Lucid Navigation Opinions

[krohleder]

From the clunky user interface, which you should probably not use while driving, to the constantly malfunctioning voice command, to the completely wrong directions, the Lucid navigation is an unusable nightmare. First, I would say that about 20 years ago, it was realized that basic preference settings like avoiding tolls were a baseline for good navigation. Conversely, Lucid will seemingly have you go out of your way to drive as many tolls as possible. Can we get a refund for accidental toll use? LOL The way you choose a path requires you to stop the car, squint, and decipher the path options. Usually, none of them are optimal. The perfectly designed dash is wonderful in theory, but it makes it impossible to find a good spot to put your smartphone as an alternative. Your physical engineering is a marvel, but the software and interface are an embarrassment. Could we do better? Are there any plans to do better? Or are we in denial? I want Lucid to succeed.

 

[Batteryman]

From the clunky user interface, which you should probably not use while driving, to the constantly malfunctioning voice command, to the completely wrong directions, the Lucid navigation is an unusable nightmare. First, I would say that about 20 years ago, it was realized that basic preference settings like avoiding tolls were a baseline for good navigation. Conversely, Lucid will seemingly have you go out of your way to drive as many tolls as possible. Can we get a refund for accidental toll use? LOL The way you choose a path requires you to stop the car, squint, and decipher the path options. Usually, none of them are optimal. The perfectly designed dash is wonderful in theory, but it makes it impossible to find a good spot to put your smartphone as an alternative. Your physical engineering is a marvel, but the software and interface are an embarrassment. Could we do better? Are there any plans to do better? Or are we in denial? I want Lucid to succeed.

Just use CarPlay……I do that in every car, except our Tesla

 

[L-Dude]

FWIW, every built-in nav I've used is inferior to the app based systems available via my smartphone. I've used the native nav in my Audi a couple of times in the last three years. It is simply awful.

 

[doubletwist]

Just use CarPlay……I do that in every car, except our Tesla

And how would someone with an android phone do that? And don't say to use one of the Carlinkit units because based on my experience in trying thus far:

a) None of the ones under $150 actually work at all.

b) The ones that do 'work' are flaky as hell. Moreso than the already flaky native infotainment

c) Not everyone wants to hook their phones up to cheap, unofficial Chinese knockoff hardware with God knows what buggy, potentially malicious code included

d) We shouldn't HAVE to for a feature which Lucid has been promising 'any minute now' for like 2 years on a $70-$100k+ luxury vehicle.

 

[BS8899]

From the clunky user interface, which you should probably not use while driving, to the constantly malfunctioning voice command, to the completely wrong directions, the Lucid navigation is an unusable nightmare. First, I would say that about 20 years ago, it was realized that basic preference settings like avoiding tolls were a baseline for good navigation. Conversely, Lucid will seemingly have you go out of your way to drive as many tolls as possible. Can we get a refund for accidental toll use? LOL The way you choose a path requires you to stop the car, squint, and decipher the path options. Usually, none of them are optimal. The perfectly designed dash is wonderful in theory, but it makes it impossible to find a good spot to put your smartphone as an alternative. Your physical engineering is a marvel, but the software and interface are an embarrassment. Could we do better? Are there any plans to do better? Or are we in denial? I want Lucid to succeed.

I stopped using Lucid's navigation (based on HERE maps) a couple of months after I got the car (in 2022). It is slow and error prone. I am not talking just about the occasional non-optimal routing. I am talking the navigation can send you to destinations miles, tens of miles, away from where you wanted to go! It is also slow. Hence, if you missed a turn and Lucid Navigation attempts to reroute you, by the time it is ready with the alternate route, you might have missed the turn to get there already.

I also think it was a mistake for Lucid to change from Alexa to "Hey Lucid". It is slow, and half of the time it doesn't recognize what you want.

Honestly, I think it is a mistake for car companies to spend their valuable resources on developing navigation and voice commands. Just enable CarPlay and AA. Yes, CarPlay and AA look "generic". So what?! They work, and I don't have to relearn things.

I also have a Rivian. And Rivian also refuses to add CarPlay and AA. That said, the Rivian navigation actually works very well, not just in getting me to places, but the mapping of the services (charging stations, restaurants, points of interest, etc.) are all very good. That said, I still think Rivian should enable CarPlay and AA. 95%+ of the users are already familiar with navigation on their phones. There is no value add in spending time and resources to develop your own!

 

[borski]

I stopped using Lucid's navigation (based on HERE maps) a couple of months after I got the car (in 2022). It is slow and error prone.

You should consider trying it again. It has improved significantly.

Clearly a number of people don’t like it, but I use it daily.

In 2022, I agree with you that it was basically unusable. That’s not the case now.

 

[BS8899]

You should consider trying it again. It has improved significantly.

Clearly a number of people don’t like it, but I use it daily.

In 2022, I agree with you that it was basically unusable. That’s not the case now.

I did. I used it 3 weeks ago to take me from Sausalito to Concorde. I was low on my phone battery. Without exaggeration, it routed me all over the map, going in the wrong directions. I had to exit the highway and re-routed with my phone.

I have no confidence in the built-in navigation.

 

[BS8899]

I did. I used it 3 weeks ago to take me from Sausalito to Concorde. I was low on my phone battery. Without exaggeration, it routed me all over the map, going in the wrong directions. I had to exit the highway and re-routed with my phone.

I have no confidence in the built-in navigation.

BTW, if you look, there were a few recent posting by other users of similar problems. It is not just me.

 

[doubletwist]

You should consider trying it again. It has improved significantly.

Clearly a number of people don’t like it, but I use it daily.

In 2022, I agree with you that it was basically unusable. That’s not the case now.

I've only been using it since Feb, but I still think it's pretty terrible even aside from missing day 1, BASIC functionality like avoiding toll roads and saving addresses

It frequently tells me to take physically impossible left turns where there has *never* been a left turn. On a recent trip it routed me to a location for a restaurant that was a mile from the actual, long-time location. It also tried to route me through a street/RR crossing which may have once been passable, but which appeared to have been closed to traffic for at LEAST a decade.

Add to that the useless voice search which, when searching (using the mic button ) for a well-known, established business/location, only works about 30% of the time. The rest of the time, it either thinks for a moment and then silently does absolutely nothing, or it responds that it couldn't find it, despite a text search coming up with the location or many locations immediately.

Just what the public roads need, a car nav system that forces drivers to look down and start typing on a very low touchscreen keyboard.

Don't get me wrong, I love this car, but Lucid desperately needs to put some SERIOUS resources, focus and effort into fixing their software ASAP.

 

[DeaneG]

FWIW, every built-in nav I've used is inferior to the app based systems available via my smartphone. I've used the native nav in my Audi a couple of times in the last three years. It is simply awful.

We have native Google Maps in our Volvo, same as in Polestar and several other makes. It functions identically to Google Maps on my cell phone - that is, great.
Last week, Lucid's HERE tried to take me to a location half a mile from my actual destination. I've learned to check EVERY destination very carefully on the car's screen before proceeding.

Unlike Google, there appears to be no way for a user to ask for an edit to correct a location to HERE maps. In the rare event I want to modify a location or add a POI to Google Maps, I can suggest it online. It is usually accepted by Google almost immediately, and the result goes live in our Volvo in a few hours.

 

[HC_79]

We have native Google Maps in our Volvo, same as in Polestar and several other makes. It functions identically to Google Maps on my cell phone - that is, great.
Last week, Lucid's HERE tried to take me to a location half a mile from my actual destination. I've learned to check EVERY destination very carefully on the car's screen before proceeding.

Unlike Google, there appears to be no way for a user to ask for an edit to correct a location to HERE maps. In the rare event I want to modify a location or add a POI to Google Maps, I can suggest it online. It is usually accepted by Google almost immediately, and the result goes live in our Volvo in a few hours.

HERE Map Creator

mapcreator.here.com

 

[DeaneG]

HERE Map Creator

mapcreator.here.com

I have tried. There appears to be no way to correct the location of an existing POI - only to modify its other attributes.

In Google's case, I could modify the POI location with a few clicks. My requests are generally accepted and the added or corrected POI location appears in our Volvo (and my phone) within a few hours.

 

[borski]

I have tried. There appears to be no way to correct the location of an existing POI - only to modify its other attributes.

In Google's case, I could modify the POI location with a few clicks. My requests are generally accepted and the added or corrected POI location appears in our Volvo (and my phone) within a few hours.

I’m not sure where you went wrong, but you can absolutely do it with a few clicks for HERE. I picked a random building, but here are some screenshots:

 

[DeaneG]

I’m not sure where you went wrong, but you can absolutely do it with a few clicks for HERE. I picked a random building, but here are some screenshots:

View attachment 29148
View attachment 29149
View attachment 29150

I didn't find that on the desktop. Will give it a try later, thank you.

 

[DeaneG]

...I've used the native nav in my Audi a couple of times in the last three years. It is simply awful.

I agree. Audi uses HERE maps, same as Lucid, so they have similar problems.

 

[HC_79]

if Lucid went with Google Maps would you all be happy about DreamDrive being severely limited when it comes to lane precision and future autonomous features? It’s shortsighted to think Lucid didn’t choose HERE for a reason and it probably all comes down to what they want to do with DreamDrive.

Google only launched HD Mapping in 2023 well after the Air’s software choices were chosen and possibly the Gravity. In fact, the Volvo EX90 and Polestar 3 appear to be the first vehicles to actually use Googles HD Mapping. You’re all focused on consumer facing systems when a car needs much more to operate behind the scenes especially when it comes to ADAS / Autonomous driving. Without HERE, auto-lane change may not have even existed on DreamDrive Pro so it’s kind of a case of choose your poison.

Google launches HD maps for vehicles, Volvo and Polestar first to integrate | TechCrunch

Google launches HD maps for vehicles, Volvo and Polestar first to integrate.

techcrunch.com

 

[DeaneG]

if Lucid went with Google Maps would you all be happy about DreamDrive being severely limited when it comes to lane precision and future autonomous features? It’s shortsighted to think Lucid didn’t choose HERE for a reason and it probably all comes down to what they want to do with DreamDrive....

Currently, Google Maps is far more important to us than the ADAS features we currently have or hope to have in the Air (highway handsfree). I can't speak to a future beyond that.
We've often left the Air in the garage and taken our other car, just because it has Google's accurate, reliable navigation.

 

[DeaneG]

I’m not sure where you went wrong, but you can absolutely do it with a few clicks for HERE. I picked a random building, but here are some screenshots...

Ah, the place I am trying to correct has no address, so there are no address attributes (including location) available to edit on the desktop URL. However I can edit it on the mobile URL. An oversight on the desktop web functionality.

 

[HC_79]

Currently, Google Maps is far more important to us than the ADAS features we currently have or hope to have in the Air (highway handsfree). I can't speak to a future beyond that.
We've often left the Air in the garage and taken our other car, just because it has Google's accurate, reliable navigation.

And when any Tesla owner comes up to me to ask about the car the first question is “Does it have FSD” not “is the navigation Google Maps” so I’d question the importance over Google Maps compared to ADAS / Autonomous features.

 

[DeaneG]

And when any Tesla owner comes up to me to ask about the car the first question is “Does it have FSD” not “is the navigation Google Maps” so I’d question the importance over Google Maps compared to ADAS / Autonomous features.

Depends on the person, of course. I was speaking for myself.