Top Gear's review of Lucid Air

[joec]

Well, Lucid has started out worse than the rest and there is no excuse. It's been over a year and we still don't have a production release.

If they weren't up to the task, then they shouldn't have entered the market.

Gee, why am I not surprised to hear you say that?

Kidding, of course. You’re not wrong. I do think they underestimated the challenge, for sure. But the rate at which they’ve been improving is an indication they “get it” now. Just have a lot of ground to make up still.

 

[borski]

You had a kia?

My wife had a 2012 Kia Sorento, yeah.

Well, Lucid has started out worse than the rest and there is no excuse. It's been over a year and we still don't have a production release.

If they weren't up to the task, then they shouldn't have entered the market.

Excuses or not, it’s not about how you start but how you finish. That’s true in everything.

 

[MoniputerLM]

My wife had a 2012 Kia Sorento, yeah.


Excuses or not, it’s not about how you start but how you finish. That’s true in everything.

Well, how much longer will they take to be finished?? We are over a year behind and still don't have a stable production release.

Maybe they have a team that started from scratch, and we will see a beautiful butterfly emerge from its cocoon soon!

 

[EVCar]

Well, how much longer will they take to be finished?? We are over a year behind and still don't have a stable production release.

Maybe they have a team that started from scratch, and we will see a beautiful butterfly emerge from its cocoon soon!

No pain, no gain., right?

 

[Drendino]

My wife had a 2012 Kia Sorento, yeah.


Excuses or not, it’s not about how you start but how you finish. That’s true in everything.

I agree and always talk to my athlete daughter about finishing. The problem is that poor performance can sometimes put an athlete in a position where someone else is going to get the opportunity to finish. Regardless of the truth of the PIF takeover rumor, the poor software performance has put Lucid in the situation where the company is a legitimate takeover target and it is in unclear who exactly is going to finish.

Personally, I don’t really care if it stays public or goes private, I just want management to communicate about the software issues and efforts and timelines to fix it. My trust will come back when I start hearing answers to questions that were posed in the moderator’s poll. I can be patient if there are timelines for bug fixes and new features. When there is silence human nature always assumes the worst.

 

[HC_79]

I will give Lucid some slack. Others have mentioned that Audi, VW, Porsche etc. are having similar issues as with Lucid but Lucid should have done better.

Look at it this way, why hasn’t Audi, Porsche, VW done better? These companies have been around a lot longer than Lucid and still can’t get software right. Lucid is a newborn baby and we’re constantly comparing it to grandpa who’s had a life of experience.

The software works, it’s annoying but updates keep coming to resolve issues. My biggest gripe are the cameras. For the love of god just focus on figuring out what’s causing the camera issues. Everything else to me at least is just par for the course and will get fixed over time.

Not many car companies would rewrite the entire cars software in 11 months. If it was a traditional automaker they would just keep slapping lipstick on the pig. I got my car last April and the Lucid software is leaps and bounds ahead of where it used to be so I’m still prepared to give them time to resolve as it’s not like they’re not doing anything to resolve the issues.

 

[xponents]

My wife had a 2012 Kia Sorento, yeah.


Excuses or not, it’s not about how you start but how you finish. That’s true in everything.

I have a 2014 right now.. its terrible with plastic everywhere. I think a nisaan sentra could be better. (same gen as yours)

 

[Keith]

Software: They'll never give you time to do it right, but they'll give you time to do it over again

 

[SDHacker]

why hasn’t Audi, Porsche, VW done better?

Because they are all the same company (at least for software development)...the VW group encompasses about 8 brands with Audi and Porsche addressing the luxury and performance market. It's been reported that Porsche is angry with VW because they are responsible for the software and Porsche can't introduce the Macan EV due to the software not being ready. It's like they contracted with Elbonian engineers (Dilbert comic strip reference).

 

[borski]

Well, how much longer will they take to be finished?? We are over a year behind and still don't have a stable production release.

Maybe they have a team that started from scratch, and we will see a beautiful butterfly emerge from its cocoon soon!

No idea. But the rate of progress has been fantastic; I started with 1.0.4 and the present release is 100x better than that was. It takes time to build great software, and they did start from scratch. Twice.

The problem is that poor performance can sometimes put an athlete in a position where someone else is going to get the opportunity to finish. Regardless of the truth of the PIF takeover rumor, the poor software performance has put Lucid in the situation where the company is a legitimate takeover target and it is in unclear who exactly is going to finish.

Sure; except that was true regardless of poor performance or not. Competition is competition, and doesn’t take a break when you’re executing well. Lucid has problems, as does everyone else; the important part is to execute better than you were, and Lucid is doing that; paying attention to how the competition is executing is a quick way to simply quit.

The rate of progress is what matters. That rate has been very very significant.

Personally, I don’t really care if it stays public or goes private, I just want management to communicate about the software issues and efforts and timelines to fix it. My trust will come back when I start hearing answers to questions that were posed in the moderator’s poll. I can be patient if there are timelines for bug fixes and new features. When there is silence human nature always assumes the worst.

As a public company, it’s very hard to communicate that sort of thing; a missed deadline suddenly becomes a missed promise, which suddenly causes issues with the stock price, which causes issues with investor lawsuits, and so on and so forth. Human nature doesn’t change even when communication is more transparent; a few missed deadlines or estimates and suddenly it’s even worse than it was.

Again: no company has gotten this right yet, not even Tesla, who have had over a decade to get it right. I’m looking forward to seeing what the future holds, and I’m optimistic. That’s about all any of us can be with pretty much any EV today.

 

[chinesejpl]

I want to cut lucid slack but when another startup EV, Rivian, can have software that is so well thought out, it's hard to accept. Yes, Rivian copied a lot of Tesla's look but at least it works and has interesting features that surprise me. I find EVs are usually separated by people into 2 categories - legacy and startups and they are held to different standards. Software quirks with legacy makers are acceptable because they build "better" cars and build quality issues with startups are accepted because they haven't made cars before and their focus is on the EV tech and software. Startups are seen as software first, cars second and vice versa for legacy makers. So what happens when a startup's software has issues?

I bought my AGT over a legacy car EV because I wanted a car that continuously got better, which is what Tesla pioneered. I wasn't confident the legacy cars would do that based on the conversations I've had. I'm personally a little disappointed that lucid's software is buggy or has design issues.

 

[HC_79]

I want to cut lucid slack but when another startup EV, Rivian, can have software that is so well thought out, it's hard to accept. Yes, Rivian copied a lot of Tesla's look but at least it works and has interesting features that surprise me. I find EVs are usually separated by people into 2 categories - legacy and startups and they are held to different standards. Software quirks with legacy makers are acceptable because they build "better" cars and build quality issues with startups are accepted because they haven't made cars before and their focus is on the EV tech and software. Startups are seen as software first, cars second and vice versa for legacy makers. So what happens when a startup's software has issues?

I bought my AGT over a legacy car EV because I wanted a car that continuously got better, which is what Tesla pioneered. I wasn't confident the legacy cars would do that based on the conversations I've had. I'm personally a little disappointed that lucid's software is buggy or has design issues.

Rivian has 13,000 employees to Lucid's 5000. Rivian should be in a better position when it comes to software as they have almost triple the staff. I too am disappointed Lucid's software has gotten off to a shaky start but i'll take what they're dishing out over legacy auto who can't even seem to master OTA yet.

 

[borski]

I want to cut lucid slack but when another startup EV, Rivian, can have software that is so well thought out, it's hard to accept. Yes, Rivian copied a lot of Tesla's look but at least it works and has interesting features that surprise me. I find EVs are usually separated by people into 2 categories - legacy and startups and they are held to different standards. Software quirks with legacy makers are acceptable because they build "better" cars and build quality issues with startups are accepted because they haven't made cars before and their focus is on the EV tech and software. Startups are seen as software first, cars second and vice versa for legacy makers. So what happens when a startup's software has issues?

I bought my AGT over a legacy car EV because I wanted a car that continuously got better, which is what Tesla pioneered. I wasn't confident the legacy cars would do that based on the conversations I've had. I'm personally a little disappointed that lucid's software is buggy or has design issues.

They focused on extremely different things. Rivian’s mobile app does comparatively little. Their hardware is mostly off the shelf and not particularly innovative. It rides fairly rattly (at least the R1S). Nobody has said “this is the best car I’ve ever driven,” which has happened regularly with the Lucid.

I’m not crapping on the Rivian - I think they’re fantastic vehicles. I *love* the gear tunnel, built in flashlights and boombox, addons, etc.

They just focused on different things. I’m certain that long term their software will be very comparable and eventually Rivian will start innovating in their drivetrain too, where they are presently behind.

Can’t do everything all at once.

 

[joec]

I give Rivian the best shot of succeeding in the current crop of new EV companies.

I’m not at all interested in buying a Rivian, but they’ve done a lot right from a business perspective so far. I think they are a pretty safe bet for succeeding long term.

Obviously, I have confidence in Lucid as well. But I do think they have a harder road to tread. “Controlling the whole widget” is always a tougher road, but it pays big dividends if you can pull it off.

 

[quantum]

Software easily fixed, Lucid got the hardware part perfect. I'm not worried at all. Enjoying the drive!!