Among First 12 Dream Edition Owners

Just got a call from my financial advisor whose black Dream Performance was delivered in the last hour in Orlando. He had never seen the car in the metal and was blown away by how beautiful it is, inside and out. He hasn't taken it on the road yet but is going to call again after he does.

He said a well-informed Lucid attendant arrived with the transport driver to orient him to the car. Here are a few bits of information about the experience:

- They could not get the driver profile set up. The attendant said the problem was at Lucid's end and not in the car, and he is going to call in a couple of hours with further information/assistance.

- Most of the ADAS functions are not yet active.

- The first production batch contained only black, white, and gold cars. Red cars are being produced in the second batch which is "2-3 weeks out".

- When pre-delivery information was being collected, he was asked if he wanted vanity plates, which Lucid will arrange.

- He and his wife are very short, and he found that reaching the front door armrest to close the door without hitting his head on the roof rail was tricky. He hasn't yet tried the back seat. When the attendant calls back about setting the driver profile, he's going to ask him if he's heard anything to substantiate the rumor that the cars have the motors installed for power door operation which will be activated later.
 
I'm confused about your last comment. I would think a short person would have less issues negotiating the roof rail, even though he may have to lean out more due to his stature. When I sat in the car, I don't recall finding it much of an issue in the front and I'm only 5'7"...or at least I used to be until gravity did its work.

I'll revisit this once the L.I. location opens up.
 
I'm confused about your last comment. I would think a short person would have less issues negotiating the roof rail, even though he may have to lean out more due to his stature. When I sat in the car, I don't recall finding it much of an issue in the front and I'm only 5'7"...or at least I used to be until gravity did its work.

You and I, brother. I started out at a towering 5'8" and have shrunk almost down to 5'6" of late.

Actually, the point I was making was that even short people hit their heads on the roof rails if they're not careful, with it probably being worse for taller people.

I have made four visits to the two Florida Design Studios, and I have found the roof rails to be hard to avoid every time. One one visit, I hit my head twice on the rear roof rails, as I was talking the second time and not paying enough attention to remember I had hit the rail a few minutes earlier. I suppose twisting my head out of the way is something for which I will develop motor memory, but infrequent passengers will need a warning. But the difficulty in reaching the armrests to close the door is real, especially with the arthritis in my neck. I experienced it myself and was not surprised when my friend, unprompted, said it was one of the first things he noticed.
 
I hit my head for the first day and haven't since. I'm short at 5'5". Haven't had any issues reaching the door though.

I also had an issue with driver profile at the studio. But once I got home I set it up no problem. Not sure if it was how strong the cell service at the studio or what, but it was pretty straight forward.
 
I hit my head for the first day and haven't since. I'm short at 5'5". Haven't had any issues reaching the door though.

I also had an issue with driver profile at the studio. But once I got home I set it up no problem. Not sure if it was how strong the cell service at the studio or what, but it was pretty straight forward.

iRobot, have to connect to VIKI. Tesla is the same way.
 
Regarding the infotainment software: it seems Lucid decided to forgo the package Google offers carmakers in Android Automotive. Rather than look like what every other carmaker using the package looks like, they kept their independent streak. With open source Android Automotive, whatever they build, they own but you only get the OS - you have to build everything on top of it. With the package, Google would own it and any issues with it would have to go through Google. Lucid seems determined to own their car. Unfortunately, this means we have to wait for them to develop relationships with third parties to include their apps in the infotainment system.

Having worked in IT for over 30 years, every large project I've worked on had a vision of the end product but to get there, we released V1, V2, V3 with timelines building functionality to get to the final product. I don't agree with their execution of the UI offering such scant capability. If you only offer a handful of apps, the priority should have been to include carplay and auto in V1 so owners could fill in with what is offered on their phone.

Basic ADAS functions being unavailable at launch really points to Lucid wanting to meet a deadline for customer delivery. If their first OTA update doesn't address ADAS, I'll be shocked and really disappointed in Lucid.
 
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