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New 2026 Lucid Air Touring from a 2018 Tesla Model 3

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goldengate

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Air Touring
The Lucid family is growing quickly with the upcoming expiration of the EV credit in 8 days.... and the introduction of the Gravity, of course. I just took delivery of a Lucid Air Touring yesterday and can't stop smiling. As I had read, the tech is glitchy, but oh wow the car is fun to drive. Coming from a Model 3, I worried it would feel like a huge "boat" and it does not. The turning radius is great, and it handles the 3 point turn into a nearby road just like my 3 did, but a lot quieter. I got the standard sound system, and have read all the complaints, but there are HUGE differences based on what source you use, I have found. For example, Spotify on Carplay sounds terrible (no bass) but on the integrated system it works great.... except Spotify does seem to crash periodically, needing a hard press on the air logo to reboot the screens. It feels very much like the early days of Tesla where I was rebooting several times a week.

The back speaker grille on mine is loose and vibrating, so they want me to bring it in to have them fix it. It seems like something I should be able to do myself, but don't want to risk it.

I am hopeful there will be software updates soon that will address some of the glitches, and add more functionality (and a new voice!) to the native "hey lucid" system. I don't find the interface as intuitive as the Tesla, but I'm figuring it out, though sometimes find it confusing when I am trying to find the "non carplay" Spotify.

TLDR: I love this car so far!
 

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Congrats and welcome! I've had my Air Touring for 3 months and I'm loving it.
 
Congrats and welcome!🩵
 
Mother of God... the software in this car is absolutely terrible. I had the most frustrating ride yesterday with all the glitches that have been outlined on these forums since the beginning of time. 2.8.7 is out I hear and I hope it fixes the iPhone key problems which seem so very basic. I worry that launching Gravity (with a separate software stack) diverted their programmers from quickly solving some of the more eggregious bugs.

Like everyone else, I love how the car drives and looks, but it's a Las Vegas slot every time I get in it... will the car unlock as I approach it? Will the person on the other end of the phone call be able to hear me? Will it remember which song and source I was listening to (well, this is almost always no)? In the early days of the Model 3 we all had the feeling that Elon and the programmers were on a group chat, and saying things like "hey, wouldn't it be cool if..." and "whoa, just found a bug..." Given the duration of some of the problems, especially the vehicle unlock which now is getting savaged in the media on the Gravity, I wonder if their programming team is.... robust.

Sorry to vent, love my car, but yesterday's drive up to Napa was an exercise in needless frustration.
 
goldengate said:
Mother of God... the software in this car is absolutely terrible. I had the most frustrating ride yesterday with all the glitches that have been outlined on these forums since the beginning of time. 2.8.7 is out I hear and I hope it fixes the iPhone key problems which seem so very basic. I worry that launching Gravity (with a separate software stack) diverted their programmers from quickly solving some of the more eggregious bugs.

Like everyone else, I love how the car drives and looks, but it's a Las Vegas slot every time I get in it... will the car unlock as I approach it? Will the person on the other end of the phone call be able to hear me? Will it remember which song and source I was listening to (well, this is almost always no)? In the early days of the Model 3 we all had the feeling that Elon and the programmers were on a group chat, and saying things like "hey, wouldn't it be cool if..." and "whoa, just found a bug..." Given the duration of some of the problems, especially the vehicle unlock which now is getting savaged in the media on the Gravity, I wonder if their programming team is.... robust.

Sorry to vent, love my car, but yesterday's drive up to Napa was an exercise in needless frustration.
Click to expand...
I feel ya. The timeout is too short on lock and unlock. Merely unloading groceries in my garage from my other car will make my stupid Lucid lock and unlock itself, do its little song and dance about a dozen times, then disable the phone key.

Meanwhile, walk up to it with groceries, try to open the trunk with the TRUNK OPEN BUTTON…nah! Not today! Not right now! Gotta put them down, open the app, and hope then it work, or wait 2 minutes to “wake up” the car I’m standing next to 😂
 
I take my car to the grocery all the time and never have this issue? Are you using the fob? It’s way better. You don’t have to choose the painful route when there is a much better way.
 
Exactly LOL... and it's usually in the supermarket parking lot with an audience... a car waiting for your spot.... a Tesla owner you're trying to convert to Lucid... never when I'm just walking by the car in the garage and it decides to unlock for 5 seconds. then lock. then unlock....

Not a good look when articles like this are being written in the EV trade:
https://insideevs.com/news/775131/lucid-gravity-key-problems-2025/
 
My goal is to have as little in my pockets as possible, so the key FOB stays in my dresser drawer, never used. I used my phone to unlock my Model 3 for 7 years and it's hard to go back to carrying around a FOB when it's so unnecessary. But if they don't fix this soon, maybe I'll turn it into a necklace...
 
As someone who carries this fob with me, it’s not a big deal. I forget it’s in my pocket all the time. And the car unlocks when I walk towards it every time. Literally never have these issues.
 
If it were only the iPhone unlock I wouldn't even post about it, but there are *so many* glitches with the interface... too many to enumerate here, but system reboots are needed frequently. It would be helpful if they would be a bit more transparent about the updates instead of just saying "robustness" so we know what they are working on, and feel like it's being addressed. In the early days of Tesla, the update notes were very transparent, and even though they didn't always fix the problem on the first or even second try, you could see from the update notes that they were trying to squash a bug. This feels much less transparent. While "robustness" has become a joke, and I have played along, it's also a bit lazy from the coders to use that over and over. Tell us what you are hoping to fix with this update, even if you aren't sure it will work.
 
Honestly, I haven’t had a software glitch since the robust update. Truly not one. There are features I would like added or tweaks I would make. But car is a blast to drive, is reliable, and looks awesome. I was in the drive through at Chick fil-eat last week and a woman walked up to me to tell me my car is gorgeous. Not the first time that’s happened. My wife thought it was hilarious.

Because of work I am often in an Audi and the software is way worse. Rented a mid-sized Mercedes SUV last week and it sucked. The Lucid Air is just an awesome car at this point.
 
Yup, agree. Another Lucid owner and I talked in the Whole Foods parking lot about how much we love our cars. I LOVE MY CAR. And the software is glitchy. Both can be true. Test drove Audis and agree, the software is Space Invaders 1980s level. Maybe a little better haha. But coming from Tesla... as has been discussed, they definitely RULE software, but this is a much better vehicle. I'm sure they will get these glitches solved since they are getting so much press attention.
 
Well I freaking bragged on the software and the Spotify app just freaked out!
 
Oh yeah, that's on my top 10 list of bugs... the Spotify crash where it loses server connection and won't work until a hard sleep / hard reset? That's one of the bugs that sent me to... shudder... Carplay... LOL
 
So it’s more that I was waiting in line, the Spotify app was going. And each time I opened apps on the phone the music stopped.

On the other side of the ledger: the guy at the car wash pointed at the Lucid logo and gave me a thumbs up before I went through. That’s jus an awesome feeling
 
goldengate said:
If it were only the iPhone unlock I wouldn't even post about it, but there are *so many* glitches with the interface... too many to enumerate here, but system reboots are needed frequently. It would be helpful if they would be a bit more transparent about the updates instead of just saying "robustness" so we know what they are working on, and feel like it's being addressed. In the early days of Tesla, the update notes were very transparent, and even though they didn't always fix the problem on the first or even second try, you could see from the update notes that they were trying to squash a bug. This feels much less transparent. While "robustness" has become a joke, and I have played along, it's also a bit lazy from the coders to use that over and over. Tell us what you are hoping to fix with this update, even if you aren't sure it will work.
Click to expand...
This gets re-discussed every few months. Their release notes for feature releases tend to be quite detailed; their release notes for “under the hood” fixes tend to be very non-specific. Many possible reasons for this, but it is not fair to say their release notes are never specific. They absolutely are, when relevant. Some people don’t like that choice and would rather, in effect, a full changelog. Frankly, I’m one of them. But most people aren’t, and I freely admit that.

goldengate said:
But coming from Tesla... as has been discussed, they definitely RULE software, but this is a much better vehicle. I'm sure they will get these glitches solved since they are getting so much press attention.
Click to expand...
People say this all the time but I’ve never understood it. I’m not bashing Tesla, I promise… and it is undeniable they have more features, as they’ve had many more years to build… but it breaks on me all the time. The rate of bugs and glitches I get in every Tesla I’ve ever driven or rented is not lower than my Air or Gravity. I’m convinced Tesla owners just got so used to rebooting it became second nature and they don’t notice it anymore; like putting on your pants, haha. I’ve watched an owner reboot it as soon as he got in the car and not notice; I asked why, he said “it’s just less annoying that way,” lol.

Which is fine. They do have more features, and some of them are probably very robust and stable. But to say it is somehow a paragon of software excellence is just untrue.

I would much, much rather Luce aim much higher than “as stable as Tesla.” Neither is where I’d want them to be.
 
In my early years of my Tesla, the software was a disaster. I would have to reboot multiple times a week, sometimes while driving at freeway speeds. But the frequency of updates and the notes made me feel like they were aware and addressing the issues. In the final 2 years of my Tesla, I can't remember rebooting once.

When I say they rule software, the interface in a Tesla to me is like an iPhone. It's just intuitive. Everything is where it should be for the most part. It resumes the last song you were listening to even if you have been on a 3-week trip. I didn't even need carplay and didn't miss it. Now I'm using a confusing combo of carplay and the native Lucid software. I prefer the native software with the exception of texting. So today driving about an hour, I realized it took like 4 taps and menus to get from the Nav back to carplay music... doing this from memory, but I think it was Lucid Nav, then home button, then carplay to the right, then spotify button, then finally I'm on the music to switch songs. No way could I do that while driving so I waited for a traffic light. The oft-requested feature of music up top, nav on the bottom would solve this.

I love love love my car and wouldn't go back to a Tesla for a variety of reasons. But I do have to admit, their software it its current incarnation (forget self driving) rules.
 
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