Open letter to Lucid after 7 months of ownership

[Adnillien]

I am curious if you sent this open letter to Lucid and if so who you sent it to. Venting on the forum is not an open letter to Lucid.

 

[marsarbu]

I am curious if you sent this open letter to Lucid and if so who you sent it to. Venting on the forum is not an open letter to Lucid.

It's the electronic equivalent of a letter, I don't even remember how to lick-shut a real envelope. I know there are Lucid employees on the forum and I wanted to provide my feedback, not to vent. That's how I show that I care. I'm not looking for approval or disapproval, and I'm not trying to convince anyone of anything.

 

[sri]

It's now 70 and it never said 666.

My bad, its typo

 

[jbawden]

I'm in the "great car, software is a fail" camp, but my wife can't get past "the software is a fail". My complaints on here are mostly fueled by her frustrations with the car. For success Lucid needs exponential growth and when only the most charitable among us thinks the software is flawless, that is not the path to success. I'm afraid the "software sucks" narrative is starting to dominate the brand, which is completely predictable when most of the buying public does not appreciate/understand all the good things the brand does (driving dynamics, efficiency/range, etc.).

 

[borski]

I am curious if you sent this open letter to Lucid and if so who you sent it to. Venting on the forum is not an open letter to Lucid.

 

[Cosmo Cruz]

On behalf of all the Lucid owners who don't post about not having key fob / software issues;

I don't have software or key fob issues.

 

[SaaSManKS]

One thing I’ve wondered is how/why is rivian able to have a seemingly better OS that is more scalable than lucid, wasn’t that at least part of their competitive edge in the market? Yes I know they have had issues but if you read their forums they don’t have nearly as many glitches

 

[Blue Lectroid]

It's the electronic equivalent of a letter, I don't even remember how to lick-shut a real envelope. I know there are Lucid employees on the forum and I wanted to provide my feedback, not to vent. That's how I show that I care. I'm not looking for approval or disapproval, and I'm not trying to convince anyone of anything.

@marsarbu, respectfully, you could show you care by sending an email (since you no longer remember how to use a real envelope) identical to your thoughtful and well written post here to the appropriate folks at Lucid and spend the few extra minutes to make sure you find out who those folks are AND that they received it (“because I care very much about Lucid and its future, I’d appreciate a reply letting me know this has been received — especially in light of my expressed concerns about communication” might be something nice to close with).

Posting this in a public forum? Well, sure it gets the point across just the same, but in a way that is far less benign.

Interestingly, I assume that many folks here were not pre-2020-ish customers of Tesla as the very issues folks here make about Lucid’s software and lack of communication were far worse IMHO in my experiences with Tesla.

The software on my Lucid has never nearly killed me while the software on my 2018 M3P almost did several times (WITHOUT FSD being engaged, it just decided to phantom brake on the highway every 200 or 300 miles for shits and giggles!). In fact I have not had any serious issues with the software in my ‘25 AGT and my wife has repeatedly said “this car makes so much more sense than the Tesla” (which she hated and refused to drive). That statement refers to Lucid’s software. So, clearly, different folks experience the very same software rather differently.

Finally, I dealt with Tesla as a company for 6 years of ownership of my M3P. It continues to be the literal example of the LEAST customer focused company I have ever spent major $$ with whereas my experience through my first three months of working with Lucid has been exactly the opposite. The “appropriate folks” at Tesla received a couple of direct emails from me with constructive criticism from me. All remain unanswered years later…

Clearly you care about Lucid or you would not take the time to write your OP, but make sure you go the last mile and actually spend the ten minutes calling headquarters and finding out who should be reading it rather than us armchair CEO’s and captain’s of industry (well, some of us actually are CEO’s and captain’s of industry, but we don’t work at Lucid)…

I do believe all of us should not only root for, but actively help Lucid succeed. These are brilliant folks pushing the envelope in a way that can make a profound difference for our planet. That mission is too important to be left to posts on a forum…

 

[Pragmatic]

I am curious if you sent this open letter to Lucid and if so who you sent it to. Venting on the forum is not an open letter to Lucid.

You may not agree with the method but venting to a forum is the very definition of an open letter. From Wikipedia -

"An open letter is a letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally."

 

[Adnillien]

You may not agree with the method but venting to a forum is the very definition of an open letter. From Wikipedia -

"An open letter is a letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally."

There is a difference between an open letter to Lucid and an open letter about Lucid. An open letter to Lucid is sent Lucid and provided to a wider audience. The thread title implies this letter is to Lucid but it was not sent to Lucid. Hence, it is an open letter about Lucid.

 

[Pragmatic]

In the past open letters were sent for publication in newspapers.

By their very definition open letters are written to the public (open) and published in such away to effect change. They are blunt and annoying to the group being criticized. They are written to bring public pressure to bear and in doing so force someone to act.

You may not agree that this method is justified by Lucid's performance but by definition an open letter is meant for the general public. It may be sent to the entity being criticized by that is not necessary. They are published in such a way that the entity will likely see it.

 

[msaunders9430]

@marsarbu, respectfully, you could show you care by sending an email (since you no longer remember how to use a real envelope) identical to your thoughtful and well written post here to the appropriate folks at Lucid and spend the few extra minutes to make sure you find out who those folks are AND that they received it (“because I care very much about Lucid and its future, I’d appreciate a reply letting me know this has been received — especially in light of my expressed concerns about communication” might be something nice to close with).

Posting this in a public forum? Well, sure it gets the point across just the same, but in a way that is far less benign.

Interestingly, I assume that many folks here were not pre-2020-ish customers of Tesla as the very issues folks here make about Lucid’s software and lack of communication were far worse IMHO in my experiences with Tesla.

The software on my Lucid has never nearly killed me while the software on my 2018 M3P almost did several times (WITHOUT FSD being engaged, it just decided to phantom brake on the highway every 200 or 300 miles for shits and giggles!). In fact I have not had any serious issues with the software in my ‘25 AGT and my wife has repeatedly said “this car makes so much more sense than the Tesla” (which she hated and refused to drive). That statement refers to Lucid’s software. So, clearly, different folks experience the very same software rather differently.

Finally, I dealt with Tesla as a company for 6 years of ownership of my M3P. It continues to be the literal example of the LEAST customer focused company I have ever spent major $$ with whereas my experience through my first three months of working with Lucid has been exactly the opposite. The “appropriate folks” at Tesla received a couple of direct emails from me with constructive criticism from me. All remain unanswered years later…

Clearly you care about Lucid or you would not take the time to write your OP, but make sure you go the last mile and actually spend the ten minutes calling headquarters and finding out who should be reading it rather than us armchair CEO’s and captain’s of industry (well, some of us actually are CEO’s and captain’s of industry, but we don’t work at Lucid)…

I do believe all of us should not only root for, but actively help Lucid succeed. These are brilliant folks pushing the envelope in a way that can make a profound difference for our planet. That mission is too important to be left to posts on a forum…

@marsarbu, I really hope you follow through on the recommendations of this post.
Your post was well written. You seemed to have put a lot of thought and time into it.
I encourage you to take some more time to find the appropriate people at Lucid to send your thoughts.
Doing so will also give you a chance to see if the "lack of communication" you mentioned in your post is isolated to the Lucid employees you've dealt with or more pervasive.
Unfortunately, sometimes all it takes is one unresponsive employee to sour our impression of a company. We've all been there. Not right, but it happens.

Others on this forum have had to go up the Lucid food chain to get answers.

If you choose to do so, please keep us updated on any responses your receive.

 

[buddyroe9]

Wow. Reading these posts, and the fact that Lucid basically stole a page from Tesla with the Gravity roll out shenanigans, I am SO glad I decided to wait a little longer on jumping into the Lucid world.

When I had my Model S updated with new hardware to support 4g, the antenna for cellular reception was left loose in the passenger side mirror. For weeks, I would lose connectivity. Not knowing what the issue was, I simply thought the signal was just poor in certain areas. And being someone who used their phone as a key, this was terrible because with no cellular connectivity, you can't unlock, nor start the car. And Spotify would spin all along the interstate - in and out, in and out. I was about to to lose my mind. Finally took it back to Tesla and they found the issue. Worked perfectly after that.

Point is, you can say the car drives great, and is fun to drive and all that, but the software experience in cars these days is a massive part of the car. Obviously, we all use these new technologies in every aspect of our lives, including in our cars - and we expect them to work no different than when we turn the faucet on in our kitchens. It's that simple.

 

[BS8899]

One thing I’ve wondered is how/why is rivian able to have a seemingly better OS that is more scalable than lucid, wasn’t that at least part of their competitive edge in the market? Yes I know they have had issues but if you read their forums they don’t have nearly as many glitches

I have my R1S for almost 14 months. I have not encountered any SW or HW issues per se on my R1S. The only two service items I incurred were clipping my mirror getting into the garage (my fault), and the 12V battery was replaced during the recent 1 year check.

Now, there are things I don't like on the Rivian SW, and I wish Rivian would support CarPlay and AA. That said, as far as I am concerned, all the UI/SW on the Rivian seem to work as intended.

I don't participate on the Rivian Forums. I do occasionally look at the postings to see what's up.

 

[BS8899]

@marsarbu, I really hope you follow through on the recommendations of this post.
Your post was well written. You seemed to have put a lot of thought and time into it.
I encourage you to take some more time to find the appropriate people at Lucid to send your thoughts.
Doing so will also give you a chance to see if the "lack of communication" you mentioned in your post is isolated to the Lucid employees you've dealt with or more pervasive.
Unfortunately, sometimes all it takes is one unresponsive employee to sour our impression of a company. We've all been there. Not right, but it happens.

Others on this forum have had to go up the Lucid food chain to get answers.

If you choose to do so, please keep us updated on any responses your receive.

It was reported that Rawlinson has now taken personal charge of Lucid's SW development. Is that correct?

If so, one would expect @masabu's Open Letter would have been brought to his attention.

 

[plarche]

It was reported that Rawlinson has now taken personal charge of Lucid's SW development. Is that correct?

If so, one would expect @masabu's Open Letter would have been brought to his attention.

Yes, he did. I had already posted this transcript of Rawlinson from a September video:

"I’m disappointed in ourselves, we can do better. We got the best car in the world, we're not known for our user interface, and it should be better. You know there's a mea culpa here. I've made sweeping changes to our software organization. I've installed new management. People that I've worked with for many years. I’ve personally taken charge of this and we've got a really aggressive schedule of a road map of tons of things that we're going to implement through the over the air to get truly world-class user in infotainment and user interface - including additional features - and so talk is cheap I don't want to just tell you what we're going to do because there was a reason we broadcast a major update just over the weekend I hope you like this, and I'm personally driving this this this is going to change the perception of lucid we truly are a tech company - but our user interface is not as good as it should be and it's going to be world-class. So that is our Achilles heel right now - and you don't see the true technology under the iceberg that tip of the iceberg we're going to just completely transform over the next 3 months…"

 

[BS8899]

Yes, he did. I had already posted this transcript of Rawlinson from a September video:

"I’m disappointed in ourselves, we can do better. We got the best car in the world, we're not known for our user interface, and it should be better. You know there's a mea culpa here. I've made sweeping changes to our software organization. I've installed new management. People that I've worked with for many years. I’ve personally taken charge of this and we've got a really aggressive schedule of a road map of tons of things that we're going to implement through the over the air to get truly world-class user in infotainment and user interface - including additional features - and so talk is cheap I don't want to just tell you what we're going to do because there was a reason we broadcast a major update just over the weekend I hope you like this, and I'm personally driving this this this is going to change the perception of lucid we truly are a tech company - but our user interface is not as good as it should be and it's going to be world-class. So that is our Achilles heel right now - and you don't see the true technology under the iceberg that tip of the iceberg we're going to just completely transform over the next 3 months…"

It is good that Rawlinson is paying attention. That said, SW is not exactly Rawlinson's bailiwick. Lucid's SW problem is very reminiscent of a bunch of freelance SW engineers doing their own things without someone riding herd and setting a rigorous methodology of architecture, development, and validation. Is there such a leader (not Rawlinson) at Lucid who can instill the culture and the rigor?

 

[momo3605]

So that is our Achilles heel right now - and you don't see the true technology under the iceberg that tip of the iceberg we're going to just completely transform over the next 3 months…"

Has it been 3 months yet?

 

[DeaneG]

Has it been 3 months yet?

Always multiply the software development team's estimate by a factor of at least two. It's no different than remodeling a house. Surprises appear.

 

[JGard18]

I find it amusing people are comparing Lucid's software to Rivian and acting like Rivian is king. While I did sell my Rivian a little over a year ago, its software was awful during my ownership. So was its hardware. I wanted to love that truck so badly, but its constant failings, trips to the service center, and reboots in my 13 months of ownership made that the worst ownership experience I've ever had.

Meanwhile, I've had my Lucid for 3 months and while the software gets weird once in a while, the car has never left me stranded. I've not needed to have repeated calls to the service center (although I have had to call them once or twice for minor things we resolved over the phone). So yeah, Lucid's software is whatever. Tidal could be better, built-in Apple Music would be great, I wish Nav wouldn't fully reset itself every time I stop to charge on a road trip, I wish it could wake up via the app faster, etc.

But overall it could be much worse. I hear Rivian's software is better now than when I owned mine, but it also shows that things can change pretty quickly when a company places its focus there. So I have hope we'll be in a better place before too long.