Context
I am the happy owner of a Lucid Air 2025 Pure, Santa Cruz interior, 19” wheels with all the functions. Since taking possession of the car at the beginning of the week, I have driven close to 2000 km of highway, city, rural and mountain roads in Europe. I love the driving dynamics of the car in all contexts!
I come from a Model S Plaid. Compared to it, the Lucid Air 2025 is an entire higher class when it comes to driving dynamics, comfort and luxury.
I’d like to share my feedback regarding a few quirks of the user controls. These are in not deal breakers, I mostly knew about these from my test drive of the 2023 model. Actually, quite a few things have improved from the car that I tested. However, getting these right would make me love the car even more.
For some of this feedback, some owners might disagree. That’s fine, this is my personal opinion.
1. Steering wheel knobs feedback inconsistent with effect
The steering wheel knob (or changing the cruise control speed jas a long travel and there’s solid mechanical feedback but the effect is that the speed gets increased by only 1 km/h – for such a big solid button, movement and feedback, the effect is disproportionate.
The same is the case for the sound volume button. The feel of this button is inconsistent with the center volume knob, which takes a much shorter travel and has a lower intensity mechanical feedback to achieve the same effect.
2. Steering wheel knob delay
To make a bigger change to the cruise control speed, for example from 100 km/h to 120 km/h, you need to hold the left knob up for a certain duration and the speed will jump up in increments of 5.
This is working very poorly. Over the course of last week, I was almost never able to make a change from 100 to 120 (or similar) without overshooting. This happens because the knob has a big delay – not only does it take a long time for the change to take place, once I release the button, the speed keeps increasing for at least 1, or 2 increments. If I try to compensate for the delay and release early, I undershoot, or sometimes still overshoot. Every single time I need to correct it by 5 or 10 single clicks.
3. Steering wheel knob functions
It’s counter-intuitive to have the left knob adjust the cruise control speed instead of the right one. The right stalk is where all the drive controls are and it would make sense to also have the cruise control and drive assist on the same location of the steering wheel.
Additionally, it does not make sense to adjust the sound volume with the right knob on the steering wheel, when there’s also the center dash volume know shared with the passenger, that can be reached with the same right hand. Having 2 buttons to do the same thing in such close proximity is not useful.
I don’t think this is something that can be “fixed” in software, because the buttons to initiate and cancel the cruise control are also on the left side of the steering wheel.
4. Hazards button position
The hazards button is located at the top, above the rear-view mirror. Right next to it is the SOS button. I need to be able to press the hazards button all while paying close attention to the road. With this setup, I’m not sure if I’m pressing the hazards button or the SOS button, and I need to look at the button to confirm before pressing it.
In Europe, on the highway, when coming from normal cruising speed to a stop due to a traffic jam, you engage the hazards, to warn cars behind you of the stop and avoid a pile-up. When you realize that traffic is stopping from 120 km/h to a halt, you want to activate the hazards as soon as possible but it’s critical that you pay attention to the road – this is not the time to look for buttons in the cabin.
Tesla made the same mistake with the hazard buttons position in an earlier version of the Model 3, where the hazards button was right next to the SOS button. They later moved the SOS button to a digital one.
5. Drive Assist disengage notifications too soft
When in Drive Assist mode, I’ve encountered 3 cases in which it can get disengaged:
a. If I don’t hold the steering wheel for a prolonged period of time and ignore the notifications
b. If the road is not eligible for Drive Assist anymore (road category, maps availability, etc.)
c. If the Drive Assist system encounters an error (there are other posts talking about this).
In situation a., I find the number of notifications and level of alert for this to be fine.
In situations b. and c., the notification is too soft. The car is switching from a mode when it takes turns by itself, to me taking over. Yes, I understand that as a driver I’m supposed to always watch the road, always have my hands on the steering wheel, and always pay attention to everything that’s displayed in the dashboard, but I find the notification is too soft. On a scale from 1 to 10, where 10 is “you’re about to crash”, this notification is currently a level 1 intensity, and it should be at least a level 5. I suggest a louder sound, end maybe even a vibration of the steering wheel.
You know how when two airplane pilots pass control from one another, the one relinquishing control says “Your controls” and the one taking over says “My controls”. I’ve never seen what happens if the one taking over does not say “My controls”, but I’d suspect the original pilot would not let go of the control wheel. In cases b. and c., the car just cannot continue having control, that's understandable, but it should at a minimum make sure I am aware of that.
6. Speed Limit and Distracted Drive alerts unusable
By default, the Speed Limit Alert under Dream Drive Pro is turned on. In Europe, this is unusable – the car does not always see the correct speed limit. Sometimes it takes a long time for it to detect the correct speed limit, both in the city as well as on the highway, and if you drive for few seconds above what the car believe is the correct speed limit, you get a notification visual and audio notification. This is annoying and distracting.
Then, if you want to turn the Speed Limit Alert off in the center display, you get the Distracted Driver Warning. When I need to make a quick change on the center display, I then quickly want to focus back on the road – having the Distracted Drive ping me right at that time, ironically, distracts me even further because I need to check what other alert was triggered.
I understand there are European regulations, safety standard, insurance implications, etc. that all have an impact on how these alerts work. However, from a practical perspective, for me the Speed Limit and Distracted Driver alerts in their current form are unusable – I need to deactivate them every single time before driving. I’m sure this is not the desired intent of the Lucid team.
I am the happy owner of a Lucid Air 2025 Pure, Santa Cruz interior, 19” wheels with all the functions. Since taking possession of the car at the beginning of the week, I have driven close to 2000 km of highway, city, rural and mountain roads in Europe. I love the driving dynamics of the car in all contexts!
I come from a Model S Plaid. Compared to it, the Lucid Air 2025 is an entire higher class when it comes to driving dynamics, comfort and luxury.
I’d like to share my feedback regarding a few quirks of the user controls. These are in not deal breakers, I mostly knew about these from my test drive of the 2023 model. Actually, quite a few things have improved from the car that I tested. However, getting these right would make me love the car even more.
For some of this feedback, some owners might disagree. That’s fine, this is my personal opinion.
1. Steering wheel knobs feedback inconsistent with effect
The steering wheel knob (or changing the cruise control speed jas a long travel and there’s solid mechanical feedback but the effect is that the speed gets increased by only 1 km/h – for such a big solid button, movement and feedback, the effect is disproportionate.
The same is the case for the sound volume button. The feel of this button is inconsistent with the center volume knob, which takes a much shorter travel and has a lower intensity mechanical feedback to achieve the same effect.
2. Steering wheel knob delay
To make a bigger change to the cruise control speed, for example from 100 km/h to 120 km/h, you need to hold the left knob up for a certain duration and the speed will jump up in increments of 5.
This is working very poorly. Over the course of last week, I was almost never able to make a change from 100 to 120 (or similar) without overshooting. This happens because the knob has a big delay – not only does it take a long time for the change to take place, once I release the button, the speed keeps increasing for at least 1, or 2 increments. If I try to compensate for the delay and release early, I undershoot, or sometimes still overshoot. Every single time I need to correct it by 5 or 10 single clicks.
3. Steering wheel knob functions
It’s counter-intuitive to have the left knob adjust the cruise control speed instead of the right one. The right stalk is where all the drive controls are and it would make sense to also have the cruise control and drive assist on the same location of the steering wheel.
Additionally, it does not make sense to adjust the sound volume with the right knob on the steering wheel, when there’s also the center dash volume know shared with the passenger, that can be reached with the same right hand. Having 2 buttons to do the same thing in such close proximity is not useful.
I don’t think this is something that can be “fixed” in software, because the buttons to initiate and cancel the cruise control are also on the left side of the steering wheel.
4. Hazards button position
The hazards button is located at the top, above the rear-view mirror. Right next to it is the SOS button. I need to be able to press the hazards button all while paying close attention to the road. With this setup, I’m not sure if I’m pressing the hazards button or the SOS button, and I need to look at the button to confirm before pressing it.
In Europe, on the highway, when coming from normal cruising speed to a stop due to a traffic jam, you engage the hazards, to warn cars behind you of the stop and avoid a pile-up. When you realize that traffic is stopping from 120 km/h to a halt, you want to activate the hazards as soon as possible but it’s critical that you pay attention to the road – this is not the time to look for buttons in the cabin.
Tesla made the same mistake with the hazard buttons position in an earlier version of the Model 3, where the hazards button was right next to the SOS button. They later moved the SOS button to a digital one.
5. Drive Assist disengage notifications too soft
When in Drive Assist mode, I’ve encountered 3 cases in which it can get disengaged:
a. If I don’t hold the steering wheel for a prolonged period of time and ignore the notifications
b. If the road is not eligible for Drive Assist anymore (road category, maps availability, etc.)
c. If the Drive Assist system encounters an error (there are other posts talking about this).
In situation a., I find the number of notifications and level of alert for this to be fine.
In situations b. and c., the notification is too soft. The car is switching from a mode when it takes turns by itself, to me taking over. Yes, I understand that as a driver I’m supposed to always watch the road, always have my hands on the steering wheel, and always pay attention to everything that’s displayed in the dashboard, but I find the notification is too soft. On a scale from 1 to 10, where 10 is “you’re about to crash”, this notification is currently a level 1 intensity, and it should be at least a level 5. I suggest a louder sound, end maybe even a vibration of the steering wheel.
You know how when two airplane pilots pass control from one another, the one relinquishing control says “Your controls” and the one taking over says “My controls”. I’ve never seen what happens if the one taking over does not say “My controls”, but I’d suspect the original pilot would not let go of the control wheel. In cases b. and c., the car just cannot continue having control, that's understandable, but it should at a minimum make sure I am aware of that.
6. Speed Limit and Distracted Drive alerts unusable
By default, the Speed Limit Alert under Dream Drive Pro is turned on. In Europe, this is unusable – the car does not always see the correct speed limit. Sometimes it takes a long time for it to detect the correct speed limit, both in the city as well as on the highway, and if you drive for few seconds above what the car believe is the correct speed limit, you get a notification visual and audio notification. This is annoying and distracting.
Then, if you want to turn the Speed Limit Alert off in the center display, you get the Distracted Driver Warning. When I need to make a quick change on the center display, I then quickly want to focus back on the road – having the Distracted Drive ping me right at that time, ironically, distracts me even further because I need to check what other alert was triggered.
I understand there are European regulations, safety standard, insurance implications, etc. that all have an impact on how these alerts work. However, from a practical perspective, for me the Speed Limit and Distracted Driver alerts in their current form are unusable – I need to deactivate them every single time before driving. I’m sure this is not the desired intent of the Lucid team.
