Lucid Air Shown as STOLEN - Location Failure & Customer Care's Embarrassing Response

[Stephan94920]

I've had numerous issues with this vehicle since purchasing it, including multiple recalls. Unfortunately, today's experience has been by far the most frustrating.

This morning, my Lucid mobile app showed that my car was located in Napa, CA, when it was actually parked in San Francisco. I am traveling for work so I contacted Lucid, and after reviewing the vehicle's location, their team confirmed that the car was in Napa.

Based on that confirmation, I contacted multiple police departments, filed a police report, and reported the vehicle stolen to my insurance company. Eventually, an officer went to investigate and found the car exactly where I had originally parked it in San Francisco.

For context, the car was parked in an above-ground parking garage where I've parked more than 20 times without any issues. This wasn't an isolated situation where the vehicle was parked somewhere with questionable connectivity. Lucid's own team reviewed the information and incorrectly confirmed its location.

As concerning as the technical failure was, Lucid's customer care made an already stressful situation considerably worse. The customer care representative was unprofessional and dismissive, at one point sarcastically commenting, "I'm glad you thought to have the cops look for the car."

To be clear, this was not an emergency for the police, and officers don't respond immediately to these types of reports. I was simply trying to locate a vehicle that Lucid had told me over 50 miles away from where I knew I had parked it.

I subsequently spoke with a team leader, who was unable to provide any meaningful update on the issue or when it might be resolved.

Between the recurring vehicle issues, multiple recalls, a mobile app that incorrectly reported my car's location, and a customer care team that showed very little professionalism or accountability, this has been an incredibly disappointing ownership experience.

I bought a Lucid expecting a premium vehicle and a premium ownership experience. Neither has lived up to expectations. At this point, I have serious concerns about the reliability of the vehicle and Lucid's ability to support its customers when something goes wrong.

 

[bcjenkins]

What an absolute nightmare of a day—having to file stolen vehicle police reports and insurance claims while traveling is stressful enough without getting snark from customer care.

The real failure here wasn’t just a sensor error; it was Customer Care confirming that location as fact. Frontline reps should know that telematics data is only as good as the receiver's satellite fix at the exact moment the car went to sleep.

Even in an above-ground multi-level structure, reinforced concrete decks, heavy steel rebar, and exterior shielding heavily attenuate GNSS signals. When a vehicle loses line-of-sight to the minimum four satellites needed for 3D trilateration, the telematics unit typically falls back to cellular tower sector estimation (Cell-ID). When that happens, the system pins the regional cellular node rather than the car, which can easily map 40 to 60 miles away.

I’ve seen this exact behavior across other connected vehicles (my wife's LEAF, for example), where an enclosed or covered vehicle will randomly report miles away until it's driven back out into open sky. (Note that I'm also assuming Lucid locator feature is similar, equally outfitted connected vehicles.) I've also experienced this with rental vehicles--specifically, where the SatNav thinks I'm miles away from my real location. This happens infrequently, but when it does, it clears up immediately when I exit the parking garage.

That technical reality doesn’t excuse how Customer Care handled it in the way you described. If a rep tells an owner their car is 50 miles away, of course you’re going to call law enforcement. It's unfortunate they did not immediately recognized the signature of a stale or cellular-triangulated fix--assuming they can determine that--before sending you down that rabbit hole.

 

[TahoeMichael]

What an absolute nightmare of a day—having to file stolen vehicle police reports and insurance claims while traveling is stressful enough without getting snark from customer care.

The real failure here wasn’t just a sensor error; it was Customer Care confirming that location as fact. Frontline reps should know that telematics data is only as good as the receiver's satellite fix at the exact moment the car went to sleep.

Even in an above-ground multi-level structure, reinforced concrete decks, heavy steel rebar, and exterior shielding heavily attenuate GNSS signals. When a vehicle loses line-of-sight to the minimum four satellites needed for 3D trilateration, the telematics unit typically falls back to cellular tower sector estimation (Cell-ID). When that happens, the system pins the regional cellular node rather than the car, which can easily map 40 to 60 miles away.

I’ve seen this exact behavior across other connected vehicles (my wife's LEAF, for example), where an enclosed or covered vehicle will randomly report miles away until it's driven back out into open sky. (Note that I'm also assuming Lucid locator feature is similar, equally outfitted connected vehicles.) I've also experienced this with rental vehicles--specifically, where the SatNav thinks I'm miles away from my real location. This happens infrequently, but when it does, it clears up immediately when I exit the parking garage.

That technical reality doesn’t excuse how Customer Care handled it in the way you described. If a rep tells an owner their car is 50 miles away, of course you’re going to call law enforcement. It's unfortunate they did not immediately recognized the signature of a stale or cellular-triangulated fix--assuming they can determine that--before sending you down that rabbit hole.

This seems like yet another example of immature software. The vehicle ought to know when it has a good GPS fix, and do something sensible when it loses it. Between cell towers, wifi networks, and the vehicle knowing when it's driving or not, the software should know that there's no way it went 50 miles to Napa. My cell phone does occasionally have minor location errors, but they manifest as being off by a few hundred feet, not 50 miles, and there's no reason that a vehicle cannot match that accuracy.

 

[tmichael]

Sorry for your stress!

I have an HA automation running to open my garage door when I am within a certain number of meters from my house. The past two days I have found my my garage opening during the night. My AI tool showed that the Gravity dropped the location multiple times during these nights, awaken itself and HA treated it as it is now entering the home location.

This hasn't happened before with the same automation - I can only think that something is a little wonky with the GPS/location process that wasn't true before the last couple days. Since the software in the car and in the home hasn't changed, I'm thinking maybe location data sent to the interweb is being received and processed differently than it was before. Not a Lucid or HA error, but somewhere else.

Don't know, but similar issue of location being incorrectly calculated. YMMV.

 

[Stephan94920]

What an absolute nightmare of a day—having to file stolen vehicle police reports and insurance claims while traveling is stressful enough without getting snark from customer care.

The real failure here wasn’t just a sensor error; it was Customer Care confirming that location as fact. Frontline reps should know that telematics data is only as good as the receiver's satellite fix at the exact moment the car went to sleep.

Even in an above-ground multi-level structure, reinforced concrete decks, heavy steel rebar, and exterior shielding heavily attenuate GNSS signals. When a vehicle loses line-of-sight to the minimum four satellites needed for 3D trilateration, the telematics unit typically falls back to cellular tower sector estimation (Cell-ID). When that happens, the system pins the regional cellular node rather than the car, which can easily map 40 to 60 miles away.

I’ve seen this exact behavior across other connected vehicles (my wife's LEAF, for example), where an enclosed or covered vehicle will randomly report miles away until it's driven back out into open sky. (Note that I'm also assuming Lucid locator feature is similar, equally outfitted connected vehicles.) I've also experienced this with rental vehicles--specifically, where the SatNav thinks I'm miles away from my real location. This happens infrequently, but when it does, it clears up immediately when I exit the parking garage.

That technical reality doesn’t excuse how Customer Care handled it in the way you described. If a rep tells an owner their car is 50 miles away, of course you’re going to call law enforcement. It's unfortunate they did not immediately recognized the signature of a stale or cellular-triangulated fix--assuming they can determine that--before sending you down that rabbit hole.

My thoughts exactly. Aside from this being yet another issue with the Lucid Air, the condescending and inappropriate response from customer care was unacceptable. Appreciate your thoughtful response!

 

[Stephan94920]

Sorry for your stress!

I have an HA automation running to open my garage door when I am within a certain number of meters from my house. The past two days I have found my my garage opening during the night. My AI tool showed that the Gravity dropped the location multiple times during these nights, awaken itself and HA treated it as it is now entering the home location.

This hasn't happened before with the same automation - I can only think that something is a little wonky with the GPS/location process that wasn't true before the last couple days. Since the software in the car and in the home hasn't changed, I'm thinking maybe location data sent to the interweb is being received and processed differently than it was before. Not a Lucid or HA error, but somewhere else.

Don't know, but similar issue of location being incorrectly calculated. YMMV.

Very helpful, thank you!

 

[Stephan94920]

This seems like yet another example of immature software. The vehicle ought to know when it has a good GPS fix, and do something sensible when it loses it. Between cell towers, wifi networks, and the vehicle knowing when it's driving or not, the software should know that there's no way it went 50 miles to Napa. My cell phone does occasionally have minor location errors, but they manifest as being off by a few hundred feet, not 50 miles, and there's no reason that a vehicle cannot match that accuracy.

Completely agree. Add on top of that a snarky customer care rep and it's a perfect encapsulation of how terrible this company, car and software is!