Driving Air loaner while Gravity is in the shop

[electric]

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

 

[borski]

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

I find both to drive very similarly, with the Air (my DE at least) feeling like it has a bit more punch. Otherwise they are very similar driving vehicles. The Air software wasn’t always this stable; the Gravity will be too.

I suspect something was up with your Gravity.

 

[Xminus6]

I had an Air the first time my Gravity was in for service and I still prefer the Gravity. I felt the Air was a little claustrophobic for me and the A pillar is really present in my field of view. I have a Gravity loaner now and I’m much happier with that. But I also don’t like ingress and egress of low cars these days. So that was a bit part of why I like the Gravity more.

For efficiency, the loaner I have has the largest wheels and mine has the smallest wheels. These wheels and tires seem to make a big difference. The Dynamic Range estimate of the loaner with the big wheels is around 2.5. On my Gravity I’ve been able to keep it above 3.0. Driving both the same way.

 

[borski]

I find both to drive very similarly, with the Air (my DE at least) feeling like it has a bit more punch. Otherwise they are very similar driving vehicles. The Air software wasn’t always this stable; the Gravity will be too.

I suspect something was up with your Gravity.

Oh also, as for drain - you’re not comparing apples to apples. The Pure has about half the horsepower, a lower cd, 1500 fewer lbs, and one fewer motor.

Not really a fair fight.

My Air DE and Gravity DE both drain similarly, but I don’t drive them for hypermiling

 

[californiaboy935]

Oh also, as for drain - you’re not comparing apples to apples. The Pure has about half the horsepower, a lower cd, 1500 fewer lbs, and one fewer motor.

Not really a fair fight.

My Air DE and Gravity DE both drain similarly, but I don’t drive them for hypermiling

It’s a sin to drive those “hypermiling”… I’d be upset if you did!

 

[Ktw13]

I have driven Air Pure, Touring for extended period of time and own GT I have to say they drive very differently.
Pure is light and fun easier to toss around, Touring is in the middle ground but not as planted as GT anything above moderate acceleration.

Software I am still on 2.7.1 due to region, luckily this already fixed the soft closing door and have Android Auto which I find very adequate, yes Tesla might have more in the menu but
those to me are distraction to take your attention away from road and somewhat bad ride quality.

Gravity has more comprehensive UI than Air for sure, that's a must to attract buyer as not everyone perceives Air simplicity as elegance. I am sure they will gradually but surely fix those bugs on Gravity.

Pure is very reasonability priced in USA, maybe you have just found your 2 cars solution, lol.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

Yeah the last Pure loaner I had was a very impressive vehicle for the $. Fun to drive, and while the features were far more spartan than my Air GT, I nonetheless liked it and wouldn’t be sad if I owned one as long as it had SSPro and DD Pro. As you said the efficiency is shocking, I tried hard but couldn’t get less than 4.1 mi/kwh on it. With Gravity on range wheels I’m getting 3.02 mi/kwh now that the temps are getting colder in New England. But of course I’d expect that given the 1067 HP and weight of Gravity and I think 3.02 is very impressive compared to other EV SUVs.

 

[Cosmo Cruz]

... and one fewer motor.

wow ... a person who speaks English , no less !

 

[electric]

With Gravity on range wheels I’m getting 3.02 mi/kwh now that the temps are getting colder in New England. But of course I’d expect that given the 1067 HP and weight of Gravity and I think 3.02 is very impressive compared to other EV SUVs.

Variance in Gravity efficiency where wheel/tire size package is the the only difference is a fascinating subject for me. I'm watching it closely, collecting data points, but haven't drawn my own conclusion yet. For years I keep hearing how much wheel size affects EV range, both anecdotal and scientific accounts, but my gut was telling me that it can't possibly be such dramatic difference. I'm an electrical engineer, so wheels are not my domain and subject of tires was always boring to me, I always felt there is much snake oil in tires marketing.
But I've seen a few reports here from Gravity owners reporting a variance between 2.5 and 3.1 which is almost 20%, and I can't make sense out of it.
Obviously there are more variables than just tires, but I'm surprised at how inefficient my Gravity is with 22/23 package. I wish I could go back to smaller wheels now, but it's too late and I don't have range anxiety, so efficiency is not my primary concern, just a curiosity nagging my brain.

 

[DeaneG]

Variance in Gravity efficiency where wheel/tire size package is the the only difference is a fascinating subject for me...

In general, max performance summer tires have notably greater rolling resistance than EV-rated all-seasons. For a given size tire, this alone can account for driving range variation of 10% or more.

 

[HC_79]

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

I either had a late 2025 Pure or early 2026 one as a loaner both times my car has been in the shop. I have to say that I do prefer the Gravity more from ease of entry, ride height, screen layout etc. but damn, I was seriously impressed how quiet the Pure was and its efficiency was impressive for a base model.

 

[electric]

Question for Air drivers - when you play a music playlist thru Tidal, then park the car, then come back later and expect to resume your music, but Play/Pause/Forward/Back buttons are gone and you have to re-select the playlist to start over, does this happen to you also? It's happening every other time I get into my loaner Air and it's super annoying.
If this is a common issue on a 3 year old car, then my follow up question is WTF???

 

[socktucker]

Question for Air drivers - when you play a music playlist thru Tidal, then park the car, then come back later and expect to resume your music, but Play/Pause/Forward/Back buttons are gone and you have to re-select the playlist to start over, does this happen to you also? It's happening every other time I get into my loaner Air and it's super annoying.
If this is a common issue on a 3 year old car, then my follow up question is WTF???

I mean “precondition seats and steering wheel” doesn’t work either, there’s quite a few things like that.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

Question for Air drivers - when you play a music playlist thru Tidal, then park the car, then come back later and expect to resume your music, but Play/Pause/Forward/Back buttons are gone and you have to re-select the playlist to start over, does this happen to you also? It's happening every other time I get into my loaner Air and it's super annoying.
If this is a common issue on a 3 year old car, then my follow up question is WTF???

It’s clunky but if you pause the playlist before you get out, and then get back in the car but do not hit play but instead go into your track list, you’ll see the following songs of your playlist listed, and if you click on one of those tracks it will resume. But if you just get back in and press play, or didn’t pause before exiting, then it will auto play a Tidal created list based on that track. Yea it’s annoying but that’s the work around.

 

[electric]

I just realized how silly this thread might seem to an Air owner, and how all the complains in Gravity section of the forum might look to an existing Air owner.
I joined this forum a month ago as a new Lucid customer with Gravity, never had any previous experience with Lucid, other than just being aware of its existence and waiting for my Gravity pre-order. I knew Air was out for 4 years now and assumed there were bunch of early adopter issues, but since nothing was popping in my news feed about Air I kind of assumed it's a stable product now, which made me upset about state of Gravity software. Note that I never even entered Air section of this forum.....until today.
Holy smokes, I just scanned thru 10 pages of Air 2.8.9 release, which is going on now, 4 years after car started shipping
So many parallels with Gravity, so many common bugs, I'm stunned, this is how deer must feel when they see headlights at night. I can't decide how to feel about this new revelation.
Does it bring more hope that both platforms suck together and maybe company will eventually sort it all out, or less hope that after 4 years they can't make basic stuff work, so passage of time won't help and we are stuck with half baked car forever?
And then I just happen to run across a video from Joe Scott reviewing his new Polestar 3 and it has SAME PROBLEMS as Lucid
I'm totally lost and confused now, what is going on, do I need this in my life now, is it exciting to be a part of, or terrifying?
Today's rant is over, taking a deep breath now...

 

[Miami_Lucid_Man]

As a 2025 Pure owner, and as someone who historically has driven sport-centric vehicles, I love it, especially for the lease deal I got in March. Cheaper than the Model 3 i was driving immediately prior to the Air. Amazing value! The only thing I wouldn't mind is a little more power, which is why I'd consider a Touring the next go around in a few years. Also, I'm definitely going with the upgrade sound system next time. This one was on the lot and that brought with it even more incentives to get the price down. I couldn't refuse.

 

[TahoeMichael]

I just realized how silly this thread might seem to an Air owner, and how all the complains in Gravity section of the forum might look to an existing Air owner.
I joined this forum a month ago as a new Lucid customer with Gravity, never had any previous experience with Lucid, other than just being aware of its existence and waiting for my Gravity pre-order. I knew Air was out for 4 years now and assumed there were bunch of early adopter issues, but since nothing was popping in my news feed about Air I kind of assumed it's a stable product now, which made me upset about state of Gravity software. Note that I never even entered Air section of this forum.....until today.
Holy smokes, I just scanned thru 10 pages of Air 2.8.9 release, which is going on now, 4 years after car started shipping
So many parallels with Gravity, so many common bugs, I'm stunned, this is how deer must feel when they see headlights at night. I can't decide how to feel about this new revelation.
Does it bring more hope that both platforms suck together and maybe company will eventually sort it all out, or less hope that after 4 years they can't make basic stuff work, so passage of time won't help and we are stuck with half baked car forever?
And then I just happen to run across a video from Joe Scott reviewing his new Polestar 3 and it has SAME PROBLEMS as Lucid
I'm totally lost and confused now, what is going on, do I need this in my life now, is it exciting to be a part of, or terrifying?
Today's rant is over, taking a deep breath now...

Modern vehicle software is extremely hard to develop, for reasons that aren't always easy to explain to people who aren't software engineers. Breadth of features and complexity of features are in direct conflict with software quality. It doesn't help that modern vehicle software is much more complex than most vehicle companies can afford to do entirely in house (both from time and money), and so you add in the complexity of integrating a diverse supply chain of software components that weren't usually designed to work together. Lots of other challenges make the problem worse, such as the fact that a small minority of software developers have expertise in software embedded in a device, versus running on a general purpose phone/computer.

Lucid is in a difficult transitional moment, in that they now have two different vehicle software systems. I have no idea how big their software team is, but I'd be surprised if developing and supporting two software stacks wasn’t straining their resources. But the Gravity software is obviously immature, so they probably feel that they cannot switch the Air over to it yet. If they can push forward and unify their software, that could help them a lot. Hiring more engineers could help as well, within reason.

 

[socktucker]

Does it bring more hope that both platforms suck together and maybe company will eventually sort it all out, or less hope that after 4 years they can't make basic stuff work, so passage of time won't help and we are stuck with half baked car forever?
And then I just happen to run across a video from Joe Scott reviewing his new Polestar 3 and it has SAME PROBLEMS as Lucid

I think the common denominator is Android right? Maybe that's why Tesla is so much better in the software department. Also having unlimited money helps them, too. But I would imagine at some point a software designer has got to feel like Android is fighting them doing what they want it to do. There's quite a few software guys on here they might have some insight. Savage Geese put it well too, Lucid tried to do too much too fast.

 

[borski]

I think the common denominator is Android right? Maybe that's why Tesla is so much better in the software department. Also having unlimited money helps them, too. But I would imagine at some point a software designer has got to feel like Android is fighting them doing what they want it to do. There's quite a few software guys on here they might have some insight. Savage Geese put it well too, Lucid tried to do too much too fast.

No matter what you pick, Lucid is doing a lot of custom in-house stuff. So is Rivian; under the hood, they also use Android Automotive, but with a full UI/UX layer written in Unreal Engine.

That’s right - Rivian’s infotainment UI is written entirely in one of the best video game engines in existence.

Tesla just switched a few months ago to using Unreal Engine instead of Godot Engine for their FSD visualizations.

My point is that sure, the OS is Android Automotive OS, just like many other brands. But it’s what you do on top of the OS that usually causes issues, in addition to any bugs in the OS.

Polestar went the other route and just basically made their car act and look like a Google device. And it still has issues.

Writing concurrent software is hard. Writing concurrent software that has to interact with a bunch of real-time operating systems that manage the important things in the car (which is not music or nav) is harder yet. Writing that software when suppliers provide components that are almost to spec but not quite is even harder.

Stuff is complex. Looking for “one smoking gun” is almost certainly a fool’s errand.

Tesla’s software is still unstable (though more stable than Gravity’s) and that’s after well over a decade of bug fixes, rewrites, and so on. I drove the original roadster. The software was a joke.

It just takes time. That’s not an excuse; it’s an explanation. You don’t have to like it, and that’s fine.

 

[socktucker]

That’s right - Rivian’s infotainment UI is written entirely in one of the best video game engines in existence.

Tesla just switched a few months ago to using Unreal Engine instead of Godot Engine for their FSD visualizations.

As an avid gamer I hope its not Unreal 5...

Polestar went the other route and just basically made their car act and look like a Google device. And it still has issues.

No thanks!

Tesla’s software is still unstable (though more stable than Gravity’s) and that’s after well over a decade of bug fixes, rewrites, and so on. I

Agree.

I feel like thats a good explanation. I'm sure they wish the rollout was smoother too but like everyone else they were probably shocked that the EV credits were getting pulled and wanted to get them out the door.
I did notice they are actively hiring software people too, for ADAS among other things.