How much does the car rely on Lucid's servers?

[TahoeMichael]

Hi all!

I've completed a test drive of a Lucid Air, and I'm now trying to finalize my decision to purchase (or not). I have to admit that the steady drum beat of doom-and-gloom press about Lucid's corporate health is weighing on me a little bit. I'm curious if anyone knows how much the cars rely on Lucid continuing to operate their server infrastructure. Or put another way, how is the utility of an Air affected if the company were to stop running their servers? I figure the mechanicals of the vehicle are probably reasonably reliable, particularly once any initial problems are resolved.

I'm definitely not trying to start a trolling thread here, so please don't take my question in that light. My working assumption at this point is that their major investors aren't going to let the company go under.

 

[joec]

Hi all!

I've completed a test drive of a Lucid Air, and I'm now trying to finalize my decision to purchase (or not). I have to admit that the steady drum beat of doom-and-gloom press about Lucid's corporate health is weighing on me a little bit. I'm curious if anyone knows how much the cars rely on Lucid continuing to operate their server infrastructure. Or put another way, how is the utility of an Air affected if the company were to stop running their servers? I figure the mechanicals of the vehicle are probably reasonably reliable, particularly once any initial problems are resolved.

I'm definitely not trying to start a trolling thread here, so please don't take my question in that light. My working assumption at this point is that their major investors aren't going to let the company go under.

This is a fair and interesting question.

A recent outtage of Lucid's servers gave us a glimpse into this. The phone app stopped being able to talk to the car to do things like perform updates, open doors, turn on climate, etc. But the car remained operable.

I'm sure there were other issues beyond that I didn't notice.

I for one have confidence Lucid won't be shutting its doors (or its servers) for a good long time to come. But it's a reasonable thing to question, of course.

 

[Steveinarizona]

Updates would be the major issue. If Lucid were to fail, and like most here I hope not, IMHO the technology is so good that someone will buy it up out of bankruptcy and take over.

 

[Tâm]

Hi all!

I've completed a test drive of a Lucid Air, and I'm now trying to finalize my decision to purchase (or not). I have to admit that the steady drum beat of doom-and-gloom press about Lucid's corporate health is weighing on me a little bit. I'm curious if anyone knows how much the cars rely on Lucid continuing to operate their server infrastructure. Or put another way, how is the utility of an Air affected if the company were to stop running their servers? I figure the mechanicals of the vehicle are probably reasonably reliable, particularly once any initial problems are resolved.

I'm definitely not trying to start a trolling thread here, so please don't take my question in that light. My working assumption at this point is that their major investors aren't going to let the company go under.

As you said, mechanically, it should be fine without the mothership.

You might download maps just in case you are cut off from the server.

Once the server is permanently off-limit, your account will no longer be valid. You might have to adjust profile settings manually each time you switch drivers. Your GPS should continue to work, but other extra features from the cellular signal will be gone such as traffic congestion indicators...

Your ADAS level will not improve anymore due to lack of subsequent updates but what you see is what you get from that point.

Your fobs, key cards, and key phones still work to open doors and drive away.

Without all the fancy technology, it's still a very good car, and I won't mind keeping it in the scenario you describe. There will be Do-It-Yourself experts, and the repairs will be expensive, but your car will drive fine. Look at all the cars in Cuba! They haven't got an update, but Do-It-Yourself experts have kept those cars since the 1940s running fine.

 

[TahoeMichael]

This is a fair and interesting question.

A recent outtage of Lucid's servers gave us a glimpse into this. The phone app stopped being able to talk to the car to do things like perform updates, open doors, turn on climate, etc. But the car remained operable.

I'm sure there were other issues beyond that I didn't notice.

I for one have confidence Lucid won't be shutting its doors (or its servers) for a good long time to come. But it's a reasonable thing to question, of course.

I see that in another comment Tâm indicated that the phone would still work to unlock the car, contrary to what you stated occurred in that outage. Are the two comments in conflict, or is there some limited phone key functionality that just needs bluetooth to operate, and not a central service?

 

[Bobby]

I see that in another comment Tâm indicated that the phone would still work to unlock the car, contrary to what you stated occurred in that outage. Are the two comments in conflict, or is there some limited phone key functionality that just needs bluetooth to operate, and not a central service?

Mobile key uses Bluetooth, app uses cloud.

 

[joec]

I see that in another comment Tâm indicated that the phone would still work to unlock the car, contrary to what you stated occurred in that outage. Are the two comments in conflict, or is there some limited phone key functionality that just needs bluetooth to operate, and not a central service?

What Bobby said. What I meant was the little buttons in the phone app for unlocking the car, turning on climate, opening the frunk. Because they work from anywhere, they rely on an internet connection.

If you walk up to the car with your phone, the auto-unlock still works, because that’s Bluetooth.

 

[xponents]

As an note, the fob key would still work for unlocking doors, frunk, etc. Just not the climate controls.

As for the threat of Lucid going under, I wouldnt worry about it! Electric car demand right now is still pretty low, and even less for 80k+ cars(this obviously is a bad thing right now, but read on). Right now, I feel that the SPAC(Saudis that invest in Lucid) would NOT let Lucid go under for at least the next 10 years, just to save face as in 2018 they went with Lucid instead of Tesla. Within the next 10 years, I STRONGLY believe that Lucid will:
1. Introduce cheaper car models. This has been confirmed.
2. Have very valuable technology that other automakers want.
3. Potentially become the leader of electric car sales, more so if you include sales of powertrains.
For what its worth, they have a lot of technology they can leverage to any potential users(think, aston martin) to make the threat of bankruptcy even lower.

I absolutely do NOT want to turn this into an investor trade, any people replying please keep that in mind!

 

[idiot900]

At present, the car has to function without internet connectivity in general, because it has to work in areas without cell service.

I am wondering if and when they are going to start charging for connectivity.

 

[MorganB]

I see that in another comment Tâm indicated that the phone would still work to unlock the car, contrary to what you stated occurred in that outage. Are the two comments in conflict, or is there some limited phone key functionality that just needs bluetooth to operate, and not a central service?

Basically when the cloud was down the app had no functionality with the car beyond digital key. Digital key worked as normal. When you open the car with the digital key you just approach the car and the handles present, walk away from the car and it locks. Your phone can stay in your pocket. Features from the app like pre-cooling the cabin, unlock by pressing the button in the app, opening frunk or trunk will not work while server is off line but all of this will work except pre-cooling the cabin by interacting with the car itself. You can actually still maintain cabin temp for 45 minutes when you exit the car but any remote feature with the exception of digital key will not work. I've only known the one single recent outage since I purchased my car in December.

 

[3mileriddr]

At present, the car has to function without internet connectivity in general, because it has to work in areas without cell service.

I am wondering if and when they are going to start charging for connectivity.

Separate from the 4G subscription? I received my Air Pure 3 weeks ago and was told (IIRC) 1 year of cellular connection before I have to pay subscription.

 

[idiot900]

Separate from the 4G subscription? I received my Air Pure 3 weeks ago and was told (IIRC) 1 year of cellular connection before I have to pay subscription.

I meant 4G. Did they say how much the car 4G would cost?

 

[3mileriddr]

I didn’t bother asking, I figured I would see how much I use the cellular features before deciding whether it was worth it or to just stick with my phone. So far the main feature I use (when I remember) is the remote environmental controls.

 

[borski]

I meant 4G. Did they say how much the car 4G would cost?

Prices have not been announced. Also, I’ve had my DE since January 2022 and nobody had said anything yet

 

[idiot900]

Prices have not been announced. Also, I’ve had my DE since January 2022 and nobody had said anything yet

Well, hopefully the car does eSIM and I can choose my own carrier…but that’s a bridge to be crossed when the time comes.

 

[joec]

Well, hopefully the car does eSIM and I can choose my own carrier…but that’s a bridge to be crossed when the time comes.

Very unlikely

 

[TahoeMichael]

As an note, the fob key would still work for unlocking doors, frunk, etc. Just not the climate controls.

As for the threat of Lucid going under, I wouldnt worry about it! Electric car demand right now is still pretty low, and even less for 80k+ cars(this obviously is a bad thing right now, but read on). Right now, I feel that the SPAC(Saudis that invest in Lucid) would NOT let Lucid go under for at least the next 10 years, just to save face as in 2018 they went with Lucid instead of Tesla. Within the next 10 years, I STRONGLY believe that Lucid will:
1. Introduce cheaper car models. This has been confirmed.
2. Have very valuable technology that other automakers want.
3. Potentially become the leader of electric car sales, more so if you include sales of powertrains.
For what its worth, they have a lot of technology they can leverage to any potential users(think, aston martin) to make the threat of bankruptcy even lower.

I absolutely do NOT want to turn this into an investor trade, any people replying please keep that in mind!

I also don't really think that Lucid's investors are going to let it go under in the next few years. Partly because Lucid arguably has the best engineering around for EVs. If I thought otherwise, that probably would scare me away from the purchase. I'm just contemplating what the downside risk might be in a worst case scenario. As for investing, I stay far away from trying to judge individual stocks. I realized years ago that I'm not a stock picker, and so I put all my investments in various kinds of index funds. After all, if the pros struggle to beat the indexes, why do I think I'm any different?