Drive System Fault - Car stopped dead in the middle of the road

[digiboxer]

I realize only a small fraction of Lucid owners encounter these faults, but it's still concerning to wake up to two reports. Because negative issues are overrepresented on these forums, perhaps I need to take a break from reading. I enjoy learning more about my new car, but find myself questioning whether I'm comfortable taking a road trip. Heck, I've even had negative thoughts sitting in rush hour traffic in the fast lanes, far from the shoulder.

I know catastrophic failures happen in ICE vehicles. In my 40+ years of driving those cars, I've never had one nor have I ever worried about having one. I know they won't, but would be nice if Lucid would provide some information on the underlying cause of the issues. Was there a bad batch of hardware that has since been resolved? Are they working on a software update that will address?

This is my first EV and (temporarily) my family's only car, so my concerns may not be shared with others who are more experienced with these vehicles and have alternatives in the event of issues.

"I realize only a small fraction of Lucid owners encounter these faults,...."

But that's really the question/issue isn't it? It's the biggest uncertainty that stands in the way of my decision whether to buy (how I'll fare at EA, whether the audio system goes rogue, etc, are not nearly as important to me).

The frequency of these major failures is a mystery--one that Lucid could clear up, but has chosen not to (maybe for valid business reasons). But it seems from the thin data we do have (posts on this site) the problem isn't going away.

I agree it would be a huge help if Lucid came out and said "these failure are caused by X and Y, they have occurred in X% if cars delivered, and we have taken steps we expect to significantly reduce that %...etc" By like you, I also agree they probably won't.

 

[pjdcorp]

I realize only a small fraction of Lucid owners encounter these faults, but it's still concerning to wake up to two reports. Because negative issues are overrepresented on these forums, perhaps I need to take a break from reading. I enjoy learning more about my new car, but find myself questioning whether I'm comfortable taking a road trip. Heck, I've even had negative thoughts sitting in rush hour traffic in the fast lanes, far from the shoulder.

I know catastrophic failures happen in ICE vehicles. In my 40+ years of driving those cars, I've never had one nor have I ever worried about having one. I know they won't, but would be nice if Lucid would provide some information on the underlying cause of the issues. Was there a bad batch of hardware that has since been resolved? Are they working on a software update that will address?

This is my first EV and (temporarily) my family's only car, so my concerns may not be shared with others who are more experienced with these vehicles and have alternatives in the event of issues.

Good observation.

 

[borski]

This happened to me just now on Christmas Day. I was driving on the freeway when the system has a fault. I quickly got off the offramp and the car just died in the middle lane of the off ramp. I had about a 1000 miles on the odo.
First time this has ever happened to me in any car. I've had 4 Teslas. Never happened.
I'm on the phone with Lucid customer service now. When I got out of the car, the hazard lights and all lights on the car went completely dead. It was dark and the car was just sitting there. When I left the area, I was just hoping no one would hit it being Christmas a day and the car sitting just before a stop light, it would be somewhat visible.
Lucid told me that the tow operator would need my physical key fob in order for him to take my car. I called my office/casino (always open) which was 6 min away and asked if security had my key fob and they did.
When the tow operator got to my car (Air GT) 3 hours later it was gone. Lucid suspects the police problem took it somewhere.
As I wrote this now, I'm on hold with Lucid with them trying to figure out where it could have went.
This is simply inexcusable. If my wife was driving she most likely would have got stuck on the freeway. I was driving over 70 mph when the car started going into limp mode. I noticed the power was mostly gone and there was no regen where I had to use the real brakes to get off the off ramp.
While I wrote this I just got hung up on so now I'll need to call Lucid back for the 4th time.

This sucks, but what do you mean you can’t find the car? You should be able to access it via location on the mobile app?

That said, it would need power for that, so maybe that’s what you mean.

 

[borski]

"I realize only a small fraction of Lucid owners encounter these faults,...."

But that's really the question/issue isn't it? It's the biggest uncertainty that stands in the way of my decision whether to buy (how I'll fare at EA, whether the audio system goes rogue, etc, are not nearly as important to me).

The frequency of these major failures is a mystery--one that Lucid could clear up, but has chosen not to (maybe for valid business reasons). But it seems from the thin data we do have (posts on this site) the problem isn't going away.

I agree it would be a huge help if Lucid came out and said "these failure are caused by X and Y, they have occurred in X% if cars delivered, and we have taken steps we expect to significantly reduce that %...etc" By like you, I also agree they probably won't.

If it was a consistent and/or widespread issue, you can bet there would have been a recall by now. That there hasn’t, as mentioned before, is a solid indicator that it is either not consistent or not widespread, or both.

Lucid has had recalls for much smaller issues in the past, so it is not likely that they would simply ignore this one.

 

[borski]

I dont think its isolated cases. Got my agt back two weeks ago after 34 days in the service center for various discrepencies. They didnt fix it all but it has to go back in for re-repairs, and now i have drive system problems on top of that. I use my agt for errands around town and not for going anywhere important. My communications with lucid have been below average good as is the quality of my agt. I see it as a tendency across the board.

What didn’t they fix? What were the “various discrepancies”? Please be more specific.

 

[digiboxer]

If it was a consistent and/or widespread issue, you can bet there would have been a recall by now. That there hasn’t, as mentioned before, is a solid indicator that it is either not consistent or not widespread, or both.

Lucid has had recalls for much smaller issues in the past, so it is not likely that they would simply ignore this one.

This assumes 1) it's one problem, and 2) they now how to fix it

 

[borski]

This assumes 1) it's one problem, and 2) they now how to fix it

Your (1) is what I meant by ”consistent”

 

[bobofat]

This happened to me just now on Christmas Day. I was driving on the freeway when the system has a fault. I quickly got off the offramp and the car just died in the middle lane of the off ramp. I had about a 1000 miles on the odo.
First time this has ever happened to me in any car. I've had 4 Teslas. Never happened.
I'm on the phone with Lucid customer service now. When I got out of the car, the hazard lights and all lights on the car went completely dead. It was dark and the car was just sitting there. When I left the area, I was just hoping no one would hit it being Christmas a day and the car sitting just before a stop light, it would be somewhat visible.
Lucid told me that the tow operator would need my physical key fob in order for him to take my car. I called my office/casino (always open) which was 6 min away and asked if security had my key fob and they did.
When the tow operator got to my car (Air GT) 3 hours later it was gone. Lucid suspects the police problem took it somewhere.
As I wrote this now, I'm on hold with Lucid with them trying to figure out where it could have went.
This is simply inexcusable. If my wife was driving she most likely would have got stuck on the freeway. I was driving over 70 mph when the car started going into limp mode. I noticed the power was mostly gone and there was no regen where I had to use the real brakes to get off the off ramp.
While I wrote this I just got hung up on so now I'll need to call Lucid back for the 4th time.

Any update on this or did you just join, leave a comment and disappear?

If this legit happened, we community members would like to know what transpired so we can learn from it. Your app literally shows you exactly where your car no matter where you are and I'm sure Lucid can track it as well. Did you get your car back?

 

[Bunnylebowski]

This happened to me just now on Christmas Day. I was driving on the freeway when the system has a fault. I quickly got off the offramp and the car just died in the middle lane of the off ramp. I had about a 1000 miles on the odo.
First time this has ever happened to me in any car. I've had 4 Teslas. Never happened.
I'm on the phone with Lucid customer service now. When I got out of the car, the hazard lights and all lights on the car went completely dead. It was dark and the car was just sitting there. When I left the area, I was just hoping no one would hit it being Christmas a day and the car sitting just before a stop light, it would be somewhat visible.
Lucid told me that the tow operator would need my physical key fob in order for him to take my car. I called my office/casino (always open) which was 6 min away and asked if security had my key fob and they did.
When the tow operator got to my car (Air GT) 3 hours later it was gone. Lucid suspects the police problem took it somewhere.
As I wrote this now, I'm on hold with Lucid with them trying to figure out where it could have went.
This is simply inexcusable. If my wife was driving she most likely would have got stuck on the freeway. I was driving over 70 mph when the car started going into limp mode. I noticed the power was mostly gone and there was no regen where I had to use the real brakes to get off the off ramp.
While I wrote this I just got hung up on so now I'll need to call Lucid back for the 4th time.

Any update on this? I can understand maybe not getting any tow alerts or location on your phone if the car was totally without power. Also where are you located/which service center? It sucks to happen anytime but particularly bad on Christmas Day, at least thankfully a time of less traffic!

 

[Cosmo Cruz]

I"ve been holding back and hoping for the best but my car is waiting for a trailer to take it to the regional service center, which is backed-up with cars which is why I'm waiting..there is no more space to put my car. I"m told not to drive the car but I do sneak it out for a drive around the block when the weather is nice. I've had six major faults since delivery (under 500 miles / 3 months): blank screens; drive system; brake system; 12 v system; etc. A screen module was replaced which fixed the blank screens, but the electronic gremlin still lives. Tech has sent files to engineers. When the car works is works perfectly. The failures seem to occur: when it's raining. at traffic lights. in front of Teslas. have always been temporarily "fixed" by resets, although sometimes it takes 3 or 5 resets to accomplish.

Makes sense to me that we aren't going to get perfect cars right away...and that there is economic pressure on Lucid to get cars in hands. It must be painful to have to do this at the expense of customer expectation, but it must be done at some point of the whole thing will collapse. We've been delivered a batch of unfinished cars...and if you think about it we are helping to sort out the problems by discussing here.

What a nightmare for Lucid: they finally get to play with the big boys and Covid shuts down supply lines. I wonder if they had to scramble to get modules that don't play well with the rest of the system and that's why it seems to be such a spotty problem?

 

[joec]

I"ve been holding back and hoping for the best but my car is waiting for a trailer to take it to the regional service center, which is backed-up with cars which is why I'm waiting..there is no more space to put my car. I"m told not to drive the car but I do sneak it out for a drive around the block when the weather is nice. I've had six major faults since delivery (under 500 miles / 3 months): blank screens; drive system; brake system; 12 v system; etc. A screen module was replaced which fixed the blank screens, but the electronic gremlin still lives. Tech has sent files to engineers. When the car works is works perfectly. The failures seem to occur: when it's raining. at traffic lights. in front of Teslas. have always been temporarily "fixed" by resets, although sometimes it takes 3 or 5 resets to accomplish.

Makes sense to me that we aren't going to get perfect cars right away...and that there is economic pressure on Lucid to get cars in hands. It must be painful to have to do this at the expense of customer expectation, but it must be done at some point of the whole thing will collapse. We've been delivered a batch of unfinished cars...and if you think about it we are helping to sort out the problems by discussing here.

What a nightmare for Lucid: they finally get to play with the big boys and Covid shuts down supply lines. I wonder if they had to scramble to get modules that don't play well with the rest of the system and that's why it seems to be such a spotty problem?

So sorry to hear about your continued issues. New car company or not, you should not have to be dealing with so many problems.

I sincerely hope they get to the bottom of what's going on with your car soon. Could be one thing they just haven't figured out yet. Or could be multiple things, and some have been fixed while others not. So frustrating.

Wish you all the best in the new year.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

I"ve been holding back and hoping for the best but my car is waiting for a trailer to take it to the regional service center, which is backed-up with cars which is why I'm waiting..there is no more space to put my car. I"m told not to drive the car but I do sneak it out for a drive around the block when the weather is nice. I've had six major faults since delivery (under 500 miles / 3 months): blank screens; drive system; brake system; 12 v system; etc. A screen module was replaced which fixed the blank screens, but the electronic gremlin still lives. Tech has sent files to engineers. When the car works is works perfectly. The failures seem to occur: when it's raining. at traffic lights. in front of Teslas. have always been temporarily "fixed" by resets, although sometimes it takes 3 or 5 resets to accomplish.

Makes sense to me that we aren't going to get perfect cars right away...and that there is economic pressure on Lucid to get cars in hands. It must be painful to have to do this at the expense of customer expectation, but it must be done at some point of the whole thing will collapse. We've been delivered a batch of unfinished cars...and if you think about it we are helping to sort out the problems by discussing here.

What a nightmare for Lucid: they finally get to play with the big boys and Covid shuts down supply lines. I wonder if they had to scramble to get modules that don't play well with the rest of the system and that's why it seems to be such a spotty problem?

Yeah there must be some problems with the modules, if it’s truly mechanical a reboot should do nothing. Reminds me of when they tried to find the source of my random warning lights on my 1986 Volvo wagon, took two weeks of work to go through all the wiring harnesses to find the one little thing that’s resistance or whatever was wrong. Wish I could copy and paste my car to you @Cosmo Cruz, all issues have been minor trim things aside from navigation module needing a reset.

 

[Bel]

What didn’t they fix? What were the “various discrepancies”? Please be more specific.

Some delivery discrepancies were still not repaired when I got my AGT back mid-December after 34 consecutive days in the Service Center (SC) albeit the SC stated that they had repaired all discrepancies.

The main delivery discrepancy was that my car was delivered as a “rattle and squeak machine”.

Some interesting Service Center (SC) statements are as follows. I sent the Forum’s Check List to the SC as soon as I found out my car had arrived at the SC from the factory – I had to ask, "where is my car". However, due the number and type of discrepancies, I estimate they ignored the list in its entirety. Also, I especially called them and asked them to provide a wheel alignment report before delivery as per the Forum’s Check List. The SC person told me that "the report is proprietary information and will not be given." I then asked for a written receipt and the SC person said that "it could also not be given" and this time without explanation why not. The SC person told me “as long as the car does not pull left or right the wheel alignment is okey”. When the SC later on saw my long discrepancy list and when the car was at the SC for repairs, they did call and said they did perform wheel alignment check and found that a rear wheel was indeed out of alignment. Their job report states that wheel alignment has occurred but not what was fixed, and I have not received any report and do not expect any report. I do not believe the pull left or right statement as an indication that the wheels are in (perfect) alignment.

As per my discrepancy list that the exterior rubber gasket at the bottom of the rear window was not snug to the window and water runs through, an SC person called and said, “it is due to that the rubber had dried out due to the Arizona sun and will be replaced.” After repairs, it is still not snug and does not appear to be replaced. I do not believe the Arizona sun statement.

There is still a pronounced rattle and squeak in the area of the rear passenger wheel. It sounds as if an orange is rolling around in the trunk. The SC wants me to come to the SC to show the mechanics “how to detect it.” I find it interesting that the customer should volunteer to train the SC mechanics. Anyway, I have experimented with different types of bumps and have purchased “bumps” that I have found best emulates the situation – please see attached photo. These are 48"x12" footprint, 2.25" tall, 25 lb, heavy duty solid rubber, and rated for 10 Tons. I also purchased a (basic) decibel meter. By driving just five mph or less (as opposed to 35 mph on city streets) over these bumps, the rattles and squeaks are produced every time even in my driveway as per the attached photo – uphill, downhill, and flat. Also, see attached photo of the SC felt installation as mitigation attempt. The felt is clearly visible through the window – unsightly. Felt as the only mitigation method is not a viable permanent solution, but it needs to be determined why the shelf is moving at all. However, I do not know whether it is the shelf that causes the rattle and squeaks in the area of the rear passenger wheel. A typical repair approach would have been to (a) take out the entire shelf (b) rebuild the shelf (c) make sure the shelf is properly secured to the chassis (d) remove any felt visible through the window and (e) do not rely on felt as the singular solution.

An SC person said over the phone that “they found some rattles and squeaks coming from the dashboard.” However, this is not listed as a job in their repair report. A buzzing and vibrating noise is still coming from the dashboard, and from the driver seat position, it seems to come from the center area of the dashboard. This it best heard while driving over round yellow markers that divide street lanes.

The SC job report does not list that they have tested/repaired the HomeLink of the car. An SC person originally said “mobile service would come to my home to repair it,” but no one showed up. My solution was to buy a remote – see photo.

Since the SC have had the car for repairs for more than 30 days (so far), I believe it now qualifies as a lemon as per Washington state lemon law. I have per email asked the SC to give me directions how to proceed to declare it as a lemon.

As a separate ticket, my car now also has a Drive System Warning – see photo.


See my Discrepancy List below I sent 10/14/2022 to Lucid one day after delivery. The delivery checks became so disappointing and seriously quite ridiculous after numerous hours that I just gave up and thus did not even go through the entire check list.

Lucid Discrepancy List​

• Nothing promised or due (comment by Lucid DA).
• Trunk passenger side, gasket, fastener broken. See attached photo.
• Plate for front license plate not installed.
• Driver side, rear wheel well, front part, insert not properly fasten, fastener hole without fastener is visible. Take off wheel and do complete overhaul of insert and all fasteners. Look for broken or improperly installed fasteners. See attached photo.
• Passenger side, rear bottom end of contrail, “Air” badge improperly fastened and improperly lined up with bottom of contrail. Compare with driver side that is good. See attached photo.
• Lucid HomeLink could not be set up or does not work, customer is using manual three-button remote to be able to open/close the garage doors. HomeLink works on the customer 2014 Nissan Altima. See attached photo.
• Charge port rubbing against fender when opening/closing. See attached photo.
• Poor fit of bottom of closed trunk lid, ~1/4” gap difference for driver vs passenger side. See attached photos.
• General rattle noise in the car when driving over uneven surfaces or bumps. Only ~15-30 mi/hr was tested. Alternating driving comparison between the customer 2014 Nissan Altima with ~46,000 miles on the odometer and Lucid AGT was performed. Altima featured close to none or no rattling noise whereas AGT featured quite a bit of rattling noise. The testing was performed in the customer neighborhood and to and from the grocery store where the customer typically shops.
• Pronounced rattling noise somewhere in the rear of the car (difficult to pinpoint) when the rear passenger wheel hits uneven pavement or small bumps of decent size.
• Trunk opening during the first inch of opening, squeaking noise.
• Frunk during the last inch of closing, the mechanical movement seems to be rough, and it is questioned if the mechanism works properly or is properly adjusted for smooth operation. See attached photo.
• Trunk upper interior trim with six fasteners, at least one fastener is broken, several fasteners are discolored. Fastener holes between the trunk and plastic trim do not seem to line up everywhere. At a minimum replace all fasteners. See attached photo.
• Trunk upper part, exterior rubber gasket, does not seal everywhere. Poor fit may leak water. See attached photo.
• The car was locked in the garage in the evening and both FOBs were stored overnight ~25 ft away and with three house walls between the FOBs and the car. The mirrors were folded and all four door handles were closed. Both FOB were in closed Faraday’s bags as recommend by other Lucid owners. When the customer came out in the morning, the driver front door handle was fully open. Note that if the FOB is not in Faraday’s bag and the customer walks around in the garage with the AGT parked in the driveway, the AIR will “wake up” and “go to sleep” as the customer moves or does not move, respectively. See attached photo.
• Lucid/EA free charging does not work. The customer tried 10/13/2022 together with the Lucid DA and only credit card payment worked. It was tried again by the customer 10/14/2022 but with the same unsatisfactory result.
• Driver side, rear seat, seat belt cover at the upper end of the seat belt is misaligned. Compare with the passenger side that is perfect. See attached photo.
• Passenger side, front seat, bottom cover at the bottom of the seat belt and seat, poor fit, large gap. Compare with driver side that is not perfect but acceptable. See attached photo.
• Driver side, front wheel well, bottom rear part, insert and fastener is loose. Take off wheel and do complete overhaul of insert and all fasteners. Look for broken or improperly installed fasteners. See attached photo.
• Passenger side, front wheel well, several fasteners for the insert are missing. Take off wheel and do complete overhaul of the insert and all fasteners. Look for broken or improperly installed fasteners.
• Written receipt or proof that wheel alignment has occurred and is within tolerance specifications.

 

[netpark]

Any update on this? I can understand maybe not getting any tow alerts or location on your phone if the car was totally without power. Also where are you located/which service center? It sucks to happen anytime but particularly bad on Christmas Day, at least thankfully a time of less traffic!

First time looking at this forum again since the Christmas day failure. I’m located in Los Angeles and had the car serviced in Torrance. Got my car back on Jan 18th.
I had to go to the CHP tow yard with a key to give to them and sign a release so Lucid can come by and flatbed it out. You need the key at all times with you when you break down or Lucid will not be able to tow the car away. Something I was never told. I now keep the Lucid key in a Faraday enclosed envelope in the glove compartment so a key is with the car at all times. You can pick one up on Amazon and it works well.
On Christmas day it was a total power shutdown on my GT. So impossible to locate where the car was towed. I called CHP and they told me where they towed the car.
Service advisor can’t tell me how the failure happened. He could just tell me that they completed the repair to the contacts on the HV battery pack. Corporate will have to analyze the cause and get back to me, whenever that may be.
In the mean time, the car has been driven a few hundred miles with no issues so far.

 

[Cosmo Cruz]

Yeah there must be some problems with the modules, if it’s truly mechanical a reboot should do nothing.

You are correct. First fault (lost screens) was bad video module. Second series of faults was bad 12v control module.

The car is 100% now and I am over the moon in love again. I've loved some awesome cars in my day but this one .... wow.

 

[netpark]

First time looking at this forum again since the Christmas day failure. I’m located in Los Angeles and had the car serviced in Torrance. Got my car back on Jan 18th.
I had to go to the CHP tow yard with a key to give to them and sign a release so Lucid can come by and flatbed it out. You need the key at all times with you when you break down or Lucid will not be able to tow the car away. Something I was never told. I now keep the Lucid key in a Faraday enclosed envelope in the glove compartment so a key is with the car at all times. You can pick one up on Amazon and it works well.
On Christmas day it was a total power shutdown on my GT. So impossible to locate where the car was towed. I called CHP and they told me where they towed the car.
Service advisor can’t tell me how the failure happened. He could just tell me that they completed the repair to the contacts on the HV battery pack. Corporate will have to analyze the cause and get back to me, whenever that may be.
In the mean time, the car has been driven a few hundred miles with no issues so far.

Btw, forgot to mention that the failure happened the day after a 5 day vacation and the car was sitting for that time. My Lucid was not plugged in but had 60% range on the odometer.
I saw another failure post where the owner had the car sitting for 3 days when he was on vacation.
Could be a recurring pattern to watch out for.

 

[Steveinarizona]

This assumes 1) it's one problem, and 2) they now how to fix it

If it is a safety issue they are required to do a recall even before they know how to fix it.

 

[njg-agt]

... You need the key at all times with you when you break down or Lucid will not be able to tow the car away. Something I was never told. I now keep the Lucid key in a Faraday enclosed envelope in the glove compartment so a key is with the car at all times. ...

Three observations:
1) Why wouldn't handing over the valet card be sufficient?
2) Putting the fob in a faraday envelope might still allow it to continue to broadcast (i.e. burn up the battery)... Why not just pull the battery out of the fob? It can either be put back in when you desire to reactivate the fob, or the fob can be used in a manner similar to the valet card (holding it up to the door post, etc), as covered elsewhere in the forum.
3) Clearly it is possible to "tow" (flatbed) the car without the "key", as yours was towed by CHP... it just isn't optimal (and many tow operators may not know the magic incantations anyway)... likewise, if the battery has died, then having the key isn't going to help anyway.

 

[netpark]

I changed the location of my Faraday pouch from glove to the center console because I realized that when I have total power loss, I can't get into my glove compartment.
To answer your questions:
1. Lucid roadside assistance specifically told me I need my key for their tow operator to help me. I don't know what Lucid's reasons are.
2. Putting the key in a Faraday pouch and inside the car is the same battery drain as leaving the key in your key drawer at home. I've never taken the battery out of a Lucid Key so I don't know how much more involved this is in a possible emergency situation than taking a key out of a pouch.
3. I have no idea how CHP's towing company towed my car. I suspect they lifted it and put it on rollers to get it on a flatbed.
The Lucid operator told me that Lucid Roadside will not take the car without a key. I assume it's because once they bring their portable jumper and attach it to the rear wheel well 12 volt battery terminal, the key will work.

 

[njg-agt]

@netpark You say "the key", there are 3 different keys for this car: valet card, fob, app/BT phone... they are all keys.
I believe that the standard trick for locked wheels is to just soap them up and winch the car onto the flatbed (ugh).
Yes, the battery usage inside or outside of a bag should be about the same.
The fob's battery is pretty trivial to remove and to reinstall, only slightly more effort than open/close a bag... and given the fob's ability to burn through batteries, not unlikely that you'd need to change the battery in a fob after a couple of months in a bag (or in a drawer in the house)... but remember, with a dead/removed battery the fob still works in the same basic way as the valet card.