Maybe i am in the minority, but i don't find myself feeling like there is a killer feature missing in lucid's software stack. It definitely needs refinement, but the bones are there. (excluding expectations on dream drive because well it really hasn't gotten much)
I have what i need to drive the car and enjoy it (apple carplay fills a lot of the gap)
What do people here think is a must have in software that Lucid is short on?
This is a reasonable position, to be sure. It reminds me of when keyless/comfort entry became a thing and my reflex was "How freakin' hard is it to pull a key out of your pocket and hit the unlock button to unlock the car?!". Then, I bought a car with it. If I were buying a new car today and it didn't have keyless/comfort entry, it would seriously bum me out.
The Lucid SW is mediocre. It's not bad in a "1st Gen BMW iDrive" sense but compared to what's out there, you better believe it ain't makin' it, especially at the price point Lucid competes in. But since you asked, the Lucid lacks:
1. A consistent and reliable PaaK system. My Rivian unlocks and locks consistently with my phone to the extant I've literally never had to use the key, not even once;
2. "Nerd mode". My Rivian displays basic things like motor and battery temps in real time. While not a must have, those of us that are car enthusiasts liken these to ICE engine gauges like oil temp/oil pressure/voltimeter guages. They provide us more granular information on the status of the vehicle at any given time. With the Rivian, it gives me extra peace of mind when I'm towing or off-roading to know if I have to back off a bit before something catastrophic happens. Sure, I guarantee Lucid has this safety baked in to their software, but as the driver, gauges give me a greater sense of what the car is doing and therefore, I can adjust my driving accordingly.
3. A functional phone app. No joke, I can walk the 130m to my car from my office entrance before my Lucid wakes up from my phone. That's just sad. My Rivian responds to phone commands like vent windows, open the frunk, and cool the cabin within seconds of pressing the respective icons in the app.
4. A Sentry mode and Dashcam mode. Rivian has both and they work great. Even better, Rivian will be rolling out a new feature in an OTA this year that will allow people to access live view from their cameras, all within the APP. Fantastic feature and yet another example of how Rivian listens to customers and makes it a high priority to implement high value added features.
5. Ability to book service appointments from the app. Self explanatory and yes, Rivian has this.
6. Faster and more responsiveness to button inputs. My Lucid takes literal seconds (about 2 to 3) to pause music or response to volume changes. Not a huge deal, but noticeable and definitely a function of SW.
7. Robust geofencing. God this one would be great. When I'm working in the garage, my Lucid locks and unlocks constantly which drains the battery and increases wear and tear on the mirror motors. Not to mention, it's just annoying as hell. My Rivian has geofencing and as a result, knows when it's home. It will let you decide how you want your Rivian to behave at home, such as remain unlocked (which I do), lock, or leave in whatever state you had it in upon leaving the vehicle. Also, the homelink in Rivian is pretty clever. As you approach your home, a garage door button becomes available and notifies you in the driver cluster. When this happens, one of the buttons on the steering wheel is temporarily assigned as the garage door button (i.e. only within the limited geofenced area). Simply push the appropriate button and your garage door opens and closes. No need for a separate homelink button on the ceiling or rearview mirror.
7. The ability to to have the car's music pause/stop and climate controls cease upon putting the car in park and opening the door. Sometimes I'm listening to music or a podcast I don't want to bother other people with as I get out of the car (such as at home, when I come home from work at 2200hrs).
8. Customization of the Pilot Panel and Driver cluster. To me, there's a ton of wasted space in the instrument cluster that could be put to good use - the aforementioned temp gauges, efficiency graphs, tire pressure graphics, map of the immediate area despite not having navigation on, etc. My Rivian provides all of this in the driver cluster.
9. Better equalizer. The existing one is the definition of bare bones. My Rivian has more individual control of various frequencies and make the mediocre system sound halfway respectable after adjustment. A better equalizer would address some of the issues with the base system.
10. A more comprehensive and intuitive route planner. Rivian not only has their own charging network, but more importantly, they've rolled out a Rivian score for chargers. This allows a smoother, more confident trip planning process because users can now see the reliability score other users have rated an individual charger. Thus, you can plan your route to only use the highest rated chargers and thereby increase your chances of having a smooth charging experience along your route. To me, this is a big one because it directly targets probably one of the biggest obstacles to widespread EV adoption: range anxiety. The better an EV can make the whole charging process, the more people will feel comfortable owning and driving an EV.
Those are just off the top of my head, and again, you asked!
All that said, and it's important to note, I still love my Lucid to death and even with the SW shortcomings, I'd certainly pick it again.
