Roadtrip and Navigation

[BS8899]

I’m with you on this 100%. As a former software developer (albeit very briefly), I cannot, for the life of me, believe that the end product was allowed to ship to customer vehicles in its state. Even the OTAs break something for me almost every time. How is it that the 360 degreee camera view still needs 20-30 seconds to come on? Lucid software team, wake the F up. You are letting down your hardware team and most importantly, the customers.

Totally agree!

Many owners feel Lucid has a great mechanical platform, but it is seriously hampered by the SW. The issue herein is not any one UI problem but on-going issues of the SW architecture, quality, and validation (see my prior posting on “Bugs and System Validation”).

Some Lucid enthusiasts dismiss the SW concerns as “growing pain” and rationalize the owners are volunteer "Beta Testers”. Furthermore, some cited Tesla had many similar problems in its early days. This kind of rationalization is simply BS! Lucid has been shipping cars for almost 2 years. The competitive landscape in EV has evolved. Yet, Lucid’s problems persisted. Many of Lucid’s UI functions and features (e.g., HWA, navigation, scheduled charging, etc.) are significantly behind their competitors. Owners are grateful to default to CarPlay/Android-Auto. At the current rate of progress (or lack there-off), it is hard to see how advanced features (e.g., taking advantage of LIDAR, dashcam, sentry mode, etc.) will ever see the light of day!

For anyone who has done serious work on hardware on SW, that’s NOT how beta testing works. You don’t beta-test” with full paying customers on production products! Beta testers are either compensated or has the opportunity of early access to the HW/SW to gain a competitive advantage. None of these conditions exists for owners who paid full price for a production vehicle, expecting a quality product, and future upgrades.

Lucid’s SW issues is a management problem. Management need to clean house and reboot!

 

[Uff-da]

Yes, the Lucid UI is not ready for prime time. It’s a shame. Such a great piece of hardware, such a lacking piece of software. I have done everything in my power, which is of course limited, to help Lucid improve this. I have made videos, had conversations with Lucid employees and executives, made an entire website of wish list and bug items, conducted huge polls and surveys to prioritize issues, etc. While everybody has been extremely nice, there has been almost zero change. Frustrating, to say the least.

CarPlay has resolved almost everything for me. I have no more frustrations with navigation, audio, Homelink, etc. It’s now a pleasure to enjoy the car and not worry about the glitches. Of course, this solution is not without its negatives. CarPlay is confined to a window that is way too small considering the overall amount of screen space available in the car. It doesn’t help non-Apple users and really shouldn’t be necessary to enjoy the car.

I appreciate the time you spend trying to get the car right, Bobby. I have a question regarding navigation. I, also, find CarPlay to have "fixed" most problems with the native software, especially music and navigation. I am about to take my first trip beyond 1 charge. It appears that, in order to have Electrify America automatically included in the route, I must use the native navigation. Is this correct?

 

[dwfallin]

just my .02 - but i would definitely use plugshare app and check the stations you're planning on using (make sure they've been successfully used recently)!

 

[Bobby]

I appreciate the time you spend trying to get the car right, Bobby. I have a question regarding navigation. I, also, find CarPlay to have "fixed" most problems with the native software, especially music and navigation. I am about to take my first trip beyond 1 charge. It appears that, in order to have Electrify America automatically included in the route, I must use the native navigation. Is this correct?

True. I’d wouldn’t rely on that though. A little planning goes a long way

 

[digiboxer]

Totally agree!

Many owners feel Lucid has a great mechanical platform, but it is seriously hampered by the SW. The issue herein is not any one UI problem but on-going issues of the SW architecture, quality, and validation (see my prior posting on “Bugs and System Validation”).

Some Lucid enthusiasts dismiss the SW concerns as “growing pain” and rationalize the owners are volunteer "Beta Testers”. Furthermore, some cited Tesla had many similar problems in its early days. This kind of rationalization is simply BS! Lucid has been shipping cars for almost 2 years. The competitive landscape in EV has evolved. Yet, Lucid’s problems persisted. Many of Lucid’s UI functions and features (e.g., HWA, navigation, scheduled charging, etc.) are significantly behind their competitors. Owners are grateful to default to CarPlay/Android-Auto. At the current rate of progress (or lack there-off), it is hard to see how advanced features (e.g., taking advantage of LIDAR, dashcam, sentry mode, etc.) will ever see the light of day!

For anyone who has done serious work on hardware on SW, that’s NOT how beta testing works. You don’t beta-test” with full paying customers on production products! Beta testers are either compensated or has the opportunity of early access to the HW/SW to gain a competitive advantage. None of these conditions exists for owners who paid full price for a production vehicle, expecting a quality product, and future upgrades.

Lucid’s SW issues is a management problem. Management need to clean house and reboot!

So true. I just bought a 2024 X5 for my wife and the IDrive UI seems like it's two generations ahead of Lucid's: functionality, speed, graphics configurability, etc. etc.

i think Lucid can get there someday, but given the layoffs and need to prioritize cash spending, I don't expect much improvement soon.

 

[Bobby]

So true. I just bought a 2024 X5 for my wife and the IDrive UI seems like it's two generations ahead of Lucid's: functionality, speed, graphics configurability, etc. etc.

i think Lucid can get there someday, but given the layoffs and need to prioritize cash spending, I don't expect much improvement soon.

It looks like they’re focused on Gravity right now. I just hope they continue to improve the Air software and don’t forget about us early folks.

 

[borski]

It looks like they’re focused on Gravity right now. I just hope they continue to improve the Air software and don’t forget about us early folks.

I see no reason why they would decouple the software between the two cars; they have said they expect to launch UX 3.0 sometime around the gravity launch or sooner.

 

[donfenn]

Have others experienced problems with Lucid's navigation software recognizing locations and routes? We went on 200 mile road trip and the software would not recognize our destination address until we were within 50 miles of it... When leaving for home, which is already registered in the Lucid system as "home", the Lucid navigation kept responding "route not available". Meanwhile, Google maps and Waze immediately recognized the locations.

 

[Negan1000]

First road trip from LA to Las Vegas. Used the Navigation which suggested one stop in Baker, CA to charge for 10 minutes. The predicted SOC at the stop was accurate. Only problem it navigated to an EV Go station not the nearby EA. I had set EA as my preferred network. The Charging Network is not listed as part of the charging stop address. On the return, Navigation took me to the EA chargers in Barstow CA. Again the predicted SOC on arrival was accurate. The navigation was accurate on where to charge and the predicted SOC based on my actual driving and route. It would be better to include the Network name with the recommended charging stop. Or provide alternative charging stops to select.

 

[DeaneG]

Have others experienced problems with Lucid's navigation software recognizing locations and routes? We went on 200 mile road trip and the software would not recognize our destination address until we were within 50 miles of it... When leaving for home, which is already registered in the Lucid system as "home", the Lucid navigation kept responding "route not available". Meanwhile, Google maps and Waze immediately recognized the locations.

Yes, I've had Lucid's nav fail to find destinations I enter, navigate me miles from the correct location, and fail to find a route home during at least an hour of driving when I was on a major highway 300 miles from home with the car indicating it had a good cell signal. HERE maps is a sub-standard solution, far behind Google Maps in accuracy, and not as pleasant to use as Apple maps. Basically I do not trust it, with reason.

It's quite a relief to be able to use Carplay to have decent navigation software in the car, though it is an unfortunate kluge on an otherwise outstanding driving experience.

Maybe I feel more strongly about this than I should, but I have native Google maps/nav in our other EV, which has been great, and WTF-quality navigation in our Lucid, a wonderful Grand Touring car in every other way.

 

[Sheena]

There is a new EA charging station in my hood which shows up on both the EA app as well as PlugShare. Has been open about 3 months but still is not shown on the Lucid navigation map.
That prompts question ”How often is the map navigation software updated?”
wonder about new roads, detours etc.
I have the latest software but suspect map updates come separately

 

[DeaneG]

There is a new EA charging station in my hood which shows up on both the EA app as well as PlugShare. Has been open about 3 months but still is not shown on the Lucid navigation map.
That prompts question ”How often is the map navigation software updated?”
wonder about new roads, detours etc.
I have the latest software but suspect map updates come separately

Maps do OTA separately from the car's software, and are silent as far as I know. I've observed maps data being transferred to my car by wifi.
HERE (Lucid's maps provider) says that maps are generally updated every 2-3 months. With some effort, you can try to suggest changes to HERE's database yourself:

Contribute to HERE Maps

Learn how you can help make HERE maps even better by using the HERE Map Creator tool to add roads, places, and more.

here.navigation.com

 

[victoryroad]

Yes, I've had Lucid's nav fail to find destinations I enter, navigate me miles from the correct location, and fail to find a route home during at least an hour of driving when I was on a major highway 300 miles from home with the car indicating it had a good cell signal. HERE maps is a sub-standard solution, far behind Google Maps in accuracy, and not as pleasant to use as Apple maps. Basically I do not trust it, with reason.

It's quite a relief to be able to use Carplay to have decent navigation software in the car, though it is an unfortunate kluge on an otherwise outstanding driving experience.

Maybe I feel more strongly about this than I should, but I have native Google maps/nav in our other EV, which has been great, and WTF-quality navigation in our Lucid, a wonderful Grand Touring car in every other way.

I have had the same experience with Lucid's GPS/Navigation. It is not a trivial concern given the need for accurate charging planning when on a cross-country trip. I had to depend on Apple CarPlay maps on my 2000-mile cross-country drive in March and use ABRP and EA apps to locate EA stations within comfortable range. Of course, that was before CarPlay was available on our Lucids so I had to depend on my iPhone for 2000 miles. Definitely sub-optimal. I really do not need the challenge of locating charging stations before I reach 20% SOC on long trips. FWIW, for me 20% to 90% SOC is my practical range. A Six Sigma native nav charging station protocol and location accuracy would go a long way to give people confidence about the range and reliable charging.