I’ll start by admitting I created this situation by leaving my fob in the car (an old Telsa habit) and forgetting to remove my phone when I exited the vehicle. However, I was a bit surprised Lucid Customer Care did not have a few more methods to help me out. Here’s what happened and I’m including a lot of detail since this is an owner’s forum and details can matter…
I have a second home about 350 miles away from where I live. I was able to travel there without stopping on a single full charge. This was great. I arrived at about 9pm, pulled into the garage, exited the vehicle, and plugged the charging cord into the wall outlet. A few minutes later I realized I must have left my phone in the car. I did. The car had self-locked. The car did not recognize the fob inside, which I had left in the compartment with the cup holders. Therefore, it would not unlock when I pushed on the door handles. Additionally, I could not unlock the car with the app since my phone was locked inside the car.
Luckly, I had my laptop with me and was able to text Lucid Customer Care. They said they would send codes to unlock the car. After this text exchange I checked to see if the car was unlocked, and it wasn’t. I texted back and was told to press many times on the driver-side door handle, and it should open. During this process –– remember the car was charging and I could not remove the plug because the car was locked —— the car shut down and went into a deep sleep mode. I had read that this sometimes happens during charging. Then, customer service informed me the car had went offline and they could not do anything more for me and I would just have to wait until the car ‘woke up’ on its own. I asked how long that would be and was informed it could be a few hours. I then asked if there was any other manual method to wake up the car. I did not get a reply. I then unplugged and plugged back in the power cord from the wall outlet a few times hoping this would wake the car up and it didn’t. Apparently, the battery system doesn’t communicate with the driving system during charging in a way that, if interrupted, would wake up the car.
Six hours later at 3am, in desperation, I rocked the car thinking I might be able to jiggle the fob into a position in which the car would then recognize the fob. All this did was set off the car’s alarm. Not being sure how to stop the alarm I unplugged the charging cord from the wall. That did the trick. I then plugged the cord back into the wall and I could hear the car begin charging again. Ten hours after the lockout at 7am, I texted Lucid Customer Care for help and got no reply. I was on my own. Again, in desperation, I used the Find My Phone feature from my laptop to send a sound to my iPhone thinking it might cause the car to wake up. I knew this was highly unlikely and it did not work. However, once the car completed its charging a few minutes later, the door handles opened on their own, and I had access to the interior of the car again.
So, I was locked out for more than 10 hours and the only reason I believe the vehicle woke up was because the car had finished charging. I’m not sure if the car would have gone into deep sleep if I hadn’t been charging it or if Customer Care inadvertently put it to sleep when they sent the unlock codes. This is all a mystery.
A few things to note. I do not appreciate being ghosted by Lucid Customer Care. If they don’t know what else to tell me then tell me that. When asleep the car goes offline and cannot be serviced remotely. Lucid should devise a method to wake up the car manually without the need for a key fob, key card, or the app. Not having those items available can happen and it happened to me. I will no longer leave my key fob in the car when I am not using the car. Lesson learned. (In my defense I used to do this all of the time with my last two Tesla Model S vehicles and the car always recognized the fob left inside.) I will also carry the Lucid key card in my wallet. It seems odd that I need to carry a fob, app, and card to insure I can gain access to the inside of my vehicle. That said, I do like the self-locking system and enjoy not having to remember to lock my car manually. I guess this is the price for that feature.
Hope no one else needs to deal with this issue. Fortunately, I was in a safe place when this happened. I found being without my phone and not knowing how and when I would get access to my vehicle again to be stressful. I usually don’t need much handholding but a little more communication from Lucid would have been appreciated too.
I have a second home about 350 miles away from where I live. I was able to travel there without stopping on a single full charge. This was great. I arrived at about 9pm, pulled into the garage, exited the vehicle, and plugged the charging cord into the wall outlet. A few minutes later I realized I must have left my phone in the car. I did. The car had self-locked. The car did not recognize the fob inside, which I had left in the compartment with the cup holders. Therefore, it would not unlock when I pushed on the door handles. Additionally, I could not unlock the car with the app since my phone was locked inside the car.
Luckly, I had my laptop with me and was able to text Lucid Customer Care. They said they would send codes to unlock the car. After this text exchange I checked to see if the car was unlocked, and it wasn’t. I texted back and was told to press many times on the driver-side door handle, and it should open. During this process –– remember the car was charging and I could not remove the plug because the car was locked —— the car shut down and went into a deep sleep mode. I had read that this sometimes happens during charging. Then, customer service informed me the car had went offline and they could not do anything more for me and I would just have to wait until the car ‘woke up’ on its own. I asked how long that would be and was informed it could be a few hours. I then asked if there was any other manual method to wake up the car. I did not get a reply. I then unplugged and plugged back in the power cord from the wall outlet a few times hoping this would wake the car up and it didn’t. Apparently, the battery system doesn’t communicate with the driving system during charging in a way that, if interrupted, would wake up the car.
Six hours later at 3am, in desperation, I rocked the car thinking I might be able to jiggle the fob into a position in which the car would then recognize the fob. All this did was set off the car’s alarm. Not being sure how to stop the alarm I unplugged the charging cord from the wall. That did the trick. I then plugged the cord back into the wall and I could hear the car begin charging again. Ten hours after the lockout at 7am, I texted Lucid Customer Care for help and got no reply. I was on my own. Again, in desperation, I used the Find My Phone feature from my laptop to send a sound to my iPhone thinking it might cause the car to wake up. I knew this was highly unlikely and it did not work. However, once the car completed its charging a few minutes later, the door handles opened on their own, and I had access to the interior of the car again.
So, I was locked out for more than 10 hours and the only reason I believe the vehicle woke up was because the car had finished charging. I’m not sure if the car would have gone into deep sleep if I hadn’t been charging it or if Customer Care inadvertently put it to sleep when they sent the unlock codes. This is all a mystery.
A few things to note. I do not appreciate being ghosted by Lucid Customer Care. If they don’t know what else to tell me then tell me that. When asleep the car goes offline and cannot be serviced remotely. Lucid should devise a method to wake up the car manually without the need for a key fob, key card, or the app. Not having those items available can happen and it happened to me. I will no longer leave my key fob in the car when I am not using the car. Lesson learned. (In my defense I used to do this all of the time with my last two Tesla Model S vehicles and the car always recognized the fob left inside.) I will also carry the Lucid key card in my wallet. It seems odd that I need to carry a fob, app, and card to insure I can gain access to the inside of my vehicle. That said, I do like the self-locking system and enjoy not having to remember to lock my car manually. I guess this is the price for that feature.
Hope no one else needs to deal with this issue. Fortunately, I was in a safe place when this happened. I found being without my phone and not knowing how and when I would get access to my vehicle again to be stressful. I usually don’t need much handholding but a little more communication from Lucid would have been appreciated too.
