The Long Goodbye

[borski]

Thank you for the history lesson and the detailed accounts, very educational!

Glad you think Gravity's SW might see better days ahead. Lucid needs it!

Your history lesson reminded me of my early Air ownership. I got my Air GT in Oct 2022. It had UX2.0 on it. I never experienced UX1.0.

A few weeks into my ownership, I started to encounter what I thought were SW problems (and they were indeed SW problems). So, I start posting on this forum asking for insights and help. To my surprise, I received a bunch of sharply critical replies (slightly exaggerated for dramatic effect), accusing me of ungratefulness since UX2.0 was such a quantum step improvement from UX 1.0 (which I never experienced). Lacking the history/experience with UX 1.0 (which you detailed above), I suppose I came across like a whiner.

Still there were many issues even with UX2.0. But it has gotten better with time.

Gravity's UX 3 is something I have no direct knowledge of. As such, I would refrain from conjectures.

Much appreciate your history lesson.

UX 1.0 was baaaaaaaad.

That was the era in which I gave the car a year before I sold it. UX 2.0 came out 9 months later, as @hmp10 mentioned.

But yeah, around that time all of us were thrilled because the car was finally a dream. Perfect? No. But multiple orders of magnitude better then UX1.0 - so when someone had a minor software hiccup the rest of us were probably like "LET US ENJOY THIS FOR A FEW DAYS ITS PERFECT GO AWAY LET ME DRIVE" or similar

 

[Need4Sleep]

A while back, I did a little survey to get a sense of how forum members use and drive their Airs. It was evident that many of us have more than one vehicle so those people are not 100% reliant on the car while some of us are. Many people don't drive as much as others. Many people live far away from service centers while others live around the corner from one.

All of these things and many other factors contribute to an individual's satisfaction with the car. I wish more people would understand that A) Your experience is your own and may be very different from someone else's. And B) just because someone has had a different experience than you, that doesn't make you right and them wrong or vice versa.

With midsize on the horizon, I wish I could emphasize this enough. Once Lucid goes into that price range, it could be more likely to be the only vehicle for a household. So even the slightest mis-step on software will be amplified.

 

[borski]

You are speaking from personal experience just as much as I am.

You have put forward not one whit of evidence that Gravity software issues have largely disappeared other than your own experience and a supposed absence of complaints from most posters.

Emad Dlala never asserted in yesterday's call that the issues are largely resolved except for a few outlying owners. He spent most of the call laying out the steps Lucid was taking to deal with the volume of software issues they're seeing. This includes personnel changes, working 7 days a week, installing new quality assurance protocols. While he expects these efforts soon to bear fruit, he was clear that they have not yet done so. In fact, he said that when he accepted the role as head of Digital, he made it clear that he would need six months to assess the situation and lay out an approach to fixing it and that they are just now entering the fix-it stage.

Counter to your claim that 3.5.1 fixed pretty much everything, Dlala said they knew the switch to a new platform architecture that preceded the update would spawn new issues, and they won't start being resolved until the next two updates, one to come later this month and the other in July.

You may get irritated by people such as I posting a lot about issues. I get just as frustrated by people claiming that everything is hunky-dory with a false picture being painted by a few malcontents.

I see a lot more actual evidence for my position than yours right now. I hope that soon changes, but there is much work still to be done.

You already know this, but while we may disagree sometimes, we mostly agree on things and your posts do not irritate me at all; anything backed by actual experience, unextrapolated. We've had different experiences (in life and with these cars), which only means we learn from each other a lot. <3

 

[Disco Marathon]

Yesterday a man asked the standard question: "What is that car?"

the first thing most people ask me: "Who makes Lucid?"

I rarely see a Lucid ... as far as I know, I have the only Lucid in the Philadelphia area. I see them at the KoP service center, but never on the road.

Seems like a marketing issue is more problematic than the software.


The new solid-state batteries will surge the switch from ICE to EVs. One can scoot up to Canada and pick up an state-of-the-art Chinese EV
for a fistfull of Loonies and a six-pack of Labatt Blue. Have to guess the Chinese have stolen the best software too, so there's that.

I thought my Air GT would be the last car I ever bought, but the future is bright for EVs.

Like hmp 10 I have been following the EV industry for decades and took an early interest in Lucid so bought some shares to support their efforts. I ended up with average about $20/share but after just a few months it went above $50 so I sold. This is how it's done. To make a small fortune investing in stocks, start with a large fortune. This is how I paid for my GT. The secret is to be very lucky, and not greedy.

(thanks for all your posts hmp 10 )

Hey friend! You are not alone. I'm in Cedar Park (West Philly) with an Aurora Green GGT and I've seen a White GGT parked on the street at Broad and Spring Garden a few times in the last month. Also see an Air every now and then - there are definitely a few Air owners in Center City. Where are you?

 

[tmichael]

Passion is such a wonderful thing - and, so is this forum! Dream Ahead!!!

 

[L-Dude]

Sometimes I feel like I come from an alternate universe. The FOB on my Air works well. It unlocks and locks that car as I desire. Sometimes it takes 2-3 seconds to unlock automatically, but most of the time the handles are out before I can reach for them. This is at least as good, if not better, than the other high-end cars I've owner of late. If I had to wait 10-15 seconds to get into the car, I'd find that annoying. IF that's what happening to many of you, then I understand.

 

[Halodde]

Sometimes I feel like I come from an alternate universe. The FOB on my Air works well. It unlocks and locks that car as I desire. Sometimes it takes 2-3 seconds to unlock automatically, but most of the time the handles are out before I can reach for them. This is at least as good, if not better, than the other high-end cars I've owner of late. If I had to wait 10-15 seconds to get into the car, I'd find that annoying. IF that's what happening to many of you, then I understand.

That's what happens to me too often (several times just today). But I'm using my paak and I'm confident that my phone is at least partly to blame. So I'll say in fairness that I haven't tried going back to the fob recently which might be better yet less convenient.

 

[doubletwist]

Sometimes I feel like I come from an alternate universe. The FOB on my Air works well. It unlocks and locks that car as I desire. Sometimes it takes 2-3 seconds to unlock automatically, but most of the time the handles are out before I can reach for them. This is at least as good, if not better, than the other high-end cars I've owner of late. If I had to wait 10-15 seconds to get into the car, I'd find that annoying. IF that's what happening to many of you, then I understand.

My Air Fob works reliably. The PAAK works about 85% of the time before I get to the door, and only about 5% of the time fails when when I press in the door handle.

Mainly I carry the fob because I don't want to deal with showing someone how to use the card at the tire shop or valet parking and stuff like that.

 

[dbsb3233]

Wow I love Emad

If only he was in this seat two years ago!

Let's hope it actually translates into substance. It's great that he's saying the right things. But that doesn't alleviate the concerns about staying in business, and being able to strongly support legacy Gravitys when company-saving Cosmos and Earth are on the way.

But good to know they know, at least.

 

[hwy17er]

Yes, it is the collective experience. It seems like the fob issue is a material percentage of owners, and if stuck, it seems like there may be no cure yet.

I'm going to have to disagree here. I've never had any trouble with my fob. Every time I walk up to the vehicle it presents the handles within 10sec, usually and more often within say 4sec.
It always locks when I walk away, usually about 40-50ft out.

I've wondered if I'm an anomaly or in the majority, but I doubt it as most owners w/o issues wouldn't bother to come on here and report their lack of problems.

Gravity is beyond fun to drive: roomy w/ lots of cargo space, handles like a sportscar and thrilling (to some even terrifyingly quick). It charges as fast as my wife's Taycan if not faster, so far can easily go 385-400mi on a full charge even if there's elevation gain (we'll see next winter) and it comfortable and quiet on long trips.
IDK...I'm really happy at this point still.

I think maybe I agree w/ @borski that a lot of owners need a new fob...who knows??

(BTW...please, everyone cease and desist typing "FOB" as it's a racial slur that means Fresh Off the Boat; Lowercase "fob" is a real word. You could even use it in Scrabble)

 

[hmp10]

Just got a text this evening from Emad. He said they are working to address several of the issues we've experienced recently, especially unlocking/locking, with the update later this month. He said the issue that I and other posters have reported with the LED ambient lighting will be addressed in the July update. Also the July update will attempt to address the unique issue we are having with our three Lucids: when any two of them are on the road at the same time, both cars lose the ability to play music without constant pausing in both cars even though they are playing from different sources, be it Tidal, Spotify, or even a USB stick. He said they were already aware of the problem when two cars are playing from the same source simultaneously, but ours is the first case they've had of the issue when playing from different sources.

 

[hmp10]

I think maybe I agree w/ @borski that a lot of owners need a new fob...who knows??

I got a call today from the Miami Service Manager and his Regional Manager. Among the issues we discussed were our key fobs.

We have four of them, two for each of our Gravity Dream Editions. Each car was delivered with a single key fob, and a mobile tech delivered the second fob for each car a couple of months ago. He also brought a replacement for one of the initial fobs, but I don't remember for which car or why. At the time, which was after the last 3.4 series update and before the 3.5.1 update, all four fobs were working as intended.

However, the primary fob for each car began to have problems starting a couple of weeks after the 3.5.1 update. Over the weekend I decided to put all four fobs through their paces. Before starting, I put new batteries in each fob (even though some were only a few weeks old) and checked for fob updates via the mobile app. All fobs were up to date.

Only one of the four fobs worked as intended and with minimal delay. (It was the newest fob for our second Gravity that was delivered in December.) Two of the fobs sometimes worked and sometimes didn't. When they did work I timed a couple of the delays before the car responded at more than 30 seconds. The fourth fob (the newer one for the older Gravity delivered last June) was completely dead. No response from the car, no matter how long the delay, either from proximity or from pressing the buttons. On the recommendation of a poster here I tried turning off the auto lock feature and pressing the buttons on the fobs instead of relying on their proximity to the car. Same result whether the auto lock feature was on or off: 1 fob worked properly, 3 didn't.

Emad told me yesterday that he thought our fobs were alright, and we were seeing issues with the car's software. However, the Service Managers want either to send us four new fobs or have a mobile tech wipe all the fobs and reprogram them to see what happens. I suggested they might want to hold off until we see what this month's update brings. Don't know what they'll decide to do.

 

[mfdutra]

On the recommendation of a poster here I tried turning off the auto lock feature and pressing the buttons on the fobs instead of relying on their proximity to the car.

Actually, I learned by playing with their API that you can't really turn this function off. The proximity check is always running no matter what. What you can do is to disable the auto lock/unlock.

I never liked this proximity auto lock/unlock, so I disabled that on day 1. When the car is in sleep mode and I approach the car, it goes automatically into wink mode. It just doesn't present the door handles unless I press one of the front ones.

When it's in wink mode, I press the handle and it unlocks instantly. But quite a few times, it remains in sleep mode. I press the handle and it takes a couple seconds to finally wake up. Rare times, several seconds, which is irritating.

I was never locked out of the car, but on two occasions, I was unable to lock the car. Coincidentally, it was on the same restaurant, so I wonder if it was some interference. 2.4 GHz is a terrible band for anything, if they are using that, which I don't know.

 

[socktucker]

Perhaps you are the one who's extrapolating.

By the end of 2025, over half a year after Gravity began full-scale deliveries, it had still not reached monthly sales parity with the Air, yet the Gravity was supposed to address a market six times that of the Air, with many industry observers predicting it would bury Air sales almost immediately.

The Gravity was predicted by some, including Kyle Conner who was on the judging panel for the SUV or the Year Award, to walk away with the award. Instead, it went to the Cadillac Escalade with the Gravity not even making the final round. Reviewers, such as Throttle House that test drove early prototypes, raved about the car. But when the production version was launched, they were nowhere to be seen or heard. Could that be because almost every reviewer who got his hands on a Gravity found it beleaguered by software problems?

The fact that many members of this forum haven't posted about problems doesn't necessarily prove anything. The majority of members seem not to post much at all, either positive or negative.

Hello 911? I’d like to report a murder.

 

[socktucker]

Sometimes I feel like I come from an alternate universe. The FOB on my Air works well. It unlocks and locks that car as I desire. Sometimes it takes 2-3 seconds to unlock automatically, but most of the time the handles are out before I can reach for them. This is at least as good, if not better, than the other high-end cars I've owner of late. If I had to wait 10-15 seconds to get into the car, I'd find that annoying. IF that's what happening to many of you, then I understand.

I’ve never had a dob problem on the Air, but the phone key has suddenly became wildly unreliable. Which is weird because it was fine. Now it’s not.

 

[rrinaudo]

Ok, some things that might sound random but worked for me and sharing with others.
I have a GGT fully spec. Keyfobs on 3.4.x worked about 95% of the time and others with a bit of shakeup/dalay. On 3.5.1 it regressed to only working like 40% of the time to detect any keyfob for weeks and even with the card it would take its time to unlock.

One day my wife left the keyfob inside the car in our driveway for multiple hours. I got many alerts the car was unlocked so I closed it multiple times from the app and it would unlock after a while and alerted me again. I finally went to the car and got the keyfob.

After that day the keyfob detection is back to 90%-95%. When it would not work, pushing in the driver door handle helps the car to detect the key. Not sure how leaving the keyfob inside the car without anyone helped to be honest but it consistently failed before that day and consistently worked after.

Hope this helps others.

 

[exxxviii]

I'm going to have to disagree here. I've never had any trouble with my fob. Every time I walk up to the vehicle it presents the handles within 10sec, usually and more often within say 4sec.
It always locks when I walk away, usually about 40-50ft out.

I've wondered if I'm an anomaly or in the majority, but I doubt it as most owners w/o issues wouldn't bother to come on here and report their lack of problems.

What part do you disagree with?

There are multiple independent threads with fob issues. And, when someone is struck, there does not appear to be a common cure. Some folks reported improvement with a new fob. Others did not. Others suspect software. Some suspect hardware inside the car. Even the Lucid guy acknowledge the fob problem. Probably the majority of people do not have the problem. But it is clearly a material risk. As I noted above, there is nothing comparable to this on any of the other forums I am following for next car research. I am very familiar with adverse selection bias. But when you see a forum with more problem posts than lifestyle posts, that highlights major problems. The Cadillac Lyriq forums still look like this - probably half the posting activity are issues. And the Polestar, that had severe GHCA failures that dominated the forums for over a year, have largely settled into lifestyle posts.

My personal priority is that core dependability is highest. The Gravity has a material risk (we don't know if it is 1%, 10%, 50%, etc.) that fobs will be unreliable. I am not willing to take a chance that I could draw a lottery ticket and get stuck with a car I cannot depend on.

 

[gaskiller]

You are speaking from personal experience just as much as I am.

You have put forward not one whit of evidence that Gravity software issues have largely disappeared other than your own experience and a supposed absence of complaints from most posters.

Emad Dlala never asserted in yesterday's call that the issues are largely resolved except for a few outlying owners. He spent most of the call laying out the steps Lucid was taking to deal with the volume of software issues they're seeing. This includes personnel changes, working 7 days a week, installing new quality assurance protocols. While he expects these efforts soon to bear fruit, he was clear that they have not yet done so. In fact, he said that when he accepted the role as head of Digital, he made it clear that he would need six months to assess the situation and lay out an approach to fixing it and that they are just now entering the fix-it stage.

Counter to your claim that 3.5.1 fixed pretty much everything, Dlala said they knew the switch to a new platform architecture that preceded the update would spawn new issues, and they won't start being resolved until the next two updates, one to come later this month and the other in July.

You may get irritated by people such as I posting a lot about issues. I get just as frustrated by people claiming that everything is hunky-dory with a false picture being painted by a few malcontents.

I see a lot more actual evidence for my position than yours right now. I hope that soon changes, but there is much work still to be done.

I’m not saying it’s perfect. The issues are over exaggerated. Posters with problems constantly post.

My car opens all the time and within 5 seconds.

 

[tmichael]

Posters with problems constantly post.

I think it is because we're all trying to use our community knowledge to apply work-arounds or experiences for problems that occur. This may seem weird, but i joined to read about the problems - I knew the good things, but wanted to know the bad things before I ordered. If this forum just spoke about how everything was perfect and the car was 100% perfect, I would have no need for the forum other than social banter. In fact, it would probably just bash other manufacturers, since our Lucids were perfect.

 

[hmp10]

Posters with problems constantly post.

Some do. But many don't.

Frequently I will post about a problem we've had and, over the next few days, posts will pop up from generally quiet posters who have experienced the same issue but weren't inclined to be the first to post about it. This has happened with the ambient LED lighting issues, the blind spot camera freezes, the screen blackouts, the navigation issues, and other issues over the past 10 months.

This is why I don't take the absence of complaints on the forum to mean the same thing you do. I find things that Emad Dlala told me about the significant steps Lucid is taking to respond to the volume of problems to be a far more reliable indication of the real landscape than who does and doesn't post on the forum.

A side note:

I remain impressed with Dlala's response. At his request, yesterday morning we each took a Lucid on the road to film the interference of streaming when two cars are on the road simultaneously. I sent the videos to him. In late afternoon he texted me to ask how soon I could send them. I checked and found I had accidentally transposed the last two digits of his cell phone, so I resent them. He promptly acknowledged receipt.

Then I got up this morning to find a text from him, indicating he had already reviewed them, was flummoxed by what he saw, and was putting his team on it. He also said he had already checked in with the two Service Managers who called me yesterday afternoon.

This text was sent at 7:23 a.m. our time. Unless he is traveling, that is 4:23 a.m. his time.