Driving Air loaner while Gravity is in the shop

[TahoeMichael]

...

As a non-software guy, it is surprising just how hard it appears to be to write an operating system for a car. I mean, it makes sense when people (like Borski) lay it out, but we are used to cars being stable devices, it's hard to wrap our minds around them being more or less buggy messes at times. That's not to say everything always works in older cars, (ahem, voice recognition in my 2015 Honda) but once it doesn't work, I just kind of assume it will never work - half-baked features stay half baked for the life of a car. This is different, and simultaneously more disappointing and more promising all at once.

It's not hard, exactly. I mean it is, to the extent that software as a whole is hard. But the problem is more that companies prioritize features over rock-solid stability. Add in a dash of bad engineering management, and you have the bugs that we see from Lucid. This isn't a problem confined to the vehicle industry. Bug ridden software is widespread. As a professional software engineer, I'm dismayed at how hard I have to fight for prioritizing quality in my work. Often I find that teams which produce relatively reliable software are accomplishing it because they're prioritizing quality even though management has asked them to prioritize features. Unfortunately, there's a strong market incentive to deliver features over stability. It's easy to advertise a giant list of features, and hard for customers to assess quality ahead of time, particularly if they're not inclined to deeply research the product. It's easy to find examples of consumers happily buying feature rich but low quality products, and hard to find examples of consumers rewarding companies that make high quality products with minimal features.

 

[coupedncal]

It's easy to find examples of consumers happily buying feature rich but low quality products, and hard to find examples of consumers rewarding companies that make high quality products with minimal features.

Isn't Toyota Corp an example of consumers rewarding high quality and minimal features? Toyota and Lexus brands mostly lag the latest and greatest features but when they do bring something into their cars, the features seem to be quite reliable.

 

[DeaneG]

Isn't Toyota Corp an example of consumers rewarding high quality and minimal features? Toyota and Lexus brands mostly lag the latest and greatest features but when they do bring something into their cars, the features seem to be quite reliable.

One could argue that for Apple as well.
The pressure to ship new products is very high for young companies.

 

[Blue Lectroid]

While I mostly agree with you there's also something to be said for having software in a better state. Saying Tesla's software was just as bad 10-12 years ago isn't a terribly compelling argument to a lot of people. Early adopters? Sure. But Lucid needs to sell to more than just people willing to be early adopters and the more bad press they get for buggy/bad software the less people will even look at them as an option.

I wanted to clarify that I meant that Lucid’s software is roughly THREE years behind what I experienced with Tesla.

Put another way, it took Tesla roughly 16 years (2006 - 2022) to deliver software that was roughly equivalent IME to what Lucid has achieved in less than 4 years (2021 - 2025). And, IMHO, the Lucid UI is far more elegantly laid out and visually appealing.

I am saying these things as objectively as I reasonably can based on my personal ownership experience with both companies (5 years with Tesla and one with Lucid).

Tesla’s current software IS more stable and feature rich than Lucid’s, but nowhere near as much as I’d personally expect given a 15 year head start.

 

[Cosmo Cruz]

P.S. All my experiences are highly subjective and non scientific. Nothing has been measured or data logged, it's all literally done by the seat of my pants

I'm happy to see you like driving a driver's car.

I get that many posts about the Air are complaints about the software.

Tesla is apparently a good computer. I have not driven a computer, and do not care to.

 

[eelpout]

I wouldn’t get cold feet on EV’s in general. I have been driving EV’s exclusively for 8 years (Chevy Bolt and Tesla Y) and had ZERO issues with either in approx. 100,000 miles. Not one trip to the shop, and NO MAINTENANCE except tires. I would not consider driving an ICE car again. I absolutely love EV’s.
That said, I did pass on my Gravity order because I only have one car and I both need it and want it to be reliable. I have probably been spoiled by my experiences, but just not willing to risk having to deal with software bugs that are undoubtedly due to many of these vehicles (Gravity, Polestar, etc.) being new and not fully sorted yet. But I continue to follow this forum as I really want a Gravity to be my next car because it’s driving dynamics and features are at another level.

I haven’t seen mine yet, but it’s at the local service center ready for me to view. I had already decided if I take it, I’d keep my present SUV because I wouldn’t “trust” the Gravity for at least a couple months of use before selling the Disco. Sort of a sad state of affairs.

 

[MitchellK]

I know many here own(ed) Air(s) before Gravity, so please take it easy on me as Gravity is my first Lucid and I haven't driven a sedan in 15 years, I prefer crossovers and SUVs where my butt doesn't have to drop down when getting in the car.

I had my Gravity for a month, with all common software bugs, blah blah blah, but Dream Drive never worked since delivery and recently Drive System Warning became persistent enough that I decided to bring it in for service.
My experience with Rocklin CA Lucid Studio and Service Center has been amazing, shout out to Lorenzo who is treating me like royalty.
I was given a stealth black Air Pure with only 7k miles on it as a loaner, which was part of my plan as I really wanted to get a feel for it and compare with my Gravity experience.

Would it be sacrilegious to say that I'm currently enjoying Air more than Gravity and wish my service takes longer, so I can drive Air for a few more days?
I still don't like having my butt at the pavement level, but the car is sooo smoootthhh, soft, quiet, Tidal music sounds great, I just don't want to get out of it.
I'm not even missing Car Play, even though I tried it, but decided not to use it to focus on Lucid's native UI experience.
And energy efficiency, geez, what does it take to bring the batery down, I've been driving like a maniac and still barely under 80%.
I want to test charging, so I have to drive more than I actually need to, just to get the battery low enough, and enjoy the car of course.
Gravity battery drains a lot faster for me, with same driving style. I know the CD is higher, blah blah blah, but it feels wrong in Gravity to drain so fast.
I've driven Bolt EV and Model Y for years and don't have range anxiety, but Gravity drain just feels wrong to me for some reason, maybe my car is defective, not sure yet, will pay more attention to this.

Speaking of UI software, it's so much more solid than Gravity, all menus work and buttons don't disappear.
But I did notice the driver seat not fully restoring from easy entry once, stopped half way and I had to press Restore onscreen to get the seat back, it was surprising to see the same bug in Air still not resolved.
On the other hand, I'm missing Gravity's squircle and touchpads, switching dash screen modes with a swipe of my thumb.
Those "thumbs" in Air's steering feel weird and useless, doesn't even control the screen mode, only volume.

As for driving experience, Smooth mode is actually truly smooth, with gas pedal response between acceleration and regen being so enjoyable, reminds me of Model Y in Easy mode which I always liked best.
I prefer smooth, but strong acceleration and regen and I find Gravity to be too jerky with current software, in fact I can't tell the difference in Gravity's 3 drive modes, they all feel the same to me, which might be another software bug.
My wife has been complaining about neck whiplash in Gravity even when I'm trying to be gentle with the pedal, but it's so much better in Air. Acceleration and regen are still just as strong, but ramping profile is much better.
I will miss this in Gravity until hopefully they fix it in software.

P.S. All my experiences are highly subjective and non scientific. Nothing has been measured or data logged, it's all literally done by the seat of my pants

Since this is a report on an Air loaner, I have a Newport abour my loaner. My fully speced out RW air pure is in shop for a host of software issues, prominently the fact that the car rarely wakes up. So, they gave me base AT with 20s. The car wakes up every time when I am within 15 feet of the car. How gratifying that I am not crazy that mine doesn't and it's the damn software. Come on Lucid. You can do much better with your software. The reason Gravity wasn't Car Of The Year for C&D was stated pretty clearly by the reviewers: it's the software, stupid.

 

[L-Dude]

Since this is a report on an Air loaner, I have a Newport abour my loaner. My fully speced out RW air pure is in shop for a host of software issues, prominently the fact that the car rarely wakes up. So, they gave me base AT with 20s. The car wakes up every time when I am within 15 feet of the car. How gratifying that I am not crazy that mine doesn't and it's the damn software. Come on Lucid. You can do much better with your software. The reason Gravity wasn't Car Of The Year for C&D was stated pretty clearly by the reviewers: it's the software, stupid.

So IN wonder what the difference is between you're car and the loaner? My '25 AGT is pretty much free of the probs some AGT owners have. I'd love to know why some similar cars have issues and others don't. I don't think this can't be explained just by software design alone.

 

[hank-iv]

I wouldn’t get cold feet on EV’s in general. I have been driving EV’s exclusively for 8 years (Chevy Bolt and Tesla Y) and had ZERO issues with either in approx. 100,000 miles. Not one trip to the shop, and NO MAINTENANCE except tires. I would not consider driving an ICE car again. I absolutely love EV’s.
That said, I did pass on my Gravity order because I only have one car and I both need it and want it to be reliable. I have probably been spoiled by my experiences, but just not willing to risk having to deal with software bugs that are undoubtedly due to many of these vehicles (Gravity, Polestar, etc.) being new and not fully sorted yet. But I continue to follow this forum as I really want a Gravity to be my next car because it’s driving dynamics and features are at another level.

Same here, 2 Nissan Leafs and a Model 3--never going back to ICE. The early Leafs, while clearly economy, were also proof that EV drive trains don't require massive software stacks. For road trips or longer commutes, you need navigation to charging. But not most of the other stuff.