Conner's comments about the Lucid noise level should be kept in context. His only issue was with rear tire noise in the backseat. In an "InsideEVs" podcast two days after that test ride in Casa Grande, Conner opened his comments on the matter by saying the Lucid was very quiet. Then, as he began to hone in on the tire noise issue, Tom Moloughney, who was also on that drive and spent some time in the backseat, said he did not find it nearly as noticeable as Conner. I almost got the impression that Moloughney would not have had anything to say about tire noise in the rear seat except that he wanted to back his friend up a bit on the podcast. This may be nothing more than an idiosyncratic response by one person who has a particular sensitivity to a certain frequency range.
Rob Stark is right. No EQS was available to Lucid at the time they were sound engineering the cabin, and the Mercedes S-Class ICE has been recognized for some time as the NVH standard below the ultra-luxury class of Rolls and Bentley. If you've ever walked along a road with traffic, you know just how loud tire roar is. In the backseat of a car, you're sitting just a few away from the source of that noise, which is transmitted both through air and through the car's structure. On top of that, in an EV the masking noise of the combustion engine and its vibrations are eliminated. It's unrealistic to expect dead silence from tires. It was clear from Conner's comments on the podcast that Lucid had put microphones in the rear seat of the Lucid during development as well as in the rear seat of a Mercedes S Class and that their measurements showed rear seat noise was well controlled relative to the Mercedes. To the extent that other reviewers have commented on noise in the passenger cabin, it has been about wind noise, not tire noise. Conner is simply an outlier on this issue.
The amount of discussion in the numerous times we've returned to this issue based on (1) one person's comments about tire noise during a (2) brief drive on a desert road with (3) a surface described by others as rough while (4) seated in a position few owners will occupy often is a bit surprising. It seems almost as if people are searching for a reason to find the car disappointing before they've even given it a chance.