating for Lucid. I have a feeling one of the major reasons is this key fob, proximity sensor debacle.

I can be patient (and hopefully convince my wife to be also) with infotainment issues, seat heaters that act up, rain sensing wipers acting up, etc. Living in the world of bleeding edge technology sometimes requires patience with this tech as kinks are worked out. My wife’s 21 Mercedes has the wave your foot under the back to open trunk and auto lane change, that neither work worth a damn. But these are not critical features and I just don’t use them. If you want perfect reliability, get a Toyota. Their tech is decades old. That is why they are so reliable.

Hopefully these issues have been corrected with the Gravity, although I did read a couple comments about sporadic unlocking issues from some reviewers. So, fingers crossed.

 

[knewman]

...

Hopefully these issues have been corrected with the Gravity, although I did read a couple comments about sporadic unlocking issues from some reviewers. So, fingers crossed.

I may be wrong, but I believe Lucid has chosen a more traditional RF-based approach with the Gravity key fob. If that's the case I wouldn't expect the issues we're talking about in this thread to be prevalent with your Gravity, unless relying solely on the mobile application for vehicle authentication.

As for gear select issues, system reboots, and so on... we'll just need to wait and see if Lucid has made improvements to their software development practices with the team handling Gravity.

 

[borski]

First off, I am not a Lucid owner but do have a Gravity on order. I have two big concerns that LUCID had better get corrected. Regardless if it is an ICE car or EV, it should open IMMEDIATELY when needed, lock and stay locked. When you hit the start button (if it has one) and select drive, it should DRIVE (reference issues others are having with latest OTA update.) It should not require you to hard boot the system, open and close doors, run down the block to distance myself from the car, open apps on your phone, etc. They should just work.

The first time my wife runs up to the car in a driving rainstorm and has to fish her phone out of purse, hunt for the Lucid app, and click the open button because the Lucid did not recognize her or respond to touching the door handle, I will pay holy hell for selecting this vehicle. On another thread in this forum, there is a discussion about the low Consumer Report reliability rating for Lucid. I have a feeling one of the major reasons is this key fob, proximity sensor debacle.

I can be patient (and hopefully convince my wife to be also) with infotainment issues, seat heaters that act up, rain sensing wipers acting up, etc. Living in the world of bleeding edge technology sometimes requires patience with this tech as kinks are worked out. My wife’s 21 Mercedes has the wave your foot under the back to open trunk and auto lane change, that neither work worth a damn. But these are not critical features and I just don’t use them. If you want perfect reliability, get a Toyota. Their tech is decades old. That is why they are so reliable.

Hopefully these issues have been corrected with the Gravity, although I did read a couple comments about sporadic unlocking issues from some reviewers. So, fingers crossed.

Consider having an experience first? Don't go into it prepared to be upset. But that's just me.

 

[Bdr100]

Consider having an experience first? Don't go into it prepared to be upset. But that's just me.

I am not prepared to be upset. In fact I am cautiously optimistic that I will love the Gravity. That being said, I see this form as having two main purposes. First is for existing owners to network and help people solve issues, learn about their car, etc. The other is for prospective buyers like me to learn about the brand, research potential problems and improvements. Case in point, I was seriously worried about dropping $6500 for DDP based on early reviews that it was no better than what is on my 9 year old Mercedes. I did not want to end up like all of the early Tesla FSD buyers who got screwed by the years of worthless promises. Based on recent OTA update reviews, DDP appears to be improving significantly and I am more confident in keeping that in my Gravity build choice.

I guess my hope is that being we know that Lucid does read some of this forum, that they in reading, learn not only what current owners like or don’t like about their cars, but also learn what potential owners concerns are with making the jump to Lucid. For me, make the car dead solid reliable to unlock/open, start, drive, stop, lock. If driver profiles act up, CarPlay crashes after an OTA or lane keep assist is a little erratic, I”ll be patient and understand that these “features” that are not critical to everyday driving, will get sorted out.

 

[DeaneG]

I am not prepared to be upset. In fact I am cautiously optimistic that I will love the Gravity. That being said, I see this form as having two main purposes. First is for existing owners to network and help people solve issues, learn about their car, etc. The other is for prospective buyers like me to learn about the brand, research potential problems and improvements. Case in point, I was seriously worried about dropping $6500 for DDP based on early reviews that it was no better than what is on my 9 year old Mercedes. I did not want to end up like all of the early Tesla FSD buyers who got screwed by the years of worthless promises. Based on recent OTA update reviews, DDP appears to be improving significantly and I am more confident in keeping that in my Gravity build choice.

I guess my hope is that being we know that Lucid does read some of this forum, that they in reading, learn not only what current owners like or don’t like about their cars, but also learn what potential owners concerns are with making the jump to Lucid. For me, make the car dead solid reliable to unlock/open, start, drive, stop, lock. If driver profiles act up, CarPlay crashes after an OTA or lane keep assist is a little erratic, I”ll be patient and understand that these “features” that are not critical to everyday driving, will get sorted out.

All very reasonable - though Gravity is a ground-up, second-generation car. In particular, Gravity's UWB keyfob and key radio hardware are completely different from that in the Air, as a result of prior issues. Its primary UX software is similarly completely revised. Few conclusions about Gravity can be drawn from the thousands of posts about the Air.

 

[Steve181]

Do you by chance happen to know if this is a permanent contract or will it eventually expire? This is literally the most annoying pain point of the car. I really wish there was an aftermarket device that uses UWB to act as an adapter to the current keyless entry. Alas, I'm only a meager software engineer. :'(

Agreed!! An aftermarket key fob is really needed! That contract story seems fishy. Lucid needs to make them an offer they can't refuse.