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Lucid Air Cupholder NHTSA Complaint

kapix said:
I took Euro delivery of an E36 M3 and had a conversation with some of the staff at the BMW delivery center. To a person, they shook their heads and snickered at the notion of a performance car with cup holders. They saw the dilemma…drive or drink. I think the solution has been found in hydration bladders used by cyclists, runners, etc. Why risk spilling your expensive bourbon all over your car interior?
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Drinking a beverage while driving was a rather American thing mostly because we drove longer distances compared to Europeans. I recall BMWs and Porsches up until the mid 2000s, had vistigial cup holders.
 
Beatstanfurd said:
I blame Ford for my truck not fitting in my garage, not the lift that I installed nor the junk in my garage
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I'm going to defend the posters concerns a bit.

Anything to do with car safety should be looked at closely.

Even silly things that people blame the driver for such as "heavy and overloaded key fobs that could accidentally shut your car off while driving and cause a crash" or "ill fitting or after market floor mats that could cause the accelerator to get stuck causing unintended accelerations."
Or, a hot cup of coffee spilling from your cup holder onto your lap while driving.

Better Lucid get on top of any safety concerns than it blowing up in some big news story if someone gets hurt.
 
Let's see... you put the wrong size cup--or didn't properly seat the right size cup--in the cupholder, and it spilled when you turned and now you want the NHSTA to spend taxpayer dollars investigating your problem?
I will file my own NHTSA complaint because my car does not have a sensor to measure the cup liquid temperature, which means I could be burned and lose control of the car while driving, because it does not have an ashtray and so burning ash could cause a dangerous distraction by being blown back into the car when I'm flicking it out the window, because the Sprint mode causes dangerous lightheadedness and marital stress.
 
socktucker said:
Didn't Lucid actually say they had a new cup holder design already? 2028 maybe.
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I believe Emad said something about it in a youtube video. If I remember correctly, it was supposed to be a retrofit solution. Take that with a grain of salt because my memory on it is fuzzy. It was probably in the video where he talked to that OOS Kyle guy that posts the 2 hour long videos.
 
There’s a reason products like this exist


Cups come in so many different shapes and sizes that it’s unreasonable to expect an automaker to cover for 100% of them. This isn’t a safety issue, at best it’s a design flaw that doesn’t suit your needs while for others it doesn’t appear to be an issue. No wonder it’s takes NHTSA years to complete any investigation if they’re getting bombarded with pet peeves like this ☹️
 
Medium from Dutch bros fits perfectly fine and my 40oz Stanley stays put snugly in the turns even though it doesn’t go all the way to the bottom of the cupholder. Changing the type of cup you’re using seems much more logical than blaming Lucid and turning to the NHTSA.
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I have to agree with the OP. My cup doesn’t fit, either.

(Made with AI. This is a joke. It’s Friday; let’s laugh.)
 

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Unfortunately, posting this here will likely do little more than bring out the brand loyalists. I find it fascinating how people feel compelled to defend a company that doesn’t even know they exist, simply because someone raises a concern that might reflect negatively on their beloved brand. We see this tribal mentality in so many areas of society today.

When I saw your post, my first thought was, “Good for you for actually doing something about an issue that bothers you.” It’s your prerogative to file a complaint, and I don’t understand why anyone would take personal offense to that. If anything, holding manufacturers accountable benefits all of us as consumers.

And for what it’s worth, I completely agree that the cup holders are poorly designed. They grip certain cups so tightly that removing them requires an unreasonable amount of force, and plenty of cups don’t fit at all.
 
socktucker said:
Didn't Lucid actually say they had a new cup holder design already? 2028 maybe.
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Solomente said:
I believe Emad said something about it in a youtube video. If I remember correctly, it was supposed to be a retrofit solution. Take that with a grain of salt because my memory on it is fuzzy. It was probably in the video where he talked to that OOS Kyle guy that posts the 2 hour long videos.
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My recollection was that they were addressing the tension in the pads of the cupholder and that they were making changes to back off on the pressure a bit. This followed the first Jason Fenske video where he complained about the force required to remove a Coke can from the cup holder. They agreed that yeah, maybe that was a bit much.
 
The cupholders in my wife’s LEAF are too small for some cups, while the cupholders in my F150 are often too large and my drinks tend to spill if I’m not careful.

We all have product features we care about, and we should feel free to advocate for refinement of those features.

I have a short list of “Are you kidding me???” based solely on my three test drives of a ‘25 AT w/ glass canopy; I won’t know for certain if my list consists of legit annoyances or concerns until I take delivery and get many hours in the cockpit.

Meanwhile, I’ve taken a lot of notes about potential issues with the Air based on the threads in this forum, and being in a group of passionate enthusiasts with divergent views makes my near-daily visits here worthwhile.
 
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AnthonySF said:
Unfortunately, posting this here will likely do little more than bring out the brand loyalists. I find it fascinating how people feel compelled to defend a company that doesn’t even know they exist, simply because someone raises a concern that might reflect negatively on their beloved brand. We see this tribal mentality in so many areas of society today.

When I saw your post, my first thought was, “Good for you for actually doing something about an issue that bothers you.” It’s your prerogative to file a complaint, and I don’t understand why anyone would take personal offense to that. If anything, holding manufacturers accountable benefits all of us as consumers.

And for what it’s worth, I completely agree that the cup holders are poorly designed. They grip certain cups so tightly that removing them requires an unreasonable amount of force, and plenty of cups don’t fit at all.
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Replying because I consider myself a “brand loyalist” as you say….So does your first paragraph mean that only complaints are allowed in the forum? Because I’m pretty sure that’s not the case. But because YMMV is actually a thing, I think it’s only natural for people to share their experiences and what works for them, whether they agree with the OP or not, woes or praise 🤷‍♀️
 
AnthonySF said:
Unfortunately, posting this here will likely do little more than bring out the brand loyalists. I find it fascinating how people feel compelled to defend a company that doesn’t even know they exist, simply because someone raises a concern that might reflect negatively on their beloved brand. We see this tribal mentality in so many areas of society today.

When I saw your post, my first thought was, “Good for you for actually doing something about an issue that bothers you.” It’s your prerogative to file a complaint, and I don’t understand why anyone would take personal offense to that. If anything, holding manufacturers accountable benefits all of us as consumers.

And for what it’s worth, I completely agree that the cup holders are poorly designed. They grip certain cups so tightly that removing them requires an unreasonable amount of force, and plenty of cups don’t fit at all.
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And that is the fault of Lucid that your cup doesn’t fit the way you want?
Then file your complaint and next time take your cup with you when you buy your replacement for the Lucid. Seriously if something is that critical then you should address it before you spend your money.
So a cup holder that actively pours your coffee in your lap is an issue, one where your cup doesn’t fit? Well that’s on you.

And all this has nothing to do with brand loyalty but has a lot to do with practicality. And for some reason people would rather complain thier $xx.xx coffee cup doesn’t fit into a $1xx,xxx car so blame and complain about the car. Just get a new cup or get a new car. People like eng explains needs to think about the difference between a design choice, poor implementation, or just anal buyer. I personally have better things to do than complain my old cup doesn’t fit my car. Reach out to yeti and ask them to fix the cup size
 
Aka-none said:
And that is the fault of Lucid that your cup doesn’t fit the way you want?
Then file your complaint and next time take your cup with you when you buy your replacement for the Lucid. Seriously if something is that critical then you should address it before you spend your money.
So a cup holder that actively pours your coffee in your lap is an issue, one where your cup doesn’t fit? Well that’s on you.

And all this has nothing to do with brand loyalty but has a lot to do with practicality. And for some reason people would rather complain thier $xx.xx coffee cup doesn’t fit into a $1xx,xxx car so blame and complain about the car. Just get a new cup or get a new car. People like eng explains needs to think about the difference between a design choice, poor implementation, or just anal buyer. I personally have better things to do than complain my old cup doesn’t fit my car. Reach out to yeti and ask them to fix the cup size
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“I personally have better things to do.”

Apparently not, considering you just wrote three paragraphs arguing with a complete stranger on an internet forum over cup holders. Lol.

And you’ve managed to prove my original point perfectly. Someone raises a legitimate criticism of a product, and rather than simply acknowledging that the design could be improved, you feel compelled to defend the manufacturer and blame the consumer. Fascinating.
 
AirDoll said:
Replying because I consider myself a “brand loyalist” as you say….So does your first paragraph mean that only complaints are allowed in the forum? Because I’m pretty sure that’s not the case. But because YMMV is actually a thing, I think it’s only natural for people to share their experiences and what works for them, whether they agree with the OP or not, woes or praise 🤷‍♀️
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Where did I say only complaints should be allowed? You’re arguing against something I never said.

There’s an obvious difference between sharing your personal experience with a product and feeling compelled to dismiss someone else’s legitimate concern simply because you haven’t experienced it yourself. The original poster found the cup holder design problematic enough to take the time to file a formal complaint. They weren’t complaining for entertainment. Whether you personally agree with the complaint is irrelevant to their right to raise it.

If your cup holders work perfectly for you, fantastic. That doesn’t invalidate someone else’s experience. And if their complaint ultimately results in a design improvement, everyone benefits, including the people defending the current design.
 
At least he didn’t measure force needed to remove a bottle from the cup holder and complain about it like that over-exaggerating click baiting useless engineer on YouTube who suddenly thinks he is a car reviewer.
 
FWIW, I use the largest stanley (all the time) and varying sizes of coffee cups. No issues yet.

Btw, I should complain that the car is too low everytime I scratch the bottom.... poor design choice...
It's eveyone else's fault but mine.
 
gaskiller said:
At least he didn’t measure force needed to remove a bottle from the cup holder and complain about it like that over-exaggerating click baiting useless engineer on YouTube who suddenly thinks he is a car reviewer.
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He's by no means a useless engineer. He's a very knowledgeable person when it comes to engineering and how it all works.
 
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