Service nightmare related to OTA updates.

[James]

I've had a Dream Edition since February.

They'd been nagging me about a couple of recalls for months: I made a service appointment that i frankly just completely forgot about

Then I had some minor issues with some trim pieces and the trunk gasket so made an appointment that i had to reschedule twice and then had work blow up so I put it off yet again.

I finally got around to bringnig it in to the Scottsdale Service Center last Wednesday 9/7.

The first thing they pointed out was that I was WAY behind on OTA updates. I hadn't given it any thought whatsoever, but upon reflection realized I'd gotten an update the first week i had it and then none since.

It apparently became a fairly complex engineering issue to figure out why I wasn't getting the updates. They were having difficulties forcing them through but finally on Tuesday 9/13, six days after dropping it off, I started seeing alerts on my phone that the software updates were going through.

They finally called me around the close of business yesterday to let me know that it would be available for pickup today.

I received a call an hour ago with the unfortunate news that they are going to need it another week.

Apparently each of the thousand battery cells needs to be individually synced/optimized to the most recent software release (I'm admittedly still fuzzy on the details despite having it explained to me twice...my knowledge of electrical engineering doesn't go much beyond Ohms law from HS physics).

My service advisor has been great in terms of communication and I was, until now, quite pleased with the service experience.

They offered me a rental but I declined as i do have 3 other vehicles, but I was looking forward to having the car back for the weekend and am pretty annoyed that I'll now be without it for 16+ days.

Any thoughts on what I might ask for as compensation aside from a couple more of those Miir coffee cups (as nothing I owned previously fits those ridiculous cup holders)?

 

[Adnillien]

I've had a Dream Edition since February.

They'd been nagging me about a couple of recalls for months: I made a service appointment that i frankly just completely forgot about

Then I had some minor issues with some trim pieces and the trunk gasket so made an appointment that i had to reschedule twice and then had work blow up so I put it off yet again.

I finally got around to bringnig it in to the Scottsdale Service Center last Wednesday 9/7.

The first thing they pointed out was that I was WAY behind on OTA updates. I hadn't given it any thought whatsoever, but upon reflection realized I'd gotten an update the first week i had it and then none since.

It apparently became a fairly complex engineering issue to figure out why I wasn't getting the updates. They were having difficulties forcing them through but finally on Tuesday 9/13, six days after dropping it off, I started seeing alerts on my phone that the software updates were going through.

They finally called me around the close of business yesterday to let me know that it would be available for pickup today.

I received a call an hour ago with the unfortunate news that they are going to need it another week.

Apparently each of the thousand battery cells needs to be individually synced/optimized to the most recent software release (I'm admittedly still fuzzy on the details despite having it explained to me twice...my knowledge of electrical engineering doesn't go much beyond Ohms law from HS physics).

My service advisor has been great in terms of communication and I was, until now, quite pleased with the service experience.

They offered me a rental but I declined as i do have 3 other vehicles, but I was looking forward to having the car back for the weekend and am pretty annoyed that I'll now be without it for 16+ days.

Any thoughts on what I might ask for as compensation aside from a couple more of those Miir coffee cups (as nothing I owned previously fits those ridiculous cup holders)?

I think John at the Scottsdale service center is very knowledgeable, very good at communicating status along with being an incredibly nice guy. Arizonans are lucky to have great service support. I would ask for something useful like the Lucid tire inflator.

 

[borski]

I've had a Dream Edition since February.

They'd been nagging me about a couple of recalls for months: I made a service appointment that i frankly just completely forgot about

Then I had some minor issues with some trim pieces and the trunk gasket so made an appointment that i had to reschedule twice and then had work blow up so I put it off yet again.

I finally got around to bringnig it in to the Scottsdale Service Center last Wednesday 9/7.

The first thing they pointed out was that I was WAY behind on OTA updates. I hadn't given it any thought whatsoever, but upon reflection realized I'd gotten an update the first week i had it and then none since.

It apparently became a fairly complex engineering issue to figure out why I wasn't getting the updates. They were having difficulties forcing them through but finally on Tuesday 9/13, six days after dropping it off, I started seeing alerts on my phone that the software updates were going through.

They finally called me around the close of business yesterday to let me know that it would be available for pickup today.

I received a call an hour ago with the unfortunate news that they are going to need it another week.

Apparently each of the thousand battery cells needs to be individually synced/optimized to the most recent software release (I'm admittedly still fuzzy on the details despite having it explained to me twice...my knowledge of electrical engineering doesn't go much beyond Ohms law from HS physics).

My service advisor has been great in terms of communication and I was, until now, quite pleased with the service experience.

They offered me a rental but I declined as i do have 3 other vehicles, but I was looking forward to having the car back for the weekend and am pretty annoyed that I'll now be without it for 16+ days.

Any thoughts on what I might ask for as compensation aside from a couple more of those Miir coffee cups (as nothing I owned previously fits those ridiculous cup holders)?

Interesting - let us know what the resolution is. I’m confused by what this “syncing” means, though there was a recent update that improved battery and efficiency, so possibly that. Or maybe they noticed an issue with the HV battery? Dno.

But yeah, gotta stay on top of those updates; of course, that’s hard if you don’t know they’re released.

 

[Maverick]

@James Welcome to the forum though...if you don't get a notification for them on your car or app, you'll definitely find out about them here. Where are you in the PHX area btw?

 

[SDHacker]

I think Lucid's OTA process should have the car poll for updates and if not at current level after XX days, put up an alert. Lucid cannot simply assume their distribution mechanism is flawless and every car is receiving updates. A check process needs to be put in place so the vast majority of owners not on this forum rabidly checking if there's a new update knows if they are falling behind. It shouldn't be on me as the customer/owner to manually check for updates (especially since there isn't an official way to do so) - the car should be doing this automatically. And just in case I live in a bad reception area, the car should also tell me it couldn't verify what the current software release is because it couldn't connect to Lucid after X days of trying.

 

[abbas2099]

I think Lucid's OTA process should have the car poll for updates and if not at current level after XX days, put up an alert. Lucid cannot simply assume their distribution mechanism is flawless and every car is receiving updates. A check process needs to be put in place so the vast majority of owners not on this forum rabidly checking if there's a new update knows if they are falling behind. It shouldn't be on me as the customer/owner to manually check for updates (especially since there isn't an official way to do so) - the car should be doing this automatically. And just in case I live in a bad reception area, the car should also tell me it couldn't verify what the current software release is because it couldn't connect to Lucid after X days of trying.

I dont think the software has a self update YET hence why some people get it and not others. It almost seems like the DE people get the downloads automatically and the GT people have to request

 

[DJ@SJ]

I heard something interesting from a customer service advisor in Millbrae this week. If your car's software version falls two versions behind, it won't be able to update on its own to the current version. He gave an example scenario of two updates in quick succession (e.g., within one week), and stated that if your car didn't manage to get the first update before the second update showing up, your car would be in limbo and can't catch up.

My car was delivered on August 23 with software 1.2.10. It always claimed to be up to date even though I have seen people discussing 1.2.11 with the satellite map feature. So when I brought the car back for some fit and finish fixing earlier this week, I asked when my car would be updated OTA to 1.2.11. The advisor said: "oh the current version is 1.2.17 already." That's when he gave me the explanation described above and said it would need to be handled by custom service in order to do the update. While the car was in the workshop, I could see which version was being updated to the car through the app. There were a couple rounds of updates. Interestingly, the first version that was loaded in was 1.2.9.

Assuming the explanation I heard was correct, then I have to say that Lucid's OTA software update feature has deficiencies at the design level.

 

[abbas2099]

I heard something interesting from a customer service advisor in Millbrae this week. If your car's software version falls two versions behind, it won't be able to update on its own to the current version. He gave an example scenario of two updates in quick succession (e.g., within one week), and stated that if your car didn't manage to get the first update before the second update showing up, your car would be in limbo and can't catch up.

My car was delivered on August 23 with software 1.2.10. It always claimed to be up to date even though I have seen people discussing 1.2.11 with the satellite map feature. So when I brought the car back for some fit and finish fixing earlier this week, I asked when my car would be updated OTA to 1.2.11. The advisor said: "oh the current version is 1.2.17 already." That's when he gave me the explanation described above and said it would need to be handled by custom service in order to do the update. While the car was in the workshop, I could see which version was being updated to the car through the app. There were a couple rounds of updates. Interestingly, the first version that was loaded in was 1.2.9.

Assuming the explanation I heard was correct, then I have to say that Lucid's OTA software update feature has deficiencies at the design level.

That is a load of crap…. My car has only downloaded the firmware on its own only once from 1.2.7.5 to 1.2.7.6. The rest I had to request. I think some people are lucky and just get it while others of us have to request it. Think of it, if the car download it automatically, it would notify you and everyone would install it since we want the features to get better. No reason anyone would skip.

 

[joec]

I heard something interesting from a customer service advisor in Millbrae this week. If your car's software version falls two versions behind, it won't be able to update on its own to the current version. He gave an example scenario of two updates in quick succession (e.g., within one week), and stated that if your car didn't manage to get the first update before the second update showing up, your car would be in limbo and can't catch up.

My car was delivered on August 23 with software 1.2.10. It always claimed to be up to date even though I have seen people discussing 1.2.11 with the satellite map feature. So when I brought the car back for some fit and finish fixing earlier this week, I asked when my car would be updated OTA to 1.2.11. The advisor said: "oh the current version is 1.2.17 already." That's when he gave me the explanation described above and said it would need to be handled by custom service in order to do the update. While the car was in the workshop, I could see which version was being updated to the car through the app. There were a couple rounds of updates. Interestingly, the first version that was loaded in was 1.2.9.

Assuming the explanation I heard was correct, then I have to say that Lucid's OTA software update feature has deficiencies at the design level.

Agreed. There’s no good reason to design the update system for a car this way. People are bound to miss updates. Some, like the folks on this forum, will be champing at the bit to install the second an update arrives. But the vast majority of customers will not pay enough attention to stay on top of updates. Just look at the app update section of the average person’s phone if you don’t believe me.

If what this service person says is true, I hope a revamp of the update system is on the timeline for a future enhancement.

 

[Travelguy2500]

Let me know if you get any ‘compensation’ for the time in service. I got my dream late last December and, all told, it’s spent 10 weeks at the service center so far. last time nearly 3 weeks for a ‘battery replacement’ for reasons that were never made clear to me despite asking many times why. I got nada.

that said, my Lucid is still faring better than my early production Model X which spend nearly 4 months total in and out of the service center in the 3 years I owned it.

Early adopter highs and lows,,,, I too had the falling behind in updates (while it was in the service center no less’ and they had to be specially pushed to catch up. The last few have some as expected …

 

[borski]

I dont think the software has a self update YET hence why some people get it and not others. It almost seems like the DE people get the downloads automatically and the GT people have to request

Doesn’t have to do with DE/GT. We tested that theory among a few friends. But there is some list and it isn’t (at least entirely) random.

 

[borski]

I think Lucid's OTA process should have the car poll for updates and if not at current level after XX days, put up an alert. Lucid cannot simply assume their distribution mechanism is flawless and every car is receiving updates. A check process needs to be put in place so the vast majority of owners not on this forum rabidly checking if there's a new update knows if they are falling behind. It shouldn't be on me as the customer/owner to manually check for updates (especially since there isn't an official way to do so) - the car should be doing this automatically. And just in case I live in a bad reception area, the car should also tell me it couldn't verify what the current software release is because it couldn't connect to Lucid after X days of trying.

Agreed! Paging @Firstto520

 

[James]

I think John at the Scottsdale service center is very knowledgeable, very good at communicating status along with being an incredibly nice guy. Arizonans are lucky to have great service support. I would ask for something useful like the Lucid tire inflator.

Yeah i'd dealt with John on a tire issue and on the scheduling for this and he left a great impression. It's now Lena who is my contact and she's been great in terms of communication and updates.

 

[James]

@James Welcome to the forum though...if you don't get a notification for them on your car or app, you'll definitely find out about them here. Where are you in the PHX area btw?

I'm in PV.

 

[James]

Interesting - let us know what the resolution is. I’m confused by what this “syncing” means, though there was a recent update that improved battery and efficiency, so possibly that. Or maybe they noticed an issue with the HV battery? Dno.

But yeah, gotta stay on top of those updates; of course, that’s hard if you don’t know they’re released.

The term they used was "battery pack TSC" No clue what that means and 30 seconds on google 9the most effort I was willing to expend) was of no help