Road Trip Disaster

[Bobby]

I have had so many similar issues that my family will no longer allow the Lucid to be used on family trips. They literally have PTSD concerning the vehicle. I am now careful to not drive the car more than one hour from my house, charge at home and to keep myself safe. Two learning experiences I’ve had this past year. One, do not leave the trunk open for any longer than necessary, seems to freeze/mess up the software. Two, I left my mobile in the car momentarily in a parking lot, the car locked, luckily my wife has the app on her phone and was able to open remotely. If using your phone as your main key, then always keep w/ you. It all makes sense now, my fault, just an experience I do not wish for others.

So.... you won't take the car on long trips because of your own solvable errors? Makes sense.

 

[digiboxer]

So you've decided it's unreliable even though it's been completely reliable for you?

They're all reliable until they aren't.

100% of my impression was formed on this site. It's impossible to get any reliable data on how often the total failures occur. So we all relay on the anecdotal accounts we read here.

For a long time I had a '58 Jag XK-150--most fun, beautiful car ever...but you didn't press your luck.

If Lucid identifies the causes of the total failures and fixes them I'd feel totally differently. If my car did brick and they fixed it I also have have more confidence that it wouldn't happen again.

Without data, this topic is totally subjective: I'd never suggest how another person should perceive the risks

 

[emoylv]

I make an effort to do a paradigm shift on charging, from something you do like getting gas, to something that happens while I am doing other things. At home of course it is easy as I ”refuel” while sleeping. When you want to go 500 or 600 miles or more in a day, Level 3 charging is of course required. I would really like to see more 75kW chargers at Restaurants vs a continued emphasis on 350kW chargers. Spending 45m to an hour having lunch or dinner and coming back to a full or nearly full car, far preferable to spending 20-30 minutes in a Walmart parking lot.
EA still has issues, but I have been able to charge at every EA station I have gone to with the exception of October 20, 2022 when an EA update broke Lucid charging and I had to track down an alternate while on a road trip.
EA Charging has not always been fast, and I frequently needed to try more than one charger, but, I have been able to charge.

Thanks for this. Things seem so obvious once someone points it out to you. I'll usually go and charge the car up as an event rather than, say walk into the Target or Walmart and do some shopping and make the trip dual or multiple purpose. A part of me wants to be polite and unplug as soon as possible so the next person doesn't have to wait. The reality is that I can shop for probably quite a while as the Lucid charges, not like it's going to be a 5-minute job. I also had an experience where the charger failed as I was walking into the store so I had to run back and unconnect/reconnect. Old dog trying hard to learn new tricks.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

If Lucid identifies the causes of the total failures and fixes them I'd feel totally differently. If my car did brick and they fixed it I also have have more confidence that it wouldn't happen again.

Without data, this topic is totally subjective: I'd never suggest how another person should perceive the risks

What makes you think Lucid isn’t working to identify ALL causes of total failures and fix them?

My car went into turtle at the end of a road trip, Lucid service was astonishingly rapid, called me within a minute of me texting them for help, determined I needed a tow, booked us an Uber home, towed the car the next day, were extremely thorough in diagnosing the problem, fixed it as soon as they got parts, covered my rental and reimbursed me with one one week, and delivered the car back to me. I have as much confidence in Lucid to get me back on the road as I do any legacy ICE auto maker. Because of the newness of their custom technology which is really pushing the limits, I think it’s almost guaranteed this car is going to have more issues than an 8th generation Volvo or whatever, but what I’ve seen repeatedly is Lucid knows their own complex tech so well that they’ll find needles in haystacks, like what happened with @whywar where even though his car wasn’t part of the recall, they still investigated it for that problem (if you don’t know the story about how this contactor issue was discovered to recall in the first place, it’s a pretty amazing detective story). It sucks that it happened, but it doesn’t lower my confidence in Lucid. All my other road trips had zero problems from the Lucid.

 

[Bobby]

For me this was the single big deterrent to buying the car. In the end I rationalized going ahead by convincing myself I can get away with only charging at home, and never driving very far from home. Being 20 miles from a major service center was important too.

For me the Lucid is a luxury/novelty that I love to drive, but don't have the confidence to depend on. Just bought a new BMW X5 which will be perfect for tailgating, the occasional road trip, snow storms, etc.

My M3 was bought back by BMW after numerous failures.

 

[Cosmo Cruz]

I'm a car guy.
I love this car.
In the first weeks of ownership I had a "brick" event on the way to Sunday Meeting...showing off the car's fantastic technology to my wife as a way to assuage my guilt over such and extravagant and decadent expense ( we are Quakers ). By luck this happened a mile or two before we got on the Schuylkill expressway.
Standing on the side of the road, in the rain, waiting for a tow truck, with the new exotic car bricked in the middle of an intersection, and a Tesla pulling up, rolling down the window to say: "nice car!" ( with a sarcastic smile ) ... I realized my whole life was a fraud.

I posted rants here and deleted them, then posted again, foaming at the mouth and exceeding the time limit to delete as I tried to edit out the worst. Some got past and I regret that, but it felt good to lash out. So emotional, as I see in hindsight. I was that early adopter who did not fear the inevitable. Ha. Bullshit. I crumpled like a submersible at the first bit of pressure. I thought I was in too deep...wanted to sell my Lucid at any price, or just junk it.

Some of us come here and post like this...emotional and seeking revenge or someone to blame or just someone to hear us vent.
We don't mean it. So let's overlook posts like these.

skip to the point:

stay the course... you are not wrong.
this is the best car in the world and the Lucid team knows this and they will make good.

we few, we happy few

 

[Bunnylebowski]

I'm a car guy.
I love this car.
In the first weeks of ownership I had a "brick" event on the way to Sunday Meeting...showing off the car's fantastic technology to my wife as a way to assuage my guilt over such and extravagant and decadent expense ( we are Quakers ). By luck this happened a mile or two before we got on the Schuylkill expressway.
Standing on the side of the road, in the rain, waiting for a tow truck, with the new exotic car bricked in the middle of an intersection, and a Tesla pulling up, rolling down the window to say: "nice car!" ( with a sarcastic smile ) ... I realized my whole life was a fraud.

I posted rants here and deleted them, then posted again, foaming at the mouth and exceeding the time limit to delete as I tried to edit out the worst. Some got past and I regret that, but it felt good to lash out. So emotional, as I see in hindsight. I was that early adopter who did not fear the inevitable. Ha. Bullshit. I crumpled like a submersible at the first bit of pressure. I thought I was in too deep...wanted to sell my Lucid at any price, or just junk it.

Some of us come here and post like this...emotional and seeking revenge or someone to blame or just someone to hear us vent.
We don't mean it. So let's overlook posts like these.

skip to the point:

stay the course... you are not wrong.
this is the best car in the world and the Lucid team knows this and they will make good.

we few, we happy few

Speaking of road trips, you should come up to Rhode Island for our meet up 7/22. Details here:

7/22 vs 7/15 for New England owner meetup.

I’m tagging everyone here as I want to get an idea if 7/15 or 7/22 is best for New England owners, trying to maximize attendance, and a few had mentioned 7/22 might be better? Please reply in the poll and I’ll finalize in the next 10 days, thanks! @maractwin @imran @martinmeyer @Snafu...

lucidowners.com

If my car isn’t back from bumper repairs by then I’ll be as a suicidal/homicidal as you were, but I think I got a backup plan, the drive will happen regardless.

 

[Cosmo Cruz]

Absolutely have been reading about all the NE gatherings. Wife retired last week so I'd have to bring her ... she won't let me "drive" the car when she's in the right seat. I know I can change her though...some decades ago we were driving from Killington, VT to Epping, NH in the Audi 5000 cst. She had never been in a car like that (a car engineered to do 100+ mph all day, in secure comfort and luxury) so I let her spell me on the interstate. At one point I asked her, " Sweetheart, how fast are you going?"
92.... my humble Quaker wife, a compliance lawyer, was doing 92 miles per hour. Perfectly happily until I alerted her.

Power corrupts. Smooth, quiet, luxury power corrupts decadently.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

Absolutely have been reading about all the NE gatherings. Wife retired last week so I'd have to bring her ... she won't let me "drive" the car when she's in the right seat. I know I can change her though...some decades ago we were driving from Killington, VT to Epping, NH in the Audi 5000 cst. She had never been in a car like that (a car engineered to do 100+ mph all day, in secure comfort and luxury) so I let her spell me on the interstate. At one point I asked her, " Sweetheart, how fast are you going?"
92.... my humble Quaker wife, a compliance lawyer, was doing 92 miles per hour. Perfectly happily until I alerted her.

Power corrupts. Smooth, quiet, luxury power corrupts decadently.

To loosely quote the Emperor in Return of the Jedi…let the power flow through you, give in to the Dark Side of the Force!

 

[digiboxer]

What makes you think Lucid isn’t working to identify ALL causes of total failures and fix them?

My car went into turtle at the end of a road trip, Lucid service was astonishingly rapid, called me within a minute of me texting them for help, determined I needed a tow, booked us an Uber home, towed the car the next day, were extremely thorough in diagnosing the problem, fixed it as soon as they got parts, covered my rental and reimbursed me with one one week, and delivered the car back to me. I have as much confidence in Lucid to get me back on the road as I do any legacy ICE auto maker. Because of the newness of their custom technology which is really pushing the limits, I think it’s almost guaranteed this car is going to have more issues than an 8th generation Volvo or whatever, but what I’ve seen repeatedly is Lucid knows their own complex tech so well that they’ll find needles in haystacks, like what happened with @whywar where even though his car wasn’t part of the recall, they still investigated it for that problem (if you don’t know the story about how this contactor issue was discovered to recall in the first place, it’s a pretty amazing detective story). It sucks that it happened, but it doesn’t lower my confidence in Lucid. All my other road trips had zero problems from the Lucid.

Please cite where I said "Lucid isn't working to identify...causes of total failure..." etc.

I have zero evidence, one way or the other ...I do HOPE they're working diligently. The company's survival depends on their success

I find it hard to believe there is disagreement about an obvious flaw that obviously needs a fix

 

[joec]

They could, theoretically, integrate it with Apple's Car Key feature in Wallet, but they haven't yet.

Please, Lucid, do this. I would be happy to pull my phone out and wave it at the pillar if it meant the car would actually select the correct profile and set my seat automatically.

 

[hydbob]

Please, Lucid, do this. I would be happy to pull my phone out and wave it at the pillar if it meant the car would actually select the correct profile and set my seat automatically.

Don't link your wife's profile to a key and only yours.

 

[joec]

Don't link your wife's profile to a key and only yours.

I’ve unlinked both because sometimes I’ll come along with her while she is driving, and it’s too much of a pain in the butt when it chooses me to switch back again to her. I’d rather just do it manually for the time being.

Apple Car Key would get the correct profile 100% of the time. Bluetooth is never going to cut it. I had the same gripe with the Tesla.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

Please cite where I said "Lucid isn't working to identify...causes of total failure..." etc.

I have zero evidence, one way or the other ...I do HOPE they're working diligently. The company's survival depends on their success

I find it hard to believe there is disagreement about an obvious flaw that obviously needs a fix

I interpreted your tone as skeptical of Lucid being trustworthy for road trips, given you generally don’t seem to give them the benefit of the doubt in most of your posts. You’re not required to, of course, it can be anxiety inducing to have a car you don’t have confidence in (hence your X5). I don’t have full confidence in DC fast charging network, so when I take the Lucid on road trips I always have a plan B to charge, but I have as much confidence the Lucid will get me to my destination as I do in my wife’s Subaru, as the Lucid has only let me down one time, and the Subaru has had just as many issues, just close to home.

 

[DeaneG]

I’ve unlinked both because sometimes I’ll come along with her while she is driving, and it’s too much of a pain in the butt when it chooses me to switch back again to her. I’d rather just do it manually for the time being.

Apple Car Key would get the correct profile 100% of the time. Bluetooth is never going to cut it. I had the same gripe with the Tesla.

We switched to fobs for this reason. Had the same issue with our Tesla due to the use of Bluetooth as you say.

Current Android and Apple phones can use Ultra-Wide Band radio for this function instead with compatible vehicles. UWB uses a much higher frequency than Bluetooth (3-10GHz). UWB has a much shorter range as a result, and can identify the position of your phone within an inch or so, making it more suitable for use as a mobile phone key.

 

[whywar]

Please cite where I said "Lucid isn't working to identify...causes of total failure..." etc.

I have zero evidence, one way or the other ...I do HOPE they're working diligently. The company's survival depends on their success

I find it hard to believe there is disagreement about an obvious flaw that obviously needs a fix

The service manager told me that the engineering team wanted to investigate the contactors immediately. They were shipped by air for inspection and analysis.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

Yeah their teams are serious professionals, they care quite a lot about finding and fixing any issues. They are in agreement to supply this technology to Aston Martin and hopefully others in the future after all, it’s not just us lucky few small market drivers who are the end users of this tech.

 

[digiboxer]

I interpreted your tone as skeptical of Lucid being trustworthy for road trips, given you generally don’t seem to give them the benefit of the doubt in most of your posts. You’re not required to, of course, it can be anxiety inducing to have a car you don’t have confidence in (hence your X5). I don’t have full confidence in DC fast charging network, so when I take the Lucid on road trips I always have a plan B to charge, but I have as much confidence the Lucid will get me to my destination as I do in my wife’s Subaru, as the Lucid has only let me down one time, and the Subaru has had just as many issues, just close to home.

Hey...I'm only 700 miles in. I''m hoping, in my case, familiarity will breed contentment, not contempt

 

[Vandelay]

So reading through a few of these message threads I wanted to add in my own experience with “drive system fault” and the turtle sign.
6 hours away from home on a road trip car threw up the warning a few minutes after completing a charging session to 79%.
Delivery December and approx 9000 miles in.
1 month out from the incident, my car has now been returned to me, but in a condition that is embarrassing to post on here. Things appear haphazardly completed, broken restraints on mounding, malfunctioning pilot panel(self closes) exposed battery and wires in the trunk. Kicker was they didn’t even bother to pickup after themselves and left the car dirty and for me to clean up.
Needless to say I’m have them come out and take care of the incomplete repairs/ insufficient repairs. That still means I’m now over a month without my car. I’ve got a rental but I miss driving my Luci.

Maybe December deliveries might have something going on as someone suggested earlier.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

Yikes. Which service center was this? What repairs did the car need?