Asking sincerely not sarcastically as I'm not a software person...but why is Lucid struggling so much with software? I would think a company would know this going into this business that software experience and UX design is probably the second highest importance item that defines their expert with a vehicle...why such struggles? What might be making lucid struggle this much on software after excelling in hardware? Again, asking sincerely and to deepen understanding on my end cos I got really frustrated at the 2.8.16 update...thanks.
My best guess: Lucid started as a company led by a guy who loves cars and automotive engineering. But not so much infotainment software. So when they designed Air, they had some vague idea software would be important, but they didn’t think to bring their software team into the design of the hardware of the car itself. They more or less just wired a bunch of computers together and said “Here. Make software for this.”
It’s similar to how 1990s Microsoft was led by salespeople. And thus design wasn’t part of the ethos of the company. Everything was driven by what would appeal to the guy signing the checks for whatever company bought x number of licenses. Home buyers would buy it because it was what they used at work.
Then Apple started succeeding in the consumer space with their fancy design, and Microsoft lost footing with the general public fast.
So Microsoft, Facebook, and every other company with ugly software hired designers, thinking that would take care of it immediately. But it didn’t. Their stuff still sucked, because design was an afterthought. What good are fancy designers if the salespeople and the engineers can just shut them down in every meeting? It’s not enough to hire talented people. You have to give them a seat at the table.
The good news is Microsoft eventually got their design house in order, to the point where their newer stuff isn’t half bad. But it took many years.
Lucid is climbing out of a hole. We warn companies about getting into this position all the time when they shortcut and force releases to the public before they are ready. It always feels like the right thing at the time; just release and worry about it later. But the core of the issue is how the car is physically wired. Which can’t be changed post delivery. So you end up playing whack-a-mole trying to get all the components to speak to each other and stop glitching.
It’s the worst possible position to be in as a software organization. Even the best of leaders would have a rough time making it work. And to date, I have no idea what software leadership looks like at Lucid. It’s a black box, as far as the public is concerned, once Mike Bell left.
Of course, Gravity did have some software team input in its computer hardware design. Which led me to believe Gravity was going to go more smoothly. That obviously hasn’t worked out. They did have to start from scratch with a whole new stack, but they likely needed another year or two to get it together. Instead they shipped it, digging yet another hole for themselves.
I’ve said it many times; I don’t envy them. I also think they need a fire lit under them if it isn’t all hands on deck to get this straightened out.
I do think they can get past these issues. But they are clearly not there yet.
They have a year or so to get the newer Gravity stack up to snuff before it gets put into Midsize. Then they can redesign Air’s computer system and put the same platform there.
Hopefully they can make this coming year count.
