Heating and seating quirks, according to the service technician

[Bnwbaron]

Thanks to some help from @TakeDuo, I recently had a service technician out to my house to clear up the few punch list items from a December vehicle delivery. I had practically nothing wrong with the car, but for a few questions and two easily corrected trim items. One question I had was about the heating system and air conditioning. It seems that some of the seat heaters were weaker than others, and it seemed that the drivers vents did not blow as strong as others. The other question I had was about the seat fan, which seemed pretty weak and still does. Here is what the service technician told me:

He told me that the way the Air is designed, the heating and air for the driver is not as strong as it is for the passenger. So there was nothing broken, apparently it’s just built that way. Seems odd to me, but that is what the guy with a Lucid polo shirt said. He said it’s because Lucid doesn’t want drivers to be too comfortable and fall asleep. Again, it sounds ridiculous, but that’s what he said.

As for the weak flow from the seat fan, he explained that the bottom of the seat sucks air that then gets blown out against your back. In essence, it takes in your crotch air and blows it against your back. Yes, you read that right?

At the end of the day, I don’t think the heating, air, or seats are stellar. But they are good enough that none of it changes how I feel about the car or the purchase - I’m happy with both.

 

[kerplunk]

He told me that the way the Air is designed, the heating and air for the driver is not as strong as it is for the passenger. So there was nothing broken, apparently it’s just built that way. Seems odd to me, but that is what the guy with a Lucid polo shirt said. He said it’s because Lucid doesn’t want drivers to be too comfortable and fall asleep.

I think this goes right up there with "replacing blinker fluid" in terms of setting off my bullshit meter.

I could be perhaps convinced that's just the way it is but the reasoning? That's ridiculous.

 

[OCDC]

Goes with the line I was told about the Bluetooth “intentional dead zone” below the armrest, so you could walk away from the car with the fob safely locked inside the console…

… Yes, that’s what I was told by a service person.

 

[Negan1000]

Thanks to some help from @TakeDuo, I recently had a service technician out to my house to clear up the few punch list items from a December vehicle delivery. I had practically nothing wrong with the car, but for a few questions and two easily corrected trim items. One question I had was about the heating system and air conditioning. It seems that some of the seat heaters were weaker than others, and it seemed that the drivers vents did not blow as strong as others. The other question I had was about the seat fan, which seemed pretty weak and still does. Here is what the service technician told me:

He told me that the way the Air is designed, the heating and air for the driver is not as strong as it is for the passenger. So there was nothing broken, apparently it’s just built that way. Seems odd to me, but that is what the guy with a Lucid polo shirt said. He said it’s because Lucid doesn’t want drivers to be too comfortable and fall asleep. Again, it sounds ridiculous, but that’s what he said.

As for the weak flow from the seat fan, he explained that the bottom of the seat sucks air that then gets blown out against your back. In essence, it takes in your crotch air and blows it against your back. Yes, you read that right?

At the end of the day, I don’t think the heating, air, or seats are stellar. But they are good enough that none of it changes how I feel about the car or the purchase - I’m happy with both.

Are the seat ventilation fans suppose to come on automatically? I noticed they come on when the cabin is hot at setting 2 and they come on when the cabin is a little warm at setting 1.

 

[Bnwbaron]

Are the seat ventilation fans suppose to come on automatically? I noticed they come on when the cabin is hot at setting 2 and they come on when the cabin is a little warm at setting 1.

It has not been my experience they auto turn on. Anytime I have had seat heaters on, I have done it myself via the console panel.

 

[hmp10]

Are the seat ventilation fans suppose to come on automatically? I noticed they come on when the cabin is hot at setting 2 and they come on when the cabin is a little warm at setting 1.

I believe that one of the software updates introduced a feature by which the driver seat cooling/heating comes on at the lowest setting automatically upon car startup. At least the cooling comes on automatically in our car now. I'm not sure about the heating, as we live in south Florida and have never gotten into a cold car.

 

[joec]

There's a little settings icon on the climate screen (looks like an audio board with sliders). In there, there is a single switch for turning on automatic seat and steering wheel per temperature settings. I found this setting didn't do anything for the longest time, but lately, I have noticed occasionally my seats or steering wheel being on automatically. Maybe this is finally working in the latest software?

 

[Bobby]

There's a little settings icon on the climate screen (looks like an audio board with sliders). In there, there is a single switch for turning on automatic seat and steering wheel per temperature settings. I found this setting didn't do anything for the longest time, but lately, I have noticed occasionally my seats or steering wheel being on automatically. Maybe this is finally working in the latest software?

Has always worked on mine…

 

[njg-agt]

Are the seat ventilation fans suppose to come on automatically? I noticed they come on when the cabin is hot at setting 2 and they come on when the cabin is a little warm at setting 1.

I too have noticed that sometimes the seat fans have come on themselves (or are they a "sticky" memory item for the profile, unclear)...

In general I have found that setting up the environmentals in the car is not straight forward... I'm never quite clear on what set of settings to use, and the manual (1.5 pages) is real "hand waving" on this area...
- which vents: lower, middle, window
- what fan setting (0/off vs 1 to 10)
- AC on or off
- air circulate off/auto

And when/how to use the seat fan: level 3, 2, or 1 or off, as well as bottom or back or both
I have noticed that when the seat fan is on high with both seat bottom & back enabled, I can often hear the fan sound coming from what sounds like the seat's head rest... though I believe this is audible only when the car is not moving.

And you get to decide to "sync" the passenger's (and it appears rear's too) to the driver's or not

And what set point for the temperature settings (driver, passenger, rear)? The objective numeric temperature setting seems to have no bearing on the resulting air temperature coming out of the vents or the ambient cabin air temperature. I have to wonder if/how often the front and back setting are set "in opposition" to each other (thus just wasting energy)...

We have no idea what is occurring in the back seat while this is going on... at one point (the only time (early Nov 2022) when we've had rear passengers) the car would always turn the rear settings to the lowest temperature setting (even in a car that was already chilly and after dark) and the rear fans on (to an unknown level for us in the front)... we don't know if that is still going on or not (the manual says only if there is someone back there)... or if this was related to usage of "sync" or not...

On the up side(!), it is clear when to turn on the steering wheel heat or not (but I'm not sure if the car ever decides to do this for you or not, as we did not have the car over the past winter's cold months and it has been an unusually warm "spring").

 

[Negan1000]

There's a little settings icon on the climate screen (looks like an audio board with sliders). In there, there is a single switch for turning on automatic seat and steering wheel per temperature settings. I found this setting didn't do anything for the longest time, but lately, I have noticed occasionally my seats or steering wheel being on automatically. Maybe this is finally working in the latest software?

It's working for the seats. I found the setting. It's on the upper right of the climate screen.

 

[Bnwbaron]

It's working for the seats. I found the setting. It's on the upper right of the climate screen.

Congratulations.....It's sort of a victory when you figure something like this out. Like when I learned to shut off the reverse cameras if I wanted to use my garage door opener

 

[Bobby]

It's working for the seats. I found the setting. It's on the upper right of the climate screen.

Same setting works for the heated steering wheel on cold days.