- Joined
- Mar 7, 2020
- Messages
- 6,070
- Reaction score
- 8,446
- Location
- Naples, FL
- Cars
- Model S Plaid, Odyssey
- DE Number
- 154
- Referral Code
- 033M4EXG
But, as a fact, you're right - the Tesla has more features. I just don't care for many of them, and hope Lucid only builds the obviously useful ones; dog mode, sentry, etc.
The Tesla certainly has more entertainment features, some of which will be of interest mostly to kids and thus to parents, as is blueice89's case. (I have to admit that I would like to watch YouTube on the car screen when I'm sitting in airport cell phone or shopping mall lots in our Air.)
However, while Lucid is still having more software bugs than our Plaid (which is not quite bug-free), many of Lucid's driving-related features are more comprehensive and easier to access than Tesla's. You have to go into submenus to change the drive mode in the Tesla. Redirecting A/C vents is ludicrously annoying in the Tesla. Changing temperature and volume settings from the passenger seat is very difficult if the Tesla is moving and a bit tricky when it isn't. On the Air, I like having a zoomed-in satellite map that can display direction of travel on the upper screen and a zoomed-out satellite map on the lower screen that can be oriented to the compass. I love the birds-eye-view display in the Air when parking and find its absence in the Tesla downright aggravating.
Lucid has been slammed -- and deservedly so -- for releasing a car with such problem-ridden software just over a year ago. But they have made real progress in addressing those problems, with driving-assist features perhaps still furtherest behind the curve of some others in the industry.
BUT -- and this is crucial -- Lucids are built with key hardware (a comprehensive sensor array, including lidar) that Tesla lacks and that will thus keep current Teslas from ever catching up to certain Lucid features. This hardware includes cameras positioned so as to enable computer-synthesizing of a birds-eye-view; manual controls for A/C functions such as vent position, temperature, and fan speed; a horn button that can be found in an emergency (unlike a Tesla with a yoke); turn signals that can be found where expected no matter what the steering wheel position (again with the yoke).
While today a 2022 Tesla Model S is less plagued with software issues than a 2022 Lucid Air, in another year or two the Lucid will be the easier, quieter, and more pleasant car to drive and control. And it will always have that roomier interior with that vastly more commodious rear seat.