Top Gear's review of Lucid Air

[MoniputerLM]

Yea that might be an issue with your car. Hmp had a Model S Plaid he can compare directly to and has said the air is quieter inside than the Model S

Good to know. I will have the service center take a "listen". I have more tire/road noise that expected and more motor whine also than the Teslas that I have driven.

 

[miamicanes]

I'm still not sure what you mean by the excess motor and road noise because no one else has mentioned that. Is that an issue with your car? Every other owner here seems to comment about how quiet the cabin in in comparable EVs

I think the motor noise is awful. I can hear the motor over the music at normal lowish volume. It’s really loud. In any of my Teslas, I was only ever able to hear the motor with no music and even then it’s hardly noticeable.

 

[borski]

Not a single reviewer has mentioned the excess motor and road noise. Those are not software issues.

Or, that IMHO, the DE is just not worth $169,000.

I don’t know what you’re referring to. It’s one of the quietest cars I’ve ever driven, even compared to an S class.

 

[MoniputerLM]

I don’t know what you’re referring to. It’s one of the quietest cars I’ve ever driven, even compared to an S class.

Not mine. This last weekend I drove a Model S and a new S Class. Even my 4 year old Lincoln Navigator has less road noise.

 

[borski]

Not mine. This last weekend I drove a Model S and a new S Class. Even my 4 year old Lincoln Navigator has less road noise.

Definitely talk to service. Can you post a video?

 

[MoniputerLM]

Definitely talk to service. Can you post a video?

Will make a video tomorrow, if it stops raining here!

 

[stealthpilot]

Does it not amaze anyone how these reviews stay steadfastly clear of any comments regarding the software? I wonder if there isn't some agreement between Lucid and these reviewers that states if you want the car to review, no comments please on the software. I'll have far more respect for these reviews when they actually review the entire car that we mere mortals actually drive.

I agree. I mean if you bought the car based purely on these reviews, you would be caught off guard be features that are missing or do not work. Reviewing a luxury car and not commenting on the fact that it doesn't have a fully functional nav, streaming, highway auto steering, or smartphone integration is a glaring omission. Different story if this was a review of a $40,000 car where a buyer might not expect these features.

 

[hmp10]

Not mine. This last weekend I drove a Model S and a new S Class. Even my 4 year old Lincoln Navigator has less road noise.

We own a Model S Plaid and a Lucid Air Dream Performance. Yes, the motor whine is a little more apparent in the Lucid. However, tire and road noise is more prominent in the Plaid, yielding an overall quieter ride in the Air, especially as the motor whine is only apparent during acceleration. (And, frankly, I like to hear the electric motors at work under acceleration, the same way I used to enjoy the roar of the V8s and V10s in some of my ICE cars.)

You're using over a thousand horsepower to accelerate a two-and-a-half ton object. You're going to hear something, you know.

 

[Lucken]

We own a Model S Plaid and a Lucid Air Dream Performance. Yes, the motor whine is a little more apparent in the Lucid. However, tire and road noise is more prominent in the Plaid, yielding an overall quieter ride in the Air, especially as the motor whine is only apparent during acceleration. (And, frankly, I like to hear the electric motors at work under acceleration, the same way I used to enjoy the roar of the V8s and V10s in some of my ICE cars.)

You're using over a thousand horsepower to accelerate a two-and-a-half ton object. You're going to hear something, you know.

Motor whine in EVs has never bothered me. Like you, I actually enjoy hearing the sound. It's not an intrusive or annoying sound, I find it almost soothing.

 

[MikeTz]

I agree. I mean if you bought the car based purely on these reviews, you would be caught off guard be features that are missing or do not work. Reviewing a luxury car and not commenting on the fact that it doesn't have a fully functional nav, streaming, highway auto steering, or smartphone integration is a glaring omission. Different story if this was a review of a $40,000 car where a buyer might not expect these features.

The big surprise for me is the software seems to have trouble with things the rest of the world has solved a long time ago. Not being able to use a usb device to play your favorite music is just laughable in today's world. I finally got Tidal Atmos songs downloaded only to discover that the hardware to play it is missing and the system was switching to stereo ... and then no sound at all. How long does it take an engineering team to make the sound system work with Tidal?

 

[hmp10]

The big surprise for me is the software seems to have trouble with things the rest of the world has solved a long time ago. Not being able to use a usb device to play your favorite music is just laughable in today's world. I finally got Tidal Atmos songs downloaded only to discover that the hardware to play it is missing and the system was switching to stereo ... and then no sound at all. How long does it take an engineering team to make the sound system work with Tidal?

I don't know what you mean by a long time ago. I kept a USB music stick in our 2015 Tesla Model S P90D, and in the six years we had the car all we got was a spinning progress wheel almost every time I tried to play off the USB stick, as the system was trying to reload the stick every time. Then, on the relatively rare occasions the stick worked at the outset, it would soon freeze and the spinning progress wheel would come back. I kept waiting through OTA software update after update to resolve the issues, but they never did. We finally just gave up and listened to what music we could find on the Slacker app that was in the car. We haven't even bothered trying to plug the stick into our Model S Plaid, as six years of this with the earlier Tesla was enough.

 

[MikeTz]

I don't know what you mean by a long time ago. I kept a USB music stick in our 2015 Tesla Model S P90D, and in the six years we had the car all we got was a spinning progress wheel almost every time I tried to play off the USB stick, as the system was trying to reload the stick every time. Then, on the relatively rare occasions the stick worked at the outset, it would soon freeze and the spinning progress wheel would come back. We finally just gave up and listened to what music we could find on the Slacker app that was in the car. We haven't even bothered trying to plug the stick into our Model S Plaid, as six years of this with the earlier Tesla was enough.

I was surprised to see the message (attached) Not sure as to the origin. I am assuming its either lucid or Atmos or both. I expected the song to play in stereo but it doesn't. I do love the car and plan to hang on. I am just reporting things I discover as I spend time with the car. Afterall what is the point of having a forum if we do not share our experiences with each other? FYI I had to get an adapter from Amazon before I could use my old Model X usb stick with the Plaid. Works just fine.

 

[borski]

I was surprised to see the message (attached) Not sure as to the origin. I am assuming its either lucid or Atmos or both. I expected the song to play in stereo but it doesn't. I do love the car and plan to hang on. I am just reporting things I discover as I spend time with the car. Afterall what is the point of having a forum if we do not share our experiences with each other? FYI I had to get an adapter from Amazon before I could use my old Model X usb stick with the Plaid. Works just fine.

Huh, that’s weird! I’ve never seen that message. Did you try using one of the Tidal Dolby Atmos playlists?

(And totally agreed on sharing things with each other! I just get annoyed by folks who don’t have the car and take only the bugs/negative things that exist as gospel. Overall, it’s the best car I’ve ever driven, just has quirks that need fixing - but in software, which is doable. I’ll take that over our last Kia needing a full engine replacement any day. @hmp10 is the only one I’ve seen with *real* bad issues and it sounds like they’re on top of it)

 

[hmp10]

I was surprised to see the message (attached) Not sure as to the origin. I am assuming its either lucid or Atmos or both. I expected the song to play in stereo but it doesn't. I do love the car and plan to hang on. I am just reporting things I discover as I spend time with the car. Afterall what is the point of having a forum if we do not share our experiences with each other? FYI I had to get an adapter from Amazon before I could use my old Model X usb stick with the Plaid. Works just fine.

I suspect that message emanated from the car, not from Atmos. I periodically get similar messages from Alexa, saying that one feature or another is not supported when it is available at other times. I've received the messages when trying to use the phone and the navigation system.

 

[MikeTz]

Huh, that’s weird! I’ve never seen that message. Did you try using one of the Tidal Dolby Atmos playlists?

(And totally agreed on sharing things with each other! I just get annoyed by folks who don’t have the car and take only the bugs/negative things that exist as gospel. Overall, it’s the best car I’ve ever driven, just has quirks that need fixing - but in software, which is doable. I’ll take that over our last Kia needing a full engine replacement any day. @hmp10 is the only one I’ve seen with *real* bad issues and it sounds like they’re on top of it)

Yes I was using the Tidal Dolby Playlist ... You can see the one I was trying to play on the picture I posted. And Yes I do have both cars plus a Taycan which I plan to sell soon if anyone is interested.

 

[borski]

Yes I was using the Tidal Dolby Playlist ... You can see the one I was trying to play on the picture I posted. And Yes I do have both cars plus a Taycan which I plan to sell soon if anyone is interested.

Definitely reach out to customer support. I have both Lucid and Tidal support trying to fix the fact that you can’t select HiFi or Master quality already haha

 

[manitou202]

This would be too much motor whine for the Air, but I dream of the day when I'll own a true electric sports car that sounds like this:

I'm sure a lot of the sound is from straight cut gears, but the motors are definitely contributing.

 

[Alex]

Definitely reach out to customer support. I have both Lucid and Tidal support trying to fix the fact that you can’t select HiFi or Master quality already haha

This is what Lucid told me to do regarding HiFi/Master:

I am reaching out regarding the Tidal issues that you have been experiencing. We have verified that everything is setup correctly on our end, so we can try a couple other things to resolve your issues. I see that you stated you are seeing TIDAL HiFi account when you indeed have the TIDAL HiFi Plus account. This discrepancy may be something that TIDAL can handle directly on their end. I have provided the contact info for tidal Customer Care Support below. Please reach out to them directly to verify that they are providing you with the right access with the subscription you are paying for. ​

Tidal Support Email Address: [email protected].​

​

My car is being wrapped right now, so I'm delaying doing this, although I don't think this is Tidal's problem.

 

[borski]

This is what Lucid told me to do regarding HiFi/Master:

I am reaching out regarding the Tidal issues that you have been experiencing. We have verified that everything is setup correctly on our end, so we can try a couple other things to resolve your issues. I see that you stated you are seeing TIDAL HiFi account when you indeed have the TIDAL HiFi Plus account. This discrepancy may be something that TIDAL can handle directly on their end. I have provided the contact info for tidal Customer Care Support below. Please reach out to them directly to verify that they are providing you with the right access with the subscription you are paying for. ​

Tidal Support Email Address: [email protected].​

​

My car is being wrapped right now, so I'm delaying doing this, although I don't think this is Tidal's problem.

Same response I got. Already reached out to Tidal and nobody has a solution yet.

 

[Jon_Rettinger]

True..but let's use a review that almost everyone here has watched. Doug Demuro's review...

He goes over the software quite in depth compared to other reviewers, but what issue would he be having during his review drive? He's talking the whole time so he's not using the radio or any streaming. Once he unlocks the car, it's booted up so it's not slow loading for him, like for us. He doesn't use a moblie key so no issues there. It didn't sound like he was using NAV so no issue there. If he doesn't set up his own profile, there is no driver monitoring failure.

I'm sure you guys are right about not mentioning it, but the point is that these reviewers only spend MAYBE a few hours in the car and they won't experience the car the same way.

What we really need is Jon Rettinger's video, someone who owns a car, makes videos and is living with it to go through it. His review will be better than any of these other car guys for usage. Top Gear does a great job for driving dynamics though.

FIlming starts on Tuesday!