One month in - thoughts/experience

[Instinctive]

Well, I've had the car for a month. BLUF: goddamn this car is amazing and I love it. This is the third most expensive thing I've ever purchased (behind a JD/MBA and a house) by a lot (more than triple my next closest vehicle purchase) and I have literally zero buyers' remorse, which is a little surprising to me.

I'm not a car guy. I'm a normal person who needed a second vehicle with my wife and I expecting our first child in March and second in November (surrogate for second, can go talk about that in the off-topic area if you want). We established some criteria: get to OKC or Austin from Dallas without needing to stop, ideally an EV, enough backseat room for two 6'5" 220+ adults, enough backseat room for two rear facing infant car seats, and enough space to get two sets of golf clubs and a push cart and suitcases, or golf clubs and a stroller, or many other combos of stroller/luggage/clubs, and of course great safety. This was the only car that seemed to meet those needs and we have not been disappointed.

Ride:
Fantastic. So smooth and SO QUIET it's amazing. it just hugs the ground and it's so quick and jumpy, like an explosive RB dodging traffic. Highway assist and AC are both great, though I could test more in heavy traffic. Seats are super comfy, I like the shape of the wheel, and the blind spot cameras are awesome. Since week 1 when we got to 2.1.43, I haven't had any issues with cameras or needed to do a logo reset for any reason in the car.

Meeting our requirements:
Perfect marks so far. Car is gigantic inside and out (that's ne for me and caused an issue, but not the car's fault, as you'll see below). Have taken a full crew golfing, easily fits our stroller, fit my wife's gigantic brothers and father and luggage on airport runs for Thanksgiving (I'm a fairly big broad shouldered dude at 6'2" 200, and all three of them are much bigger than me - and not in an obese way). Remains to be seen, but taking it DFW to Austin after Xmas for the first road trip test, and we'll test our exact car seat(s) post baby shower (not expecting any issues here).

Charging has been all at home and it's so easy and convenient.

Updates have yet to push to the car, have had to ask customer service after a couple weeks of still not getting. Hope that changes.

Audio is awesome, though I think there's room to improve the Spotify interface in a few ways.

About to find out how repairs and such go, which I'm a little nervous of. I mentioned the car is huge compared to my normal - we clipped a side mirror and are gonna need a new one, and possibly calibration. Hoping they don't need to truck it back to a Lucid service center but can handle it at the certified body shop in Dallas. Still deciding on insurance usage or not, it's fairly minor but still a really expensive repair compared to a traditional vehicle.

Overall: Absolutely freaking love this thing. In a way I never really expected. It's so great.


Minor gripes/hopes for fixes:

• The only thing I "hate" is the feeling and noise when it comes out of hold at a stoplight. I've got some advice in another thread and will be working to see if this is addressable.
• I REALLY look forward to a solution that doesn't turn off or beep at me when i use my knees to steer like I always have in an ice car on a Texas highway going west with no traffic on a dead straight road for hours...
• Nav system sucks. Can't wait til it can display google maps. For now I'm doing fine with what I've always done, which is phone map in cupholder and bluetooth audio.
• It's weird that I can't seem to queue songs in Spotify by swiping it down to the main screen. Or do so on my phone. For instance, at home, if I use the TV's spotify app to play and get our sound going, I can use my phone and it recognizes my account is being played on a device, and I can use my phone to control next songs, skips, etc. As a passenger you'd think I'd be allowed to do that and play with it, especially given how much other stuff I can do (choose a new playlist, pick a song, etc). Just weird that I can't queue stuff in the car app or from my phone. So I usually default to just playing it via bluetooth.
• The app is pretty bare bones
• Mobile key is a bit annoying - it doesn't seem to work unless I have the app open on my screen (and I have all the right permissions on, I'm certain, so that's not it). So I've defaulted to always having the real fob with me, which is fine.
• Valet key - the card isn't really a valet key, which seems dumb, though maybe I just don't understand or am using it wrong. A valet key, or eve just being able to put it in valet mode or something seems easy and weird not to have

 

[AustinAir]

Im like you… never spent this much on a car before and never thought I would given how bad cars are with depreciation. But surprisingly no regret. When you say google maps.. it should already be available via CarPlay?

It’s taken me a while but I like the lucid nav now. But only when using both screens

 

[xponents]

Im like you… never spent this much on a car before and never thought I would given how bad cars are with depreciation. But surprisingly no regret. When you say google maps.. it should already be available via CarPlay?

It’s taken me a while but I like the lucid nav now. But only when using both screens

Yeah there are no expensive sedans that depreciate well! SUVs there are some but even then, they arent good.

 

[hydbob]

Nice. Weird for Spotify because I will get songs going and I can hand my phone to my daughter and let her pick music. Did you check to make sure in the Spotify app that the source was the Lucid?

 

[DeaneG]

...When you say google maps.. it should already be available via CarPlay?...

Only if you happen to be an iPhone user. Currently there's no clean solution for Android users.

 

[Instinctive]

Im like you… never spent this much on a car before and never thought I would given how bad cars are with depreciation. But surprisingly no regret. When you say google maps.. it should already be available via CarPlay?

It’s taken me a while but I like the lucid nav now. But only when using both screens

To make a long story short - I refuse to use Apple devices. They acquired my wife's startup and she spent a while there after and suffice to say I want nothing to do with the company whenever avoidable. So without a native Google maps or AA (which I've never had in a car either), I just keep doing what I've always done!

 

[Instinctive]

Nice. Weird for Spotify because I will get songs going and I can hand my phone to my daughter and let her pick music. Did you check to make sure in the Spotify app that the source was the Lucid?

I thought I had. Maybe it's just being weird - I'll take a deeper look. Likeliest answer is almost always that I'm not doing something right! lol.

 

[Instinctive]

Im like you… never spent this much on a car before and never thought I would given how bad cars are with depreciation. But surprisingly no regret. When you say google maps.. it should already be available via CarPlay?

It’s taken me a while but I like the lucid nav now. But only when using both screens

Yeah the depreciation isn't a factor for me. I generally buy new and drive until dead, just like my parents always did. So it's more about length of life and reliability - a SL depreciation if you will, but more about my future cost than anything to do with resale.

 

[xponents]

To make a long story short - I refuse to use Apple devices. They acquired my wife's startup and she spent a while there after and suffice to say I want nothing to do with the company whenever avoidable. So without a native Google maps or AA (which I've never had in a car either), I just keep doing what I've always done!

Wait, isnt your wifes startup being acquired a good thing?

 

[Instinctive]

Wait, isnt your wifes startup being acquired a good thing?

Yeah it was amazing. But through her time there, also learned and saw a lot of things of how the company is run, strategies that I think are net value negative for consumers, etc. Happy to take their money, don't plan to give back any of ours.

I'm not gonna belabor it, this is a Lucid forum, don't need to get taken off track.

 

[borski]

It's weird that I can't seem to queue songs in Spotify by swiping it down to the main screen. Or do so on my phone. For instance, at home, if I use the TV's spotify app to play and get our sound going, I can use my phone and it recognizes my account is being played on a device, and I can use my phone to control next songs, skips, etc. As a passenger you'd think I'd be allowed to do that and play with it, especially given how much other stuff I can do (choose a new playlist, pick a song, etc). Just weird that I can't queue stuff in the car app or from my phone. So I usually default to just playing it via bluetooth.

Nice. Weird for Spotify because I will get songs going and I can hand my phone to my daughter and let her pick music. Did you check to make sure in the Spotify app that the source was the Lucid?

Yeah, this works fine for me. Also, a little-known feature is if you go into Settings -> Apps -> Spotify in the car, you'll find a little QR code; hit "end session," then "start session," just to clear out any stale data, and then anyone in the car (or anywhere) can scan the QR code and join your 'party' where they can add songs to the queue and they will play just fine in the car.

 

[Instinctive]

Yeah, this works fine for me. Also, a little-known feature is if you go into Settings -> Apps -> Spotify in the car, you'll find a little QR code; hit "end session," then "start session," just to clear out any stale data, and then anyone in the car (or anywhere) can scan the QR code and join your 'party' where they can add songs to the queue and they will play just fine in the car.

Will try this - thanks man!

 

[borski]

Wait, isnt your wifes startup being acquired a good thing?

Not all acquisitions end positively. Being acquired is a lot of things, but the key point is that as soon as you sign those papers you no longer control your own destiny at all.

The company I founded in 2011 got acquired in January 2020, because apparently I am a psychic and predicted a pandemic was coming a month later. It was a product acquisition, not an acqui-hire. Everyone, financially, did very well. Two weeks after we were acquired, they ousted the GMs who had acquired us. Then we had no leadership for 9 months, while we waited for them to hire a new GM; the interim GM was one of the two Co-CEOs of the company, and didn't want to make any decisions (which actually kind of makes sense, given they didn't want to hand a bunch of new decisions to a new GM). Two years later, the handcuffs I negotiated expired, and something like 80-90% of the team bounced roughly on or around the handcuff expiration, myself included.

That's not to say anything negative about the company that acquired us; they treated the employees well, made sure everyone (or as close to everyone as possible) had jobs during the pandemic, took care of us while we worked remote, and so on.

Ours was a "middle of the road" story. Like many things, how the acquisition goes sits somewhere on a bell curve. We were near the middle, and it was "fine." Lots of positives, lots of negatives, mostly just "fine enough for a few years."

But plenty of acquisitions end in abject misery for one or both parties to the deal, and some do end up being spectacular (Siri, as an example).

Thing is, even if you financially make out great, working at a place you hate is enough to make you miserable.

P.S. @Instinctive sad to hear about your wife's experience at Apple. I loved my time working there in 2008-2009, and would happily do it again (for the right team/project). Do you mind me asking what happened? (And yes, I realize it may be better for DMs or not at all, given various contracts/NDAs)

 

[Tenorcnj]

Can you articulate more about what "nav system sucks" means? I'm nearly 1 year in and I think it's just fine.

 

[Instinctive]

P.S. @Instinctive sad to hear about your wife's experience at Apple. I loved my time working there in 2008-2009, and would happily do it again (for the right team/project). Do you mind me asking what happened? (And yes, I realize it may be better for DMs or not at all, given various contracts/NDAs)

She loved it. I'm sure she'd go back. It's my experience and my thoughts here. She has an iPhone still for example, their watch etc.

I'm not going to go into it more than this.

 

[Instinctive]

Can you articulate more about what "nav system sucks" means? I'm nearly 1 year in and I think it's just fine.

It goes down weird paths sometimes. Literally looking at it the color scheme is weird and can be difficult to see. I don't like any of the POV options as much. It doesn't have any memory like Google where i can look something up on PC and it'll be in my search history and I won't have to retype it in on a car keyboard, etc.

 

[borski]

She loved it. I'm sure she'd go back. It's my experience and my thoughts here. She has an iPhone still for example, their watch etc.

I'm not going to go into it more than this.

Fair enough! Maybe one day we can grab a beer and talk shop. <3