Fob, why

[hank-iv]

So it occurred to me last night that the fob issue just seems such a big part of the issues here.

Then I thought about the fob for my Nissan Leaf, which has never given any issues. And is more than 10 yrs old.

It does have some proximity function, but passive. If close to the car and you didn't unlock already, you can press a button on the door handle and it will unlock that door. And the key needs to be inside the car for you to cut it on, with a button on the dash. Just inside the car--anywhere. But nothing happens automatically. I've never considered the additional actions needed on my part especially burdensome. Sure my Model 3 doesn't need those actions from me, now that PaaK works 99.9% of the time there. But it doesn't bother me to have to do them in the Leaf.

I'm a finance guy and know about as much about tech as my house plants. But it seems like Lucid could have saved themselves a ton of work if they had just K.I.S.S.ed this issue. All the what I assume are handshaking issues and profile checking etc. Sure it might have elicited some snide comments, but those would have been overwhelmed by all the more positive ones about the rest of the car.

Water under the bridge I suppose. And wouldn't address the console issue part things.

 

[WeighingGravity]

I generally share your opinion, and I've voiced it on here a lot. I think it's amazing that Lucid seems to want to reinvent everything (drivetrain, handling, charging, packaging, AR HUD, etc etc) but that is a double-edged sword. Many companies adopt a differentiation strategy based on one or two things they want to do better than the competition. Lucid seems hell-bent on differentiating everything ("compromise nothing") and developing cutting-edge tech across the entire vehicle. I think this strategy has been to their detriment when it comes to releasing product on time and without bugs.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

Lucid has yet to learn their lesson about highly customized designs which mean very few off the shelf or standard parts can be used….but those same highly unique alien technology designs have also yielded some remarkable results so they are also leading the auto industry in many innovations. On the balance I think it’s worth those risks, but they do get backed into a corner when something goes wrong with the extra-terrestrial technology.

 

[RandomDesign]

Lucid has yet to learn their lesson about highly customized designs which mean very few off the shelf or standard parts can be used….but those same highly unique alien technology designs have also yielded some remarkable results so they are also leading the auto industry in many innovations. On the balance I think it’s worth those risks, but they do get backed into a corner when something goes wrong with the extra-terrestrial technology.

I did some research on the Marquardt systems because I was curious and I suspect that Lucid went with their most basic antenna/sensor setup as well. They make three versions of the access control system for cars and just from the problems with the center console in the Gravity it makes me think they went with the "basic" configuration. Not sure how much better the higher versions work but they do seem to have a wider array of antennas/sensors to detect keys.

Their marketing video about their modular digital key platform if anyone is interested:

You can see a bit of the layout of the sensors for the basic, advanced and premium versions starting at around the 6:35 mark.

 

[Ron_Burgundy]

I generally share your opinion, and I've voiced it on here a lot. I think it's amazing that Lucid seems to want to reinvent everything (drivetrain, handling, charging, packaging, AR HUD, etc etc) but that is a double-edged sword. Many companies adopt a differentiation strategy based on one or two things they want to do better than the competition. Lucid seems hell-bent on differentiating everything ("compromise nothing") and developing cutting-edge tech across the entire vehicle. I think this strategy has been to their detriment when it comes to releasing product on time and without bugs.

I don’t think Lucid tried to reinvent anything with the fob. That’s what makes it so frustrating. There’s no feature they’re trying to offer that hasn’t been available on some care for 10+ years. So, this should be one of the parts that works flawlessly.

To @RandomDesign’s later post - they’re using the system from a well known, established supplier.

Again, that’s what makes it so maddening.