Lucid Owners Club Meetup Recap – Beverly Hills, Sat Oct 17

[HC_79]

Quick heads up: this is a very high-level recap from my notes, so I may have missed a few things. Others who attended, feel free to add anything I left out!

Big thanks to Lucid for hosting a great event at the Beverly Hills location on Saturday. Food and drinks were provided for everyone who attended, and Wags and Walks was on site with dogs up for adoption, which was a really nice touch.

Who was there

The Q&A had a number of Lucid execs:

Shawn Mirabal – President, North American Commercial Operations

Angela Zepeda – VP, Global Marketing

Marc Solsona Palomar – VP, Software

Most owner questions focused on two things: Service Center wait times and software updates.

Service

- 200+ techs have been onboarded recently, and they're continuing to hire.

- 2nd shifts are being introduced, and 3rd shifts are being considered to bring wait times down.

- More Service Center expansion is underway.

- LA owners: the DTLA location opens within weeks and should start to relieve the bottleneck at Beverly Hills.

Software / OTA

- Not much was shared about upcoming features.

- Marc said the next update will focus on more stability.

- Lucid is committed to continuing OTA updates.

- Their stated approach is now "under promise, over deliver," so they're reluctant to give timelines for anything.

ADAS / DreamDrive Pro

- Not much detail beyond "updates are coming."

AR on the HUD**

- It isn't dead. It's still planned for some point in the future.

My take

Owners with service frustrations got some good, concrete info on Saturday. More techs, extra shifts and DTLA opening soon are real steps.

On software and new features, it's still more "coming soon" than real commitments. Given the recent PAAK delay, I understand why Lucid is hesitant to put dates on anything. Still, I wish they could find a middle ground, like rough windows or a priority order, rather than going back to saying nothing. Owners can handle "targeting Q1, subject to change." What wears on people is silence.

Overall it was a well-run event and shout out to Susanne Hachigian for organizing this event and the many others she does. It was good to see execs show up and take questions directly. Hopefully we continue to see more of these.

 

[Need4Sleep]

More techs, more service locations, and more shifts is music to my ears!

 

[marqie]

I wish I could've been there. I am happy you found the event to be worthwhile.

 

[merveille07]

Quick heads up: this is a very high-level recap from my notes, so I may have missed a few things. Others who attended, feel free to add anything I left out!

Big thanks to Lucid for hosting a great event at the Beverly Hills location on Saturday. Food and drinks were provided for everyone who attended, and Wags and Walks was on site with dogs up for adoption, which was a really nice touch.

Who was there

The Q&A had a number of Lucid execs:

Shawn Mirabal – President, North American Commercial Operations

Angela Zepeda – VP, Global Marketing

Marc Solsona Palomar – VP, Software

Most owner questions focused on two things: Service Center wait times and software updates.

Service

- 200+ techs have been onboarded recently, and they're continuing to hire.

- 2nd shifts are being introduced, and 3rd shifts are being considered to bring wait times down.

- More Service Center expansion is underway.

- LA owners: the DTLA location opens within weeks and should start to relieve the bottleneck at Beverly Hills.

Software / OTA

- Not much was shared about upcoming features.

- Marc said the next update will focus on more stability.

- Lucid is committed to continuing OTA updates.

- Their stated approach is now "under promise, over deliver," so they're reluctant to give timelines for anything.

ADAS / DreamDrive Pro

- Not much detail beyond "updates are coming."

AR on the HUD**

- It isn't dead. It's still planned for some point in the future.

My take

Owners with service frustrations got some good, concrete info on Saturday. More techs, extra shifts and DTLA opening soon are real steps.

On software and new features, it's still more "coming soon" than real commitments. Given the recent PAAK delay, I understand why Lucid is hesitant to put dates on anything. Still, I wish they could find a middle ground, like rough windows or a priority order, rather than going back to saying nothing. Owners can handle "targeting Q1, subject to change." What wears on people is silence.

Overall it was a well-run event and shout out to Susanne Hachigian for organizing this event and the many others she does. It was good to see execs show up and take questions directly. Hopefully we continue to see more of these.

While I empathize with your frustration on software; I think it might be the better approach until Lucid get everything stable (all the software stacks). That's actually harder than developing new features. Thanks for the write up!

 

[bcjenkins]

Owners can handle "targeting Q1, subject to change." What wears on people is silence.

This is Consumer 101 stuff and exactly right.

Consumers can handle soft targets and inevitable schedule slips. Just talk to them.

 

[Aka-none]

This is Consumer 101 stuff and exactly right.

Consumers can handle soft targets and inevitable schedule slips. Just talk to them.

Some people can and others take guesstimates as written on rock.
But I get the point, some will complain either way, but some prioritization guidance would be sweet.

 

[Hammerthyme]

IMHO, there are too many rumors of Lucid's inevitable demise for them to go radio silent. Really, really need to keep talking, even if it's only to reveal information like what was received here. Some forward looking statements wouldn't go amiss either, just so we know that you're still working on stuff.

 

[prgarg]

Quick heads up: this is a very high-level recap from my notes, so I may have missed a few things. Others who attended, feel free to add anything I left out!

Big thanks to Lucid for hosting a great event at the Beverly Hills location on Saturday. Food and drinks were provided for everyone who attended, and Wags and Walks was on site with dogs up for adoption, which was a really nice touch.

Who was there

The Q&A had a number of Lucid execs:

Shawn Mirabal – President, North American Commercial Operations

Angela Zepeda – VP, Global Marketing

Marc Solsona Palomar – VP, Software

Most owner questions focused on two things: Service Center wait times and software updates.

Service

- 200+ techs have been onboarded recently, and they're continuing to hire.

- 2nd shifts are being introduced, and 3rd shifts are being considered to bring wait times down.

- More Service Center expansion is underway.

- LA owners: the DTLA location opens within weeks and should start to relieve the bottleneck at Beverly Hills.

Software / OTA

- Not much was shared about upcoming features.

- Marc said the next update will focus on more stability.

- Lucid is committed to continuing OTA updates.

- Their stated approach is now "under promise, over deliver," so they're reluctant to give timelines for anything.

ADAS / DreamDrive Pro

- Not much detail beyond "updates are coming."

AR on the HUD**

- It isn't dead. It's still planned for some point in the future.

My take

Owners with service frustrations got some good, concrete info on Saturday. More techs, extra shifts and DTLA opening soon are real steps.

On software and new features, it's still more "coming soon" than real commitments. Given the recent PAAK delay, I understand why Lucid is hesitant to put dates on anything. Still, I wish they could find a middle ground, like rough windows or a priority order, rather than going back to saying nothing. Owners can handle "targeting Q1, subject to change." What wears on people is silence.

Overall it was a well-run event and shout out to Susanne Hachigian for organizing this event and the many others she does. It was good to see execs show up and take questions directly. Hopefully we continue to see more of these.

Thanks for the very clear recap. Good to know on the service side, disappointing on the software one.

 

[prgarg]

IMHO, there are too many rumors of Lucid's inevitable demise for them to go radio silent. Really, really need to keep talking, even if it's only to reveal information like what was received here. Some forward looking statements wouldn't go amiss either, just so we know that you're still working on stuff.

Totally agree. Competition is launching new models, user testing point to point navigation and even giving Ghostbusters themes through OTAs. The new leadership here has been in place for a few months already and all they can do is give no updates in a close environment attended by only a few owners?

 

[gaskiller]

Totally agree. Competition is launching new models, user testing point to point navigation and even giving Ghostbusters themes through OTAs. The new leadership here has been in place for a few months already and all they can do is give no updates in a close environment attended by only a few owners?

What updates do you want? It will come when ready. They have improved software significantly.

They need to focus on more stability, Cosmos software, service.

I don’t want them taking their eye of these 3 things just to release a software update to add a new feature that isn’t ready for prime time.

And that ghostbusters theme is unnecessary waste of money ! Lucid should stay away from such wastefulness

 

[Need4Sleep]

Totally agree. Competition is launching new models, user testing point to point navigation and even giving Ghostbusters themes through OTAs. The new leadership here has been in place for a few months already and all they can do is give no updates in a close environment attended by only a few owners?

It takes many months for leadership to change the course of a ship. Even more so when you're dealing with physical manufacturing involving logistics, tooling, homologation, etc., across different countries. Personally I've been holding on to the opinion that it'd take 2027 onwards before we can see the fuller effect of the new leadership's direction.

As for the software side, I'd rather have a strong, robust backbone that looks more "simple" than more numerous half-baked features.

 

[prgarg]

It takes many months for leadership to change the course of a ship. Even more so when you're dealing with physical manufacturing involving logistics, tooling, homologation, etc., across different countries. Personally I've been holding on to the opinion that it'd take 2027 onwards before we can see the fuller effect of the new leadership's direction.

As for the software side, I'd rather have a strong, robust backbone that looks more "simple" than more numerous half-baked features.

I do agree with your assessment, but I don't see their need to hide and go radio silent for months. Even the Service headcount growth represents good news that should be shared. Plus, if the features roadmap they presented is not gonna happen, then they need to say so.
Now, my turn to shut up and go silent!

 

[The_Don]

- Their stated approach is now "under promise, over deliver," so they're reluctant to give timelines for anything.

This is great to hear. Lucid has a long history of over promising and under delivering, and I think it's a big reason why some have lost faith in the company. I think they should still give timelines, but they should be worst-case-scenario dates rather than targets. That way every time they release something by their true target, it's seen as a big win externally.

Either way, this is an approach destined for success !

 

[Celeras]

Ctrl-F: Dashcam.
Ctrl-F: Halo.

 

[Need4Sleep]

I do agree with your assessment, but I don't see their need to hide and go radio silent for months. Even the Service headcount growth represents good news that should be shared. Plus, if the features roadmap they presented is not gonna happen, then they need to say so.
Now, my turn to shut up and go silent!

Personally I prefer radio silence and let the results speak for themselves. Everyone's got a preference.

 

[HC_79]

This is great to hear. Lucid has a long history of over promising and under delivering, and I think it's a big reason why some have lost faith in the company. I think they should still give timelines, but they should be worst-case-scenario dates rather than targets. That way every time they release something by their true target, it's seen as a big win externally.

Either way, this is an approach destined for success !

I think the biggest issue is that they’ve taken money for things they promised. You can’t just now go silent on that and expect people to just accept is will come when it comes.

It’s a balancing act but I guess they’re hoping to drop things and surprise people vs promise something and get everyone mad at them for missing the timeline. The only caveat with that, things need to come more quickly to keep people appeased.

 

[Tim-in-CA]

Wish I could have made it up there, but wasn’t up for a 1 hr+ drive each way. On the subject of new service centers, I just had my CCCv2 installed at my home by the mobile tech (Bradley) who did a great and professional job. We were talking and I mentioned that my CCCv2 appointment happened pretty quickly (about a week from scheduling) and he said that Lucid is opening another service center in Mission Viejo and Lucid is already doing work out of that location and it should be going live in November. He also said that they hired 30 more techs; hopefully this means that service wait times will reduce for those of us in the OC and IE.

 

[HC_79]

Wish I could have made it up there, but wasn’t up for a 1 hr+ drive each way. On the subject of new service centers, I just had my CCCv2 installed at my home by the mobile tech (Bradley) who did a great and professional job. We were talking and I mentioned that my CCCv2 appointment happened pretty quickly (about a week from scheduling) and he said that Lucid is opening another service center in Mission Viejo and Lucid is already doing work out of that location and it should be going live in November. He also said that they hired 30 more techs; hopefully this means that service wait times will reduce for those of us in the OC and IE.

One thing that was mentioned was the ability to move cars around the network based on a Service Centers availability. It sounded like if a service center in the area is backed up but another has capacity they are going to move cars around internally. Not sure when that will be put in place though.