Car locked with child inside and would not unlock

dchesrown said:

Great hardware is only as good as the software running it. Every time it is raining I sit outside the damn car waiting for the door to respond. 2 months and my lease is up!!!! Very happy to see it go.
I called for service and they scheduled me out 1 month for passenger mirrror, window and door that had quit operating. Yesterday I received a call that they needed to cancel and would reach out to reschedule. How can they continue to sell cars that can't be serviced?

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1. The screen brightness control stopped appearing. A reset did not fix it, so we ended up driving at night with the display stuck at full brightness.
2. While pulling out of a mall parking lot, after reversing and then driving forward, the car suddenly warned and braked hard for no clear reason. My kids were pushed into their seat belts, which was very unsettling.

dchesrown said:

Great hardware is only as good as the software running it. Every time it is raining I sit outside the damn car waiting for the door to respond. 2 months and my lease is up!!!! Very happy to see it go.
I called for service and they scheduled me out 1 month for passenger mirrror, window and door that had quit operating. Yesterday I received a call that they needed to cancel and would reach out to reschedule. How can they continue to sell cars that can't be serviced?

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speed said:

Mine still wasn’t fixed after a second service visit.

At this point, I don’t think this is something that can be solved with another routine service visit, reset, or inspection. It appears to be a deeper hardware/software issue that needs a real engineering fix.

What’s frustrating is that access and key-recognition issues have been reported for years. If this has been known since 2022, Lucid should have a more durable and predictable solution by now, even if that means rethinking the current key/access mechanism.

This should be treated as a safety concern, not just a convenience issue. When a vehicle does not reliably unlock, especially with children involved, the stakes are different. Lucid should either address this through a formal safety recall or clearly state that Phone Key/PaaK should not be relied on as a primary key method in vehicles or cases where this issue has occurred.

I was given a Gravity loaner and used the key fob exclusively. To be fair, the fob worked very well. I liked the vehicle enough that I seriously considered moving into a Gravity.

But I also ran into more software issues.

1. The screen brightness control stopped appearing. A reset did not fix it, so we ended up driving at night with the display stuck at full brightness.
2. While pulling out of a mall parking lot, after reversing and then driving forward, the car suddenly warned and braked hard for no clear reason. My kids were pushed into their seat belts, which was very unsettling.

So for now, I’m waiting for my lease to end. I have about two months left, and I’m looking at other options. I recently test drove an i7 and am considering moving on.

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gaskiller said:

My door opens all the time….you should upgrade to the new computer if you haven’t. And you can always open from app while walking over. Regarding service, agree, they should improve. But I suspect once Gravity seat issues get fixed, availability will improve. Good thing is, your issue isn’t critical.

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Lycra said:

What will be your next car?

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speed said:

I’m done with Lucid, at least for now.

My issues were not fixed, even after multiple service visits and escalation. At this point, I don’t believe this is just a bad service experience or one unlucky car. There are fundamental problems with the software and access systems, and Lucid needs a ground-up evolution of that stack.

That is disappointing, because I genuinely wanted this car to work. There are parts of the Air that are excellent, and I’ll miss them. But the ownership experience has become exhausting. A car at this level should not make you question whether basic things like access, key recognition, and software behavior are going to work reliably.

I have about a month left on my lease, but mentally I’m done. The trust is gone.

I moved to a Range Rover LWB for now. Very different vehicle, very different priorities, but I needed something I could use with my family without constantly thinking about unresolved software and safety concerns.

I hope Lucid improves, because the product has real potential. But potential is not enough when the car still fails at things that should be basic.

For now, I’m out.

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speed said:

I’ve defended Lucid for a long time. This is actually my second Lucid Air in 3 years, and I’ve tried to be patient with all the software glitches, key issues, random bugs, and “it’ll get fixed in an update” stuff.

But yesterday honestly was the worst for me.

I was driving home with my 1.5-year-old in the back seat. He had finally fallen asleep listening to his favorite lullaby through CarPlay. Right before we got home, CarPlay randomly disconnected out of nowhere and stopped playing. Would not connect back at all. He’s a super light sleeper, so he immediately woke up crying.

I pulled into the driveway, opened the driver door, and walked around to get him out of his car seat.

And the car locked itself.

Wouldn’t open. Wouldn’t respond. Just completely locked with my baby inside crying.

I can’t even explain the panic of standing outside your own car, trying everything, while your kid is locked inside screaming.

Eventually it opened, but that moment completely broke my trust in this car.

I can deal with little tech annoyances. I can deal with bugs here and there. But basic reliability and safety issues like this? On a car that’s been out for years? Unacceptable.

I wanted this car to succeed so badly because when it works, it’s incredible. But after yesterday, I honestly don’t know how I’m supposed to trust it anymore. This company has lost sight of basic things in the push to just sell more cars

Done with this car but still hoping they somehow make it through

2023 Lucid Air Touring
2025 Lucid Air Pure

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speed said:

Engineering hat on

Honestly, the biggest issue here seems to be the car making hard yes/no decisions in situations that really need more context-aware behavior.

Right now the logic may effectively be:
- phone RSSI drops / credential moves away = auto-lock

But real-world behavior around a vehicle is more nuanced than that. A parent walking around the car to grab a child can temporarily look identical to “owner walked away.”

The access system should be looking at multiple signals together before deciding the interaction is over:
- how recently the drive ended,
- recent rear door activity,
- whether the phone is still moving around the car,
- cabin activity,
- repeated unlock attempts,
etc.

Instead of immediately auto-locking, the car should probably stay in an “active interaction” state for a short grace period when things are ambiguous.

I also can’t help but wonder if the whole lights/handles/choreography sequence is making the system more fragile than it needs to be. It feels like too many things have to happen perfectly in sync:
- wake states,
- credential auth,
- handle presentation,
- latch authorization,
- lighting animations,
etc.

That’s a lot of moving pieces for something that fundamentally should just prioritize:
“always let the authorized user back into the car safely.”

In edge cases like this, the system should bias toward accessibility and safety instead of aggressively committing to an auto-lock state off a single signal transition.

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speed said:

Update on this:

I received the car back last week. The technician said that one of the sensors in the rear of the vehicle needed to be replaced. We did a walkthrough before I left, and everything appeared to be working correctly at the time, although it's possible the issue wasn't presenting itself because the system was actively in use.

I do want to note that the technician in Austin was great to work with throughout the process. He was professional, communicative, and genuinely seemed invested in trying to resolve the issue.

While the car was in service, the team also asked if they could set up a Phone Key and perform additional testing.

Unfortunately, shortly after getting the car back, the same issues started happening again. In fact, the behavior may actually be slightly worse after updating to version 2.9.3. At one point, the car simply would not lock, regardless of what I tried.

I also changed my account password after getting the vehicle back, only to discover that the car's keyboard still doesn't support the caret (^) character. I found references to this exact issue from over a year and a half ago. How is this still not fixed?

At this point, the service visit appears to have accomplished notmuch. The car continues to sit in my garage because I can't use it the way I normally would. It has 4,500 miles after 16 months of ownership, not because I don't drive much, but because I don't trust it enough to take on trips where reliability matters.

What makes this especially disappointing is that I genuinely believe Lucid has built something impressive. Yet I worry the company will end up being defined by this issue. Whenever I talk to people about the car, they're excited and interested, until I mention the key and access problems. Their reaction is always the same: surprise that such a fundamental issue still exists.

It's frustrating because this shouldn't be the thing people associate with an otherwise great vehicle. The hardware, design, and driving experience are all excellent, but none of that matters if owners can't consistently access, lock, unlock, and rely on their vehicles.

My lease is up in a couple of months - I really wanted to buy a Gravity, but I'll need to consider other options. If they fix the key issue durably, I'll be the first to jump back on this

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RightTime said:

I’m sorry to hear this.

However, 9 times out of 10 it was the sequence in which you exited, unlocked, locked or attempted to re-enter. There are sensors that detect the key presence in the drivers seat only. If they key is not detected or if the key is in your purse on the passenger side. The vehicle is likely to lock. Make it a habit to keep your keys in your hand no matter what. Common mistakes will be when women will open passenger side, throw purse w keys inside or phone and close the door, then try to get in drivers side door and the car can’t detect the key. The whole vehicle locks down.

Tip: keep keys in your hand or person (pocket)
Ensure you have a working spare key as a back up.
Keep phone on your person so that you can unlock from phone if need be.

Hope this helps!

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Miami_Lucid_Man said:

... the car actually locks too easily when you’re literally around around the outer perimeter of it. ...

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DavidBWilliams said:

I find this increasingly frustrating also. Especially if it's raining or it's very dark at night and you're not in a well-lit area.
It should be fairly easy to allow a 1-minute delay or so for you to be able to walk around the other side of the car without it locking again.
The first time you walk up to the car seems to have a lot to do with whether the phone is unlocked and you're actively looking at it. As this is the only key I use currently.
It also seems to be affected by lack of cell signal or Wi-Fi signal.
Definitely one of the quirky characteristics of this car that can easily be fixed.

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speed said:

I’m done with Lucid, at least for now.

My issues were not fixed, even after multiple service visits and escalation. At this point, I don’t believe this is just a bad service experience or one unlucky car. There are fundamental problems with the software and access systems, and Lucid needs a ground-up evolution of that stack.

That is disappointing, because I genuinely wanted this car to work. There are parts of the Air that are excellent, and I’ll miss them. But the ownership experience has become exhausting. A car at this level should not make you question whether basic things like access, key recognition, and software behavior are going to work reliably.

I have about a month left on my lease, but mentally I’m done. The trust is gone.

I moved to a Range Rover LWB for now. Very different vehicle, very different priorities, but I needed something I could use with my family without constantly thinking about unresolved software and safety concerns.

I hope Lucid improves, because the product has real potential. But potential is not enough when the car still fails at things that should be basic.

For now, I’m out.

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