Open letter to Lucid after 7 months of ownership

[momo3605]

In 27 months of ownership I have never had a delay of handle presentation that lasted more than a few seconds and I have never heard of anyone standing there waiting for minutes. If that is the case with your car, there is a serious issue at hand with your vehicle that needs to be investigated .

Now on the other hand, I have had several instances where I have walked away from the car and the handles did not regress and the car stayed on, but that is a different beast.

Sometimes you need to take your phone out of your pocket, jiggle it around to unlock. It is conceivable that if you have something in your hands or carrying something, it takes some time to put it down safely, then do the phone dance, and then open the door before it locks again. Also if you just happen the stand there next to the car without doing the dance it might stay locked for minutes.

 

[Joelaron]

In 27 months of ownership I have never had a delay of handle presentation that lasted more than a few seconds and I have never heard of anyone standing there waiting for minutes. If that is the case with your car, there is a serious issue at hand with your vehicle that needs to be investigated .

Now on the other hand, I have had several instances where I have walked away from the car and the handles did not return to a closed position and the car stayed on, but that is a different beast.

Thinking that your car was built on a Wednesday, and mine was built on the Monday after a 4 day weekend. Stood next to my car for 45 seconds today before the doors unlocked. And that happens at least once a day. Today was charming.. it unlocked as I started to walk away. But I love driving my GT… when I’m allowed to.

 

[stratus]

Thinking that your car was built on a Wednesday, and mine was built on the Monday after a 4 day weekend. Stood next to my car for 45 seconds today before the doors unlocked. And that happens at least once a day. Today was charming.. it unlocked as I started to walk away. But I love driving my GT… when I’m allowed to.

Hey that’s less than a minute.

 

[Amster]

In an ideal world, the car would always unlock when you walk up to it. Mine does 90% of the time. But there are times it doesn't. First thing in the morning, that goes down to about 5%. So if I don't want to wait a long time, I have to push in the door handle for it to open quickly. I don't get what the big deal is. Just my own opinion here.

 

[stratus]

I shouldn’t have assumed that my experience always mirrors others . I am fortunate that I have never had an opening issue. I do have ( 5-10 percent of the time ) a closing issue where my car does not detect that I am walking away and that I want the little vixen to go to sleep. I now always double check to make sure the car has shut down. If it doesn’t, I sometimes have to re-present my key and then after I get far enough away it shuts down.

 

[BS8899]

In an ideal world, the car would always unlock when you walk up to it. Mine does 90% of the time. But there are times it doesn't. First thing in the morning, that goes down to about 5%. So if I don't want to wait a long time, I have to push in the door handle for it to open quickly. I don't get what the big deal is. Just my own opinion here.

I haven't driven my AGT for almost a month. But I have encountered this door unlocking problem many times in my 2 year plus ownership of the AGT. Specifically, there are 4 ways I know to unlock the car doors vis-a-vis, FOB, Mobile App, Mobile Key, and Valet card. All of them have issues, or perhaps they interfere with each other. Many owners struggle with a simple car door unlocking problem.

It has been attributed to malfunction of the FOB, Mobile Key installation problems, WiFi interference problems, and the list goes on. Some of the workarounds are comical (e.g., turn off WiFi).

Door unlock is a very aggravating problem because the owner encounters it several times a day. It is hard for some of us to believe that Lucid does not consider this an aggravation and there doesn't seem to be a concerted effort to address and fix this issue.

Personally, my unlock problem seemed to have "improved" since 2.4.X OTA. But I haven driven the car much since September 2024 so I can't attest to it.

It is amazing that Lucid allows this issue to linger on for so long without a clear solution!

 

[kopik]

As many other owners, I have experienced the same door unlocking (and other) issues with my one month old AT. Recently, I've started carrying a key fob along with the phone (with the mobile key) and this has significantly improved the unlocking success rate. I guess it's like fighter pilots launch two air-to-air missiles at their opponent to increase the probability of kill...

 

[BS8899]

As many other owners, I have experienced the same door unlocking (and other) issues with my one month old AT. Recently, I've started carrying a key fob along with the phone (with the mobile key) and this has significantly improved the unlocking success rate. I guess it's like fighter pilots launch two air-to-air missiles at their opponent to increase the probability of kill...

Many of us carry multiple Lucid unlocking devices like you.

But, let me ask a simple question:

> before the Lucid, when you were driving other cars, did you carry multiple entry/unlocking devices for your car?

Why is this acceptable practice for Lucid?
Why isn't Lucid doing something to fix this problem?

 

[stratus]

I only use my fob, perhaps that is why I have never had an unlocking issue. Fob good, phone bad.

 

[kopik]

Many of us carry multiple Lucid unlocking devices like you.

But, let me ask a simple question:

> before the Lucid, when you were driving other cars, did you carry multiple entry/unlocking devices for your car?

Why is this acceptable practice for Lucid?
Why isn't Lucid doing something to fix this problem?

Before Lucid I had BMW M550i with a key fob proximity sensor which worked flawlessly. Our Model 3 occasionally refuses to unlock, and in this case waiting won't help - you need to reload Tesla app on the phone.

 

[bkn_lucid]

I agree with many of the sentiments shared here. Today is my 1 year with the car and there are some things that have gotten a lot better (CarPlay integration & audio work much more consistently), some new things that have cropped up (cameras randomly stop working, need to reboot, etc), and some things inexplicably continue to be an issue (passive locks as many have mentioned). With that said, I do love the hardware, how the car drives, and a year into ownership the interior and build quality continue to be fantastic.

 

[MJAir23TheGoat]

I only use my fob, perhaps that is why I have never had an unlocking issue. Fob good, phone bad.

My fob worked about 80%of the time during my GT time. Who is definitely a bit frustrating.

 

[kaz3320]

I'm our case it's more than seconds. Probably a "race" condition. Not uncommon software problem.

Most annoying bug to sniff out.

 

[knewman]

Well written, certainly reflects my experience a few weeks in. I do have hope that Lucid can and will do better. The saving grace for me is that the car looks brilliant and drives as good as it looks.

GM is in the process of revamping their range with new interiors including changing their software to Google's Android Automotive OS. The software in my '24 GMC Canyon has many of the same sort of issues we all seem to experience in our Airs such as displays not powering on, audio system glitches, and connectivity lapses. Like some have said, the grass is not always greener.

Software is hard, and we're not getting any better at making it. As more things become software defined, this fact becomes more painful.

 

[Lucken]

I only use my fob, perhaps that is why I have never had an unlocking issue. Fob good, phone bad.

Yup, same. I never even set up the phone as a mobile key nor do I carry the card. Using only the fob, which is so small & light as to be virtually undetectable in my pocket, the car opens nearly every single time as I approach it. It is not an overstatement to say it is truly a rarity that the handles don’t present by the time I’ve arrived at the car.

To show I’m not opposed to using a mobile key, on my BMW i5 I only use the mobile key and never carry the fob. Why? Because unlike the Lucid fob the i5 fob is relatively big, bulky and heavy. It’s a fob that doesn’t disappear in your pocket like the Lucid fob. Interestingly the response time of the i5 mobile key, although generally very good, isn’t as consistently good as my Lucid fob.

Team fob always and forever!

 

[Steveinarizona]

before the Lucid, when you were driving other cars, did you carry multiple entry/unlocking devices for your car?

It is not always a matter of carrying multiple devices but which multiple devices. The phone can and does act as a great key but the fear, at least my fear, would be a phone failure. It is true that a fob battery can fail but that doesn't usually happen suddenly and even if it did, unless one was in the middle of the desert a replacement battery would be pretty available. But a phone failure would be difficult to fix while on the road.

 

[momo3605]

Yup, same. I never even set up the phone as a mobile key nor do I carry the card. Using only the fob, which is so small & light as to be virtually undetectable in my pocket, the car opens nearly every single time as I approach it. It is not an overstatement to say it is truly a rarity that the handles don’t present by the time I’ve arrived at the car.

To show I’m not opposed to using a mobile key, on my BMW i5 I only use the mobile key and never carry the fob. Why? Because unlike the Lucid fob the i5 fob is relatively big, bulky and heavy. It’s a fob that doesn’t disappear in your pocket like the Lucid fob. Interestingly the response time of the i5 mobile key, although generally very good, isn’t as consistently good as my Lucid fob.

Team fob always and forever!

Lol it’s funny how when key performance discussion comes up in any thread, if the mobile key team is complaining, the key fob team will come in and say key fob is superior. When the key fob team is complaining, then the mobile key team claim superiority

There’s some weird bug in my car with the fob. I turned off my wife’s mobile key because of profile switching and gave her a key fob. Now everytime she drives the car with a key fob, the screen glitches out and half the controls disappear. But it only happens when she takes a key fob. If I take my mobile key and drive the car no issue.

 

[skywaterbanjo]

Some of you guys are fortunate to have the mobile key be so reliable. Mine is totally reliable - except, I have to take my phone out of my pocket and wake up the phone to get it to unlock. PITA

 

[Lucken]

Lol it’s funny how when key performance discussion comes up in any thread, if the mobile key team is complaining, the key fob team will come in and say key fob is superior. When the key fob team is complaining, then the mobile key team claim superiority

There’s some weird bug in my car with the fob. I turned off my wife’s mobile key because of profile switching and gave her a key fob. Now everytime she drives the car with a key fob, the screen glitches out and half the controls disappear. But it only happens when she takes a key fob. If I take my mobile key and drive the car no issue.

Bottom line, go with what works for your car. It seems there’s so many unexplained variables from car to car, you have to go with what works for you.

 

[momo3605]

Bottom line, go with what works for your car. It seems there’s so many unexplained variables from car to car, you have to go with what works for you.

Yep agreed. There shouldn’t be all these unexplained variables. But hopefully something lucid will address over time if they ever decide to take the Air’s software seriously. I’m hoping they don’t just dump it when the Gravity comes out.