Gravity Bugs / Issues

[hydbob]

Same with our Hondas since 2011 and with some others cars I had years before that. This having to stand on one foot while patting your head in the hope the fob will work is just plain weird. I’ve dealt with this for three and a half years with the Air and was really hoping for something different with the Gravity.

Maybe it’s something that will get addressed with an OTA update, as someone suggested. But to send test drive cars to the studios and to deliver them to customers with this happening to even a few cars just boggles my mind after the now infamous Air fob experience.

I mean, the fob technology is different. One requires you to touch the car to open and the other is proximity. It's not the same tech but there is an argument for the don't fix what ain't broke, but then again you don't advance anything with that mindset.

 

[Pragmatic]

Not always true. 1997 - 2004 Corvettes unlocked a mechanical lock as you approached the car. After owners complaints about car batteries going dead from constant locking and unlocking (a coworker said his would unlock everytime he walked into the garage since the fob was hung by the interior door to the garage) the 2005 were changed. These have electronic latch that only works if you are in close proximity to the car and only draw a non-miniscule current when you open the door similar to the Lucid without the silly moving door handles.

Back to the Gravity issue. It seems the total loss of key card/fob function is limited to a single car (unless I'm misreading the comments). Where I'm lost is how did the car get moved on/off transporters, around the factory yard and at the SC while the car was being prepped without an employee noticing the problem and tagging it for investigation/repair.

 

[borski]

I love our Air, too, despite all the software gremlins we dealt with early on -- so much so that I've been willing to order two Gravity Dream Editions in full expectation that they will have some early-production glitches. But I'm a bit perplexed why people on this forum who are reporting not only problems with the Gravity fob but also with the keycards are having their concerns so blithely dismissed. If you can't get into or drive your car, its fueling or charging advantages, its roominess, how fast it is, how well it handles become completely immaterial.

Nobody is dismissing it. It simply seems like it is limited to one or two vehicles at the moment, and not a widespread issue. The same could not be said for the Air.

If it turns out it is more widespread, that’ll be a different story.

But nobody is “accepting” that it’s okay for that one vehicle (or two, I haven’t counted).

 

[HC_79]

I love our Air, too, despite all the software gremlins we dealt with early on -- so much so that I've been willing to order two Gravity Dream Editions in full expectation that they will have some early-production glitches. But I'm a bit perplexed why people on this forum who are reporting not only problems with the Gravity fob but also with the keycards are having their concerns so blithely dismissed. If you can't get into or drive your car, its fueling or charging advantages, its roominess, how fast it is, how well it handles become completely immaterial.

Like every automaker, Lucid's engineering effort is segmented into sub-specialities. And Lucid is an absolute world-beater in some of the most complex areas of automotive design and engineering. BUT . . . there is growing evidence that the missteps, be they with hardware or software, that created the Air fiasco around entry and starting the car have not been rectified.

I am dreading the day that a major auto reviewer reports that to gain entry to a Gravity or to start it he had to turn off the proximity sensing of the fob (something about which a Lucid advisor never informed him) or use a key card -- and even then had a problem.

No one is dismissing it but it seems people who aren’t having the issues simply aren’t allowed to say “I’m not having the issue” anymore as it’s taken as being dismissive or unhelpful.

Do we only want to see 100% negative in here from now on? It seems that everyone just wants to pile on with a small subset of owners problems and outcast the others who aren’t with a “well, I don’t give a damn that you’re not having problems”.

Yes, not being able to get your car moving is an extremely frustrating thing and I’d be frustrated to if I was the owner(s) but we need to keep things in perspective here, it’s not happening to every vehicle and many people who don’t even own a Gravity yet are just piling on thinking it’s going to happen to them etc. when most likely it won’t. It’s a problem when it’s widespread and at the moment it doesn’t seem that way.

 

[sirizha]

She's "opinionated" about technology that doesn't work seamlessly. As I'm the IT consultant for all technology in our home, I have to cope with her ranting about this sort of thing on a semi-regular basis.

Wait. Did I write this comment? I clearly don’t remember writing this comment, but this is definitely about my wife and me.

 

[037]

Nobody is dismissing it. It simply seems like it is limited to one or two vehicles at the moment, and not a widespread issue. The same could not be said for the Air.

If it turns out it is more widespread, that’ll be a different story.

But nobody is “accepting” that it’s okay for that one vehicle (or two, I haven’t counted).

Going to add one more, the key fob for the NY Gravity test drive vehicle did not work, employee walked out and came back with a card that was placed in the vehicle.

Did not think much of it until mentioned here.

 

[TahoeMichael]

No one is dismissing it but it seems people who aren’t having the issues simply aren’t allowed to say “I’m not having the issue” anymore as it’s taken as being dismissive or unhelpful.

Do we only want to see 100% negative in here from now on? It seems that everyone just wants to pile on with a small subset of owners problems and outcast the others who aren’t with a “well, I don’t give a damn that you’re not having problems”.

Yes, not being able to get your car moving is an extremely frustrating thing and I’d be frustrated to if I was the owner(s) but we need to keep things in perspective here, it’s not happening to every vehicle and many people who don’t even own a Gravity yet are just piling on thinking it’s going to happen to them etc. when most likely it won’t. It’s a problem when it’s widespread and at the moment it doesn’t seem that way.

I'll chime in and say that I appreciate hearing from the people who aren't having problems. As someone who's waiting to be told that a Gravity is available to me, I want to hear the full mix of experiences. I'm nervous about buying a Gravity, because I don't expect my wife to be tolerant of glitches the way I will be. So getting a feel for both the good and bad is helpful.

As for the glitches overall: I seem to recall that there was a recording released of a factory event late last summer, and during it Rawlinson acknowledged that the software engineering was a weak spot at Lucid, that it hadn't received the attention that it should have, and that he would be having the company build that team's strength. Assuming my recollection is correct, a year isn't much time when it comes to addressing a problem like that. You have to hire for somewhat specialized expertise, which takes quarters. Those people need to ramp up and find their footing, which usually takes months, sometimes quarters. Then you need to map out new software engineering projects and implement them, which takes quarters. Building up the software team might well not produce results noticable to customers like us until a year has passed, if not two.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

Going to add one more, the key fob for the NY Gravity test drive vehicle did not work, employee walked out and came back with a card that was placed in the vehicle.

Did not think much of it until mentioned here.

Yeah neither of the test drive Gravity I drove had a working fob. The keycard however worked fine. Of note, the Volvo EX30 is still having fob and keycard issues, Volvo had delayed the release of that car in the US due to software problems and again due to having to build it in Belgium due to anti-Chinese commerce rules in the US. I’m getting the impression though the fob thing doesn’t seem to be a permanent thing as one owner here simply got the latest OTA re-installed and now the fob works fine (I forget who it was?).

 

[HC_79]

I'll chime in and say that I appreciate hearing from the people who aren't having problems. As someone who's waiting to be told that a Gravity is available to me, I want to hear the full mix of experiences. I'm nervous about buying a Gravity, because I don't expect my wife to be tolerant of glitches the way I will be. So getting a feel for both the good and bad is helpful.

As for the glitches overall: I seem to recall that there was a recording released of a factory event late last summer, and during it Rawlinson acknowledged that the software engineering was a weak spot at Lucid, that it hadn't received the attention that it should have, and that he would be having the company build that team's strength. Assuming my recollection is correct, a year isn't much time when it comes to addressing a problem like that. You have to hire for somewhat specialized expertise, which takes quarters. Those people need to ramp up and find their footing, which usually takes months, sometimes quarters. Then you need to map out new software engineering projects and implement them, which takes quarters. Building up the software team might well not produce results noticable to customers like us until a year has passed, if not two.

One thing to note is that the Air and Gravity apparently share nothing. The Gravity has been built from the ground up including UX3.0 so teething issues / glitches are to be expected now they’re getting into real owners hands.

Peter did definitely mention that software was the companies weakness and it was a number one priority to address. Like you mentioned, it was never going to be fixed overnight and UX3.0 is a vast improvement over the Air’s UX so improvements have definitely been made for the better. The software definitely has its quirks but they’re not dealbreakers. However, for people who have little patience I can see how these little things not working 100% of the time will irritate them.

This statement holds true whether it’s ICE or EV….

“If you demand perfection or lack patience, don’t buy a first-generation car, EV or ICE. New platforms come with growing pains.”

 

[Kvothe89]

No one is dismissing it but it seems people who aren’t having the issues simply aren’t allowed to say “I’m not having the issue” anymore as it’s taken as being dismissive or unhelpful.

Do we only want to see 100% negative in here from now on? It seems that everyone just wants to pile on with a small subset of owners problems and outcast the others who aren’t with a “well, I don’t give a damn that you’re not having problems”.

Yes, not being able to get your car moving is an extremely frustrating thing and I’d be frustrated to if I was the owner(s) but we need to keep things in perspective here, it’s not happening to every vehicle and many people who don’t even own a Gravity yet are just piling on thinking it’s going to happen to them etc. when most likely it won’t. It’s a problem when it’s widespread and at the moment it doesn’t seem that way.

I can understand why people might feel that those who simply post that they’re not experiencing the same issues are being dismissive. It’s the classic online communication problem where tone and intent get lost, coupled with the frustration of dealing with issues on a six-figure vehicle.

FWIW, I’m probably one of the people who has unfortunately experienced the worst of these issues, and I don’t feel dismissed when others share that they’re not having problems. I’m actually trying to stay optimistic that hearing from others without issues—or whose issues get resolved—might mean they’ll be able to fix mine soon too.

For context, here’s what we know so far:
• The key fob issue appears to be more widespread, being reported by multiple owners and also seen in demo vehicles
• Having none of the keys respond seems to be more isolated—currently just myself and maybe one other person are experiencing this
• There might be a software update that addresses the key fob issue, but we don’t have conclusive information yet (one person reported it fixed their problem, but it didn’t resolve mine)

 

[9point81]

I want to add too that I am appreciating hearing ALL of this before picking up my Gravity. I want to hear and know what issues are going on, even if it's only a small few bc even this site is only a small percentage of overall Lucid owners. If I have any issues, I will post up but won't take any one thing or couple things as representative of the whole. Being new to Lucid, none of this is swayed my position on this vehicle or the brand at all. I'd be extremely concerned about keys not working or AC if it happened to me and I hope (and it sounds like Lucid is quick to help and resolve) Lucid can get you all up to scratch really quickly. Keep the reports coming in as you have them, most of us will observe and learn from it.

 

[hmp10]

Nobody is dismissing it. It simply seems like it is limited to one or two vehicles at the moment, and not a widespread issue. The same could not be said for the Air.

If it turns out it is more widespread, that’ll be a different story.

But nobody is “accepting” that it’s okay for that one vehicle (or two, I haven’t counted).

On this thread alone six owners so far have reported issues either with Gravity fobs and/or key cards: @dhruv, @iThinkEV, @suyoungman, @Kvothe89, @Bunnylebowski, @prodolf. I haven't looked at other forums or chat rooms.

In one case the report was of the key fob not working in a test drive vehicle, with the Lucid employee having to go get a key card. In another case, the owner finally found out on this forum (but not from a Lucid advisor) that turning off the proximity sensor of the fob helped -- but then his key card quit working. In another case the problem required a reload of the 3.2.0 update.

Given how few reports of Gravity deliveries we've seen so far on this forum, six is a significant number to be reporting problems with getting into or operating the car. Part of the problem seems to be that Lucid employees do not know how to deal with these issues or are not passing the information on to owners. Part of the problem seems to be equipment and/or software.

But, no matter the cause(s), this is going to bite Lucid in the ass if they don't get it in hand soon.

 

[hydbob]

Lucid acknowledges and is working on the problem.

 

[DrZorro]

Great advice! This is working as you described. Nobody gave me that advice until now. If this continues to work I can wait on updates for the other stuff. Thank you.

I'm glad what I'm doing seems to work for you (and hopefully anyone else having issues).

Also, of note, I have NOT tried using the key with the proximity unlock thing turned ON because where I work my car is very close to my desk on the other side of a the wall (and I can't see the car)...and I didn't want to have to wonder all day if the car was staying unlocked or locking /unlocking randomly. I have no idea how my key will (or won't) work should I decide to choose to turn that on at some point. That being said, I'm in the camp of people that would actually prefer to physically interact with the handle like on my previous cars to feel confident that it's locking and unlocking only when I want it to. I don't like the idea of just walking away from my car and assuming it auto-locked and everything went as planned. I've seen to too many movies where the villain sets up the overly elaborate plan to kill the good guy...then walks away and assumes everything went to plan only to get defeated in the end. I should lay off the Austin Powers movies.

 

[HC_79]

I'm glad what I'm doing seems to work for you (and hopefully anyone else having issues).

Also, of note, I have NOT tried using the key with the proximity unlock thing turned ON because where I work my car is very close to my desk on the other side of a the wall (and I can't see the car)...and I didn't want to have to wonder all day if the car was staying unlocked or locking /unlocking randomly. I have no idea how my key will (or won't) work should I decide to choose to turn that on at some point. That being said, I'm in the camp of people that would actually prefer to physically interact with the handle like on my previous cars to feel confident that it's locking and unlocking only when I want it to. I don't like the idea of just walking away from my car and assuming it auto-locked and everything went as planned. I've seen to too many movies where the villain sets up the overly elaborate plan to kill the good guy...then walks away and assumes everything went to plan only to get defeated in the end. I should lay off the Austin Powers movies.

I haven’t touched my proximity settings and the table I leave the key on is probably about 15 to 20 feet from the car in the garage. It doesn’t unlock until I enter the garage and get quite close to the car. With the Air it was unlocking/locking all the time in a similar scenario (albeit with mobile key)

 

[DrZorro]

I haven’t touched my proximity settings and the table I leave the key on is probably about 15 to 20 feet from the car in the garage. It doesn’t unlock until I enter the garage and get quite close to the car. With the Air it was unlocking/locking all the time in a similar scenario (albeit with mobile key)

I'll tempted to try turning it on out of curiosity...of course, with my luck, the moment I do, my fob will probably stop working altogether, brick the car, and it will burst into flames lol.

 

[64right1]

For those of us who don't yet have a Lucid, could you clarify what the difference is between the "key" and the "key card" you're talking about?

Comes with credit card like key in addition to full size key

 

[64right1]

The key fob is programmed to go to sleep to preserve battery. See if shaking it to wake it up helps with your issue. Always carry the NFC card as a backup, you just need to place it on the wireless charing area to get the car to go into drive

That seems ridiculous; in my 2023 X5 I replace battery every 2 years & don’t have to shake the fob. Even if I had to replace every 6mos I don’t want remove from bag or pocket. That needs to be fixed.

 

[TahoeMichael]

Comes with credit card like key in addition to full size key

I'd love to see an updated fob that integrates the credit card key into the fob. That's the way my Toyota fob works. If the battery is dead, you can hold the fob up against the ignition button, and the vehicle can read it. Otherwise, when you loan the car to someone, it raises the question of whether you need to remember to also loan them the backup card, which would be annoying to have to do, and increase the chance that the backup card gets lost.

 

[Neurio]

I'd love to see an updated fob that integrates the credit card key into the fob. That's the way my Toyota fob works. If the battery is dead, you can hold the fob up against the ignition button, and the vehicle can read it. Otherwise, when you loan the car to someone, it raises the question of whether you need to remember to also loan them the backup card, which would be annoying to have to do, and increase the chance that the backup card gets lost.

The Air key functions this way, and I believe the Gravity key does too. That really makes carrying the key card a 3rd fail safe if the key stops working.