Removal of Alexa in 2.4.x software

[borski]

Did anyone actually dislike how the system was before this update lol.

Yes.

 

[Amster]

Please stop beating up the dead horse.

You can like it or not like it. Yes, they probably should have given a warning to owners ahead of time. But at this point, it's a done deal. It's not coming back. So everyone needs to get over it and move onto other things. Learn to work with Lucid Assistant and find other ways to listen to Amazon Music if that was your thing. It's not like it does everything I want it to do, but it will improve and do more in the future.

 

[Haggy]

I think this is the only valid complaint about the loss of Alexa. The good thing is there are the workarounds @Bobby listed and I think that solutions-minded approach is best, BUT if I was someone whose music source was mostly Amazon music and the car suddenly couldn’t do it anymore, I’d be annoyed. However the car NEVER had Amazon music app, only voice control, so at best the implementation of Amazon music in the car was poor to begin with, so you’re not losing that much with Alexa going bye bye.

The implementation was to say "Alexa, play [song name]" or whatever else you wanted it to play, including an album name for example. While I'd like to see some sort of screen interface, I'd say that it was far easier to use than something like USB, that won't let me pick something with voice, makes me drill down each time rather than remembering its place and that takes forever to load.

Suggesting that it wasn't good enough, so it's not a big loss is backwards. The way to fix things that aren't good enough is to improve them, not make them harder to use.

Amazon Music on a smartphone with Bluetooth will work, but with an interface stuck on a smartphone screen. It will have Alexa, but I'd rather have Android Auto, which will bring back Amazon Music and allow you to control most things that Alexa could.

 

[joec]

Did anyone actually dislike how the system was before this update lol. Updates for the sake of updates no bueno — listen to the customer save Alexa

I tried Alexa a half a dozen times. No matter what I said to it, it wanted to text "Dave". Not joking. The response would be "What do you want to say to Dave?"

It was less than useless to me.

 

[tonybot]

So this morning I had my kids try the Siri and Siri couldn’t pick up their voice so supposed we are back to square 1. If anyone has young kids who can control the music could they provide some advice they like to listen to “Tate McRae” etc

If you have iOS 18, try playing with Vocal shortcuts if you want to address Siri as Alexa and make it do an action like playing amazon music. I haven't played around with it yet, but I noticed this feature. Also, your Siri is personalized to your voice, right? Kids saying hey, siri shouldn't be triggering it.

 

[Haggy]

You can like it or not like it. Yes, they probably should have given a warning to owners ahead of time. But at this point, it's a done deal. It's not coming back. So everyone needs to get over it and move onto other things. Learn to work with Lucid Assistant and find other ways to listen to Amazon Music if that was your thing. It's not like it does everything I want it to do, but it will improve and do more in the future.

It's not beating a dead horse when there's a solution. Android Auto will give people the functional equivalent. I can see the advantages of making the update available before Android Auto was ready, so as not to deprive people of the rest. Hey Lucid did not have to go hand in hand with the update, but it's too late for that now. I'm sure that Lucid has figured out by now that Android Auto is strategically more important now because they stripped away functionality in the interim. People have the right to complain, especially since that's what this thread is about. People who aren't bothered by it don't have to read this thread.

 

[coma24]

People who aren't bothered by it don't have to read this thread.

But then we would have missed out on the "is anyone happier with the new approach?" question.

 

[Bobby]

We should all remember that Lucid Assistant is brand new. I’m sure its capabilities will expand overtime. Certainly once android auto comes those that feel they need Alexa in their cars will be happy. Perhaps even additional audio sources will be included in the future.

 

[lp4578]

We should all remember that Lucid Assistant is brand new. I’m sure its capabilities will expand overtime. Certainly once android auto comes those that feel they need Alexa in their cars will be happy. Perhaps even additional audio sources will be included in the future.

While its completely new, Lucid released their Assistant without any documentation. This was thrown upon us. With such a large team of engineers, didn't they think maybe they should provide documentation to show Assistant's features? Its things like this that make Lucid a company to avoid.

 

[fisheral]

While its completely new, Lucid released their Assistant without any documentation. This was thrown upon us. With such a large team of engineers, didn't they think maybe they should provide documentation to show Assistant's features? Its things like this that make Lucid a company to avoid.

I was extremely surprised they didn’t provide any documentation and essentially left it to us to figure out what LA could do and how we could make it do it, but saying that makes them a company to avoid is a bit hyperbolous.

 

[Bobby]

While its completely new, Lucid released their Assistant without any documentation. This was thrown upon us. With such a large team of engineers, didn't they think maybe they should provide documentation to show Assistant's features? Its things like this that make Lucid a company to avoid.

They are currently preparing this documentation.

 

[Haggy]

We should all remember that Lucid Assistant is brand new. I’m sure its capabilities will expand overtime. Certainly once android auto comes those that feel they need Alexa in their cars will be happy. Perhaps even additional audio sources will be included in the future.

It's clear that with Android Auto, there will be a workaround for most things. That will render expanded capabilities of Hey Lucid unrelated to the car a moot point for many. I'd love to see a lot more under Hey Lucid, but that's for other threads.

There will still be a few things that I could do in theory with Alexa that I won't be able to do with Android Auto, but I doubt that many if any Lucid drivers will have a real life need for them. Even for those, there might be workarounds. There's an Ultimate Alexa Voice Assistant for Android that will allow people to use Hey Google to activate Alexa, so that might help some people. I haven't tried it.

I was extremely surprised they didn’t provide any documentation and essentially left it to us to figure out what LA could do and how we could make it do it, but saying that makes them a company to avoid is a bit hyperbolous.

The question is whether the understood commands related to the car itself are a superset of what was available with Alexa. It seems as if they are, meaning that even without documentation, people should be able to get the car to do anything that it did with Alexa. Of course it would be nice to know what was added, but having additional features without knowing about them isn't worse than not having them, or having to wait until they are documented before those specific commands work. I agree that it makes no sense to avoid a company for adding capability without telling users rather than holding off on adding it until the documentation is ready.

 

[Kfederico]

Ferrari, Bugatti, McLaren do not.

They are not luxury cars, but single purpose sports cars. If you are driving a Ferrari, you want to listen to the music of the exhaust.

 

[Bobby]

Did anyone actually dislike how the system was before this update lol. Updates for the sake of updates no bueno — listen to the customer save Alexa

Yes, I turned it off. It was terrible.

 

[elusive7]

One of the first things I did on delivery day was disable Alexa actually. I don't think I'll be using Lucid Assistant much but I'd be keen to give it a try over Alexa

 

[nicktwork]

We made the decision to switch to an internally managed system to better control the user experience and expand functionality more rapidly. We know some customers are missing a few features from the Alexa voice assistant and Amazon Music, and we are working to introduce many of those features in future software updates. Currently, you can use voice commands to play music through Spotify and Tidal if you are logged in. Say, “Hey Lucid, play ‘Good Vibrations’ from Spotify,” for example. This is only the initial release of Lucid Assistant, and we are working on many enhancements to the capabilities over time.

 

[Haggy]

We made the decision to switch to an internally managed system to better control the user experience and expand functionality more rapidly. We know some customers are missing a few features from the Alexa voice assistant and Amazon Music, and we are working to introduce many of those features in future software updates. Currently, you can use voice commands to play music through Spotify and Tidal if you are logged in. Say, “Hey Lucid, play ‘Good Vibrations’ from Spotify,” for example. This is only the initial release of Lucid Assistant, and we are working on many enhancements to the capabilities over time.

There was a job posting last November that said that Lucid was looking for somebody to “fulfill responsibilities of Product Owner for Apple, Amazon Music, and other Media app partners.” I understand that you might be prohibited from letting people know that Lucid is working on Amazon Music if this is true, but if Lucid is not working on it, telling us that would not be disclosing anything about what Lucid is doing. So please let us know if Lucid is not working on it.

 

[DanHi]

It appears that the new update that adds "Hey Lucid" REMOVES the ability to talk to Alexa. This was a major function for me, I use it to open/close my garage as well as just do regular alexa stuff (add to my shopping list, turn on devices in my house , ....). Removing that functionality is a HUGE mistake. I tried turn off the Lucid Assistant, but that didn't bring Alexa back. It's a general premise in software that you don't have new releases break things that used to work. Can anyone on the Lucid team that reads this provide feedback to the development team that removing this (which doesn't seem like it was necessary to add the Hey Lucid) is a major BREAKING change and have them return this on the next update.

I am very upset about this as it seems to me that this was unnecessary, and a regression in the functionality.

If anyone know of any way (including getting rid of the Lucid Assistant) to get this functionality back, I would love to hear it.

 

[skomarla]

We made the decision to switch to an internally managed system to better control the user experience and expand functionality more rapidly. We know some customers are missing a few features from the Alexa voice assistant and Amazon Music, and we are working to introduce many of those features in future software updates. Currently, you can use voice commands to play music through Spotify and Tidal if you are logged in. Say, “Hey Lucid, play ‘Good Vibrations’ from Spotify,” for example. This is only the initial release of Lucid Assistant, and we are working on many enhancements to the capabilities over time.

Hello Nick and thank you for this update. I fully appreciate the notion that a company should own its own path to success and I am glad that the consumer's voice is heard. I trust that the it is understood that some choices made, big or small, lead to big or small changes, irrespectively, in your consumer's behaviors. In other words, a small change (or removal) of a capability, may or may not be small in the consumer's view, as evidenced by this thread and very polar reactions within.

I'm looking forward to seeing choice created for consumers so that we can embrace lucid as a platform, not just a walled garden

Thanks

 

[DanHi]

I don't give a crap about generative AI. I just want to be able to access the functionality that Alexa provided, and that I don't see Hey Lucid providing.

Maybe if they ever actually support Android Auto ...