Does not make him wrong about the crazy and completely stupid way the USA gov runs.Sounds like something Elon Musk does all the time
Engineering Explained not happy with new Lucid Air
- Thread starter AZjeff
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One time I was told to reboot the system in our '18 Model 3 Mid Range, but other than that, there have been zero issues.
When we dropped off the '18 in the Fremont factory parking lot and picked up the '24 M3P, we got in the new car and all out settings were intact. I didn't even have to pair my cell.
Software is hard, but Tesla's is the gold standard. So simple and so efficient. Seamless... That's my experience.
Full disclosure, as a business process programmer analyst, I've had perhaps thousands of releases. I know all about software releases. Writing code is easy. Writing good code is another story.
When we dropped off the '18 in the Fremont factory parking lot and picked up the '24 M3P, we got in the new car and all out settings were intact. I didn't even have to pair my cell.
Software is hard, but Tesla's is the gold standard. So simple and so efficient. Seamless... That's my experience.
Full disclosure, as a business process programmer analyst, I've had perhaps thousands of releases. I know all about software releases. Writing code is easy. Writing good code is another story.
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Ain't that the truth!! Sadly, some of the best geniuses are also some of the worst, when it comes to how they treat their fellow man.
Just one more year. Oh, wait. I can't say that. It's Elon's tag line.
And, I might add, this is exactly why I am hanging on to my two VWs as long as I can. Latch on the glove box, hood and trunk can be opened manually from the outside, knobs to control the temperature and direction of air flow (dashboard, heater, defroster, etc), no lane keeping or cylinder deactivation, just a backup camera and radar to let me know when I am close to something and to run the adaptive cruise control. The All Track does have a parking function for parallel parking but I am proud to say I have never once used it in almost nine years. The day I can't parallel park by myself, I will quit driving.
If I had my way, I would even have the little doors on the outside of the front fenders that you could open via cable to let air flow through the footwells. I have no intention of buying a computer on wheels. I have enough trouble with my computer and printer at home without bringing those problems into my car and ruining the driving experience.
How many engineers at Lucid actually drive one of their own cars on a daily basis to see how they perform? How often do they sit down as a group to discuss customer complaints and put action plans together to address them? Or do they all work from home, totally divorced from the product?
If I had my way, I would even have the little doors on the outside of the front fenders that you could open via cable to let air flow through the footwells. I have no intention of buying a computer on wheels. I have enough trouble with my computer and printer at home without bringing those problems into my car and ruining the driving experience.
How many engineers at Lucid actually drive one of their own cars on a daily basis to see how they perform? How often do they sit down as a group to discuss customer complaints and put action plans together to address them? Or do they all work from home, totally divorced from the product?
I totally get that. Spending big money on depreciating liabilities make little sense.
I can afford pretty much anything I want, but part of me just says spending money on cars is dumb. The frugal part is currently winning the war, but might lose a battle or two.
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I'm wondering how many of the issues could have been corrected by the software update that failed to install. On the reddit Lucid sub, some users are saying that they haven't had any of the issues he's experienced. Other say they've had nothing but issues. My Blazer definitely had some infotainment bugs, including losing audio after Google prompts. Some of the other stuff he mentioned, like the inability to adjust the rear mirror in reverse and not being able to change user profile when the car is in motion, are present on my Blazer EV as well. I think those are design decisions, not bugs. Interestingly, my Jaguar did retain the rear mirror reverse setting. Either way, it sucks that he's had a poor experience, because the cars are gorgeous and by all accounts they drive wonderfully. I sincerely hope Lucid can get the issues resolved because it's nice to have more competition in the EV space. I was awaiting their mid-size as a replacement for our I-Pace.
I live in an area with a lot of EVs. Only one house the next street over has a Lucid. I have no clue which model, but the Mercedes van with “Lucid Mobile Service” on the side is there at least 3 times a month! That’s enough to make me look somewhere else!
Lucid Air Sapphire is a joke. A fast car that can only be used for 4.1 miles? Sounds like major design compromises. From car and driver:
The battery gets too hot before the carbon-ceramic brakes do—the latter weren't bled or touched over three days of lapping. A 4.1-mile lap in Hot Lap mode uses about 25 percent of the battery and puts enough heat into the motors and pack that the Sapphire is only good for one fast lap at a time.
The battery gets too hot before the carbon-ceramic brakes do—the latter weren't bled or touched over three days of lapping. A 4.1-mile lap in Hot Lap mode uses about 25 percent of the battery and puts enough heat into the motors and pack that the Sapphire is only good for one fast lap at a time.
"VW led Tesla in sales for most months in H1 2025, even outselling Tesla three-to-one in April."
This is in Europe where Tesla has had a 38% market share decline.
"Volkswagen Group's electric vehicles (EVs) have outsold Tesla in Europe for significant periods in 2025, especially in the first half, with VW becoming the top EV brand in Europe by mid-year, driven by strong performance in Germany, improved models, and a decline in Tesla's market share due to various factors."
- Q1 2025: VW registered over 65,000 EVs in Europe, more than Tesla's 53,000, with VW sales surging 157% while Tesla's dropped 38%.
- So explain to me how the "Big Boys" are being eaten alive by Tesla? I'd love to hear it.
username checks out. Signed, Gen X, LOL.
My sister's boyfriend briefly worked for them in Arizona. They need better organization from what he said. I can't believe they went down the Tesla path with always changing parts and not getting stuff in on time. This was several years ago however.
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Not sure how the Sapphire is relevant to this discussion, but I certainly can't think of many other five-seat sedans that can run low 9s in the 1/4 mile. The Sapphire actually has multiple race oriented modes. The "Hot Lap" mode does exactly as it describes...it optimizes the powertrain for a single fast lap. There's an endurance mode that is intended for repeated laps. Why would anyone that can afford a $250,000 vehicle prioritize track performance? At that income level, wouldn't they get a more track oriented vehicle? I've spent some time on Rennlist. This people are very high earners and buy what they want. I doubt very many Sapphire owners are picking up the cars so they can spend weekends in it at the road course.
slo town
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Like @JeffKeryk, I spent my entire career in Silicon Valley. IMO, BYD is having "version control issues" with their hardware and software components (in the business you always say "issues", not "problems"). The integration of hardware and software must be a precisely controlled process. For example, the updates... Are the updates tested using the exact same hardware design/software configuration that exists on my car? I doubt it. And "factory resets"? Unacceptable. That's just a temporary fix to a problem they don't yet understand or have a solution to. These cars are being developed on the fly.
Scott
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You are taking a point in time. You are only counting car sales numbers, not results from those operations.
You understand VW loses $$ on their EV business, right?
The more EVs VW sells, the less money they make.
One would think a storied company like VW could deliver a profitable EV, especially given the economies of scale as sales have increased. The snotty nosed Tesla kid is killing VW; it is worth 25x from a market cap perspective.
Let's read the YTD VW Financials. Numbers are down YOY.
My biggest concern is the reduction in R&D expenditures. But don't take my word for it...
This does not bode well for the future. New products, factory upgrades, etc. are the lifeblood of any manufacturing company. From the EV perspective, this is even more so because EVs are in relative infancy as mass produced vehicles.
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That's a software bug in itself. Installs are always tricky, but less so in a captured group. Your PC can have applications from many different companies; installs can be a nightmare. But companies like Lucid and Tesla lock down their software making updates far easier.
One reason Apples are so solid is they control what goes on their hardware far more than Microsoft based systems.
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Don't disagree, but as a point of comparison, many Blazer EV owners have complained about issues with software updates failing to install as well, so this isn't necessarily just a Lucid thing. Personally, all mine have gone off without a hitch. I have no clue why some vehicles have more issues than others and I wish manufacturers would be more transparent about the bug log and software roadmap. When I had infotainment issues with my Blazer, part of my frustration stemmed from not knowing whether GM even knew about the issues.
The fact that Fenske purchased this car new and had this many issues is a huge red flag. When he bought the car someone should have been like, white glove for this guy. If he's having this number of issues, what should a purchaser with no clout expect?
Yep, most car companies have and continue have software bugs. Some vehicles have been software bricked! IMO, Tesla's approach of a unified software function has huge advantage over companies that bolt on vendor sourced sub-assembly components with their own code that may not play nice together.
I don't know much about Lucid's architecture; I would have guessed it follows Tesla's as the company was started by ex-Tesla officers.
Software is hard. We hear of system failures; rarely are they due to hardware. This is nothing new.
Tesla lost money for close to a decade and relied on carbon offset credits to function. Tesla had a huge start on EVs vs VW. There you go again with your "market cap" nonsense. I don't care if investors think Tesla is worth a quintillion dollars or a Billion or a trillion as it's merely value on paper. VWs ev numbers are way up. Tesla lost 38 percent market share in Europe. If that's not a big deal to you then wow. No vehicle manufacturer board members or ceo would be thrilled with that.
Start ups pretty much always lose money and survive on venture capitalists, etc. Tesla would likely have never been around if it weren't for the seed money from Toyota. One of the 1st products was the original RAV4 EV; my neighbors had one.
I am not sure if you are familiar with the importance of market capitalization. A corporation's primary responsibility is to its share holders.
Market cap is a key indicator of a company's total value on the open market and gives insight into how the investing public perceives its future value. If you don't think every other car company would love to have Tesla's market cap then perhaps consider doing some studying on the topic. It's a big deal.
Has Tesla lost market share? Sure. As more companies introduce competing products, the company with the most sales gets a smaller slice of the pie. All the other companies do.
