I've driven model s with fsd for 8 years. Tesla is way ahead in terms of "FSD" and just software in general. there is no comparison in software.
Lucid is more comfortable, more space, usability, range, significantly less road/wind noise, and much more fun to drive. hard to explain, go test drive one
I have had a Model S for over a decade. I also had a newer HW3 car with FSD, which I got rid of when I got my Lucid. I've driven Teslas with HW4 and FSD a few times very recently. My take is somewhat different.
Autopilot on HW1 does pretty much what Lucid does now, except that there's no cooperative steering with Tesla. There's no lane biasing, and if you take over steering for the smallest thing, it disengages and stays disengaged until you turn it back on. Tesla's autopilot suite on that car, and to a large extent even on current cars, leaves out a lot of the monitoring that Lucid does. That includes cross traffic alerts both front and rear, automatic braking in reverse when cross traffic is detected, etc. Tesla's FSD will change lanes in more places where the Lucid is currently hesitant, but since I can change lanes by moving the steering wheel and autosteer will be back on after the lane change is completed, I'd give more points to Lucid. While I lose automatic lane changes in some places, Tesla also requires manual lane changes in some places, which is more awkward.
With FSD, I have to look at it as it stood at the end of 2023. At the time, FSD did not work well enough on local streets for me that I used it. Indeed, I enabled it with each new release, then disabled it after testing when it came up short. However, Navigate on Autopilot worked well on highways. Although it could change lanes on its own, in familiar areas I felt more comfortable doing it with the turn signal since I had a better idea of when to change lanes. In unfamiliar areas, it had a big edge. It could handle traffic in places like Los Angeles with clogged freeways where figuring out what lane to be in to get on the next freeway could be a chore. With FSD, I could watch the road, and watch other lanes whenever the car signaled, rather than spending time trying to read overhead signs around a curve and try to figure out how many lanes over I need to move. It's not an everyday concern for me but I'd still give Tesla the edge.
Given the parts that I considered most important, I ruled out getting the Lucid when my turn came up due to an early reservation. When I did get it, it had lane keeping and ACC, which for me was the bare minimum I was willing to accept, knowing that more features would be added. Since then, automatic driver initiated lane changes were added, putting me in a comfortable position for most highway driving. It took longer than I expected, but Luicid never promised a specific time frame. Tesia will give you the expected time frame. And it will be wrong.
In recent months, Tesla has done a great job of getting FSD to work well. It still requires an attentive driver, which I have no objections to. It does a great job of navigating on highways and local streets. I appreciate the job it does, but I'm also using it on a car that's not mine. So there's a greater chance that I'm less familiar with where I'd be going locally, making FSD more helpful. While it's fun, it would likely be much less important to me for day to day use.
Yes, I'd like Lucid to do more. But on balance it does everything I need most for typical freeway use. I don't like the idea that it wants to act as a nanny and not let me decide where to turn certain features on though.
As far as the rest of the software goes, I find Lucid's implementation to be much better laid out. With some things, such as displaying side view cameras in what I consider the proper place, not only does Tesla fall short by putting it on the center screen, even on the X and S that have binnacles, Lucid got the perspective right so it's similar to a side view mirror. Tesla's will show what the camera sees, but in a way that doesn't give me any sense of distance. Since those sorts of things actually affect my driving, I'd give the edge to Lucid.
Functionally, it's a mixed bag. For some things, such as climate control, Lucid does fine. Some things such as the trip computer don't really exist in the sense that they do on a Tesla. Tesla's navigation and mapping are ahead of where Lucid is in some ways. Both Tesla and Lucid fall short when it comes to USB audio support. But with Tesla it's gotten worse since I bough the cars, while with Lucid I hold out hope for improvement. There are other things missing in Lucid's software, many of which won't be problems for me once Android Auto is released.
For voice commands, I'd give Tesla the edge for vehicle specific things. Lucid's implementation is broader, and I miss some of the functionality that Alexa gave me. A problem with their Alexa implementation was that it lacked a few key Alexa functions, but since Lucid changed and promised to have more functionality in the future, I feel secure in the knowlege that if I'm driving along and have to know currency conversion rates or Grover Cleveland's shoe size, I can ask the car.
Overall, I prefer the Lucid. Although it would be nice to have it do everything that FSD does, I'd rather have a Lucid that does what Lucid does now with an expectation than it will do more in the future than have a Tesla with FSD. It's really up to any individual where to rank things. But actually having FSD is what moved it lower on my list, once I had an idea of what I really needed. I recognized which parts would be more for show than to offer me any relief from stressful or tedius driving, as Lucid and Tesla's original Autopilot do.
