Jon Rettinger's 6 Month Review

[digiboxer]

For the first time, I struck the issue that Jon had with the blind spot cameras not coming on when driving last night. All cameras then failed to work when trying to park nor would sensors work either. Walked away from the car and it wouldn’t lock so manually locked it in the app.

Today, stopped at 3 places and on 1 it failed to lock the car when walking away. I really wish they went with another design than handles popping out when unlocked because the randomness of the proximity locking working or not is annoying and it’s easy for anyone walking by to see the car is unlocked.

As I've said ... motorized door handles are a solution in search of a problem....

 

[EVCar]

As I've said ... motorized door handles are a solution in search of a problem....

Doesn’t that improve aerodynamics?

 

[digiboxer]

Doesn’t that improve aerodynamics?

No problem with the flush design if it's Aero. But putting a motor behind each handle---then a sensor to active it when it thinks you're close---just seems like a costly, risky affectation. By definition you gotta reach down and grab no matter what.

 

[MoniputerLM]

No problem with the flush design if it's Aero. But putting a motor behind each handle---then a sensor to active it when it thinks you're close---just seems like a costly, risky affectation. By definition you gotta reach down and grab no matter what.

The AMG EQS has pop-out handles but they seem to work a lot more consistently than the Lucid's.

 

[Bus Driver]

The AMG EQS has pop-out handles but they seem to work a lot more consistently than the Lucid's.

As much as I bag on Elon Musk and his Teslas, I have to say that the pop out door handles on the Model S are as elegant a design as I’ve seen. Their durability had improved too, by the time we acquired our March 2017-build Model S.

 

[hmp10]

As much as I bag on Elon Musk and his Teslas, I have to say that the pop out door handles on the Model S are as elegant a design as I’ve seen. Their durability had improved too, by the time we acquired our March 2017-build Model S.

They do work better on our 2021 Model S Plaid, although sometimes the car is slow to recognize the key fob for presenting the handles or requires us to use the key card to start the car. However, our 2015 Model S P90D went through four driver door handle replacements, so it took Tesla a few years to sort the problem out. That was a hardware problem, though.

 

[digiboxer]

As much as I bag on Elon Musk and his Teslas, I have to say that the pop out door handles on the Model S are as elegant a design as I’ve seen. Their durability had improved too, by the time we acquired our March 2017-build Model S.

JMO---but "elegance?" Door handles? and in L's case, at what cost/risk? (NB--"their durability improved"!...whew....)

If the engineers run everything, this is what you get...

 

[Bobby]

SO MANY of those Tesla Model S door handles needs to be replaced.

 

[Bus Driver]

SO MANY of those Tesla Model S door handles needs to be replaced.

During the early years of the Model S, yes, for sure.

By the time we got ours in early 2017, they seemed to have finally gotten them right. Our Model S is over five years old now, and I’ve never had to replace any of the door handles.

 

[Sam6062]

They aren’t ignoring the software; they’re very aware of it and are actively working on it. His issues with it are well known, and there isn’t much left to be said there until the new release shows up.

The door scratching was new, so they attempted to diagnose it and are actively investigation.

This is literally the best possible response, customer service wise.

Is he not a professional reviewer? Remains to be seen how much attention they pay to my AC and the infamous Silver tab and how no one noticed the back windows were not aligned . I am convinced they try to roll the dice on fit/finish in case of the trunk gaps and wait and see if the customer complains.

I hope the Lucid Rep here is paying attention.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

Is he not a professional reviewer? Remains to be seen how much attention they pay to my AC and the infamous Silver tab and how no one noticed the back windows were not aligned . I am convinced they try to roll the dice on fit/finish in case of the trunk gaps and wait and see if the customer complains.

I hope the Lucid Rep here is paying attention.

They are. One of their staff even posted here sayinf they are. The rep I talked to last week mentioned they do read this forum and are aware of many things mentioned and many things will be in future OTA, and issues we call them about are often passed directly to software and engineering teams, which they don’t just throw in the bin but instead investigate and try to improve. He said right now they’re actively working on an update focused on software stability to reduce the need for reboots and false error messages. I’m not sure what more you can ask from a company’s response to customer issues and requests?

They’re not going to just ignore your AC, I don’t know why you think they’re not going to pay attention to it. As for panel misalignments they tolerate 1/2” gap or less, did you measure yours? My rear window has 1/2” gap under the left cantrail, with zero gap on the right, but it’s within their limits and they leak tested it so it’s fine with me.

 

[hmp10]

Since we have a Rivian R1S on order, I keep an eye on reviews of that vehicle. I occasionally see claims that Rivian has gotten its software right coming out of the gate. For a different perspective, it's worth watching Ben Sullins' review of his personal Rivian R1T after a little over a month of ownership.

Beginning at the 14:00 mark, he goes into a lengthy discussion of what a mess Alexa is in the Rivian and how useless its navigation system is. In the absence of CarPlay and Android phone connections (an absence Rivian shares with Lucid and Tesla), he has installed a work-around. Earlier in the video he also discusses the problem multiple owners are seeing with the tonneau bed cover of the pickup and a peculiar problem where the truck raises or lowers the ride height of its own accord at a stop light or when parked and he is trying to unstrap his kids from the back seat.

I don't know if this means Rivian's software problems are as ubiquitous as Lucid's still are, but it certainly highlights how difficult a climb software presents to EV startups:

 

[Sam6062]

So I am going to get my Car back tomorrow.
They say they fixed the Trunk and the Back Window alignment.
They fixed the AC, saying it was getting stuck in the Defrost mode .
They have to replace the Passenger side Mirror but the part won’t be here until later this week and they will replace it at home.
The BIG one, my Fan Button for the AC on the dash is a “hard to source part” BUT they WILL replace it once they have it but there is no ETA.

Looks like they pushed the 1.2.6 to my car today so I should be able to upgrade to it tomorrow.

 

[thecodingart]

SO MANY of those Tesla Model S door handles needs to be replaced.

This. They were one of the worse design decisions of the Model S. All 4 of my door handles failed over time and it’s still known as being a high failure point…

Cost to repair at scale is what made them pivot from this design on the model y/3.

 

[HC_79]

Since we have a Rivian R1S on order, I keep an eye on reviews of that vehicle. I occasionally see claims that Rivian has gotten its software right coming out of the gate. For a different perspective, it's worth watching Ben Sullins' review of his personal Rivian R1T after a little over a month of ownership.

Beginning at the 14:00 mark, he goes into a lengthy discussion of what a mess Alexa is in the Rivian and how useless its navigation system is. In the absence of CarPlay and Android phone connections (an absence Rivian shares with Lucid and Tesla), he has installed a work-around. Earlier in the video he also discusses the problem multiple owners are seeing with the tonneau bed cover of the pickup and a peculiar problem where the truck raises or lowers the ride height of its own accord at a stop light or when parked and he is trying to unstrap his kids from the back seat.

I don't know if this means Rivian's software problems are as ubiquitous as Lucid's still are, but it certainly highlights how difficult a climb software presents to EV startups:

I think it's fair to say that both companies are having issues. I liked that video because it detailed out the pro's and con's. Once again, all the Rivian press / influencer videos have praised the car and how great it is along with praising the software. Turns out that Rivian won't give you a press car if you're going to say anything negative per E for Electric. They won't even do an interview to address any negative comments either.

The biggest complaint i've had from those who have tested out the Rivian software compared to my car is its slowness and time to respond to anything. With the comment of "you paid $150K for this?" Apparently Rivians is a lot more responsive and easier to navigate but given the person making the comment owned a Tesla it makes sense because the layout is very Tesla lookalike.

 

[thecodingart]

During the early years of the Model S, yes, for sure.

By the time we got ours in early 2017, they seemed to have finally gotten them right. Our Model S is over five years old now, and I’ve never had to replace any of the door handles.

This is statistically just a luck of the draw situation. It’s still one of their highest failure points.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

So I am going to get my Car back tomorrow.
They say they fixed the Trunk and the Back Window alignment.
They fixed the AC, saying it was getting stuck in the Defrost mode .
They have to replace the Passenger side Mirror but the part won’t be here until later this week and they will replace it at home.
The BIG one, my Fan Button for the AC on the dash is a “hard to source part” BUT they WILL replace it once they have it but there is no ETA.

Looks like they pushed the 1.2.6 to my car today so I should be able to upgrade to it tomorrow.

Cool major progress for you! That stinks about the missing button, but at least that mirror will get fixed at home and you won’t be without your car!

 

[OldAg]

All great comments and useful information for us still waiting. I would like to say thank goodness Engineers are deciding what to build instead of Accountants. We better hope they can keep the accountants at bay or all this Customer Service they are providing won’t be free.

 

[DeaneG]

...a lengthy discussion of what a mess Alexa is in the Rivian and how useless its navigation system is. ...

Interesting that like Lucid, Rivian also chose Alexa over Google Assistant. Maybe it's because a large fraction of the customer base uses Apple's ecosystem - I'm sure many would prefer to avoid Google wherever possible. Sadly I'm the opposite! And Alexa is kind of a neutral party to most.

 

[rbbarry]

Interesting that like Lucid, Rivian also chose Alexa over Google Assistant. Maybe it's because a large fraction of the customer base uses Apple's ecosystem - I'm sure many would prefer to avoid Google wherever possible. Sadly I'm the opposite!

I would think most people would prefer Google over Amazon?