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Lucid Bought Back This Air. It Was A Software Nightmare

This Lucid Air Touring had so many bizarre software faults that it almost felt haunted.

Lucid Air EE

Photo by: Engineering Explained

Andrei Nedelea Andrei Nedelea

By: Andrei Nedelea

May 25, at 7:36am ET

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The Lucid Air has been on sale for around five years, which is long enough to expect a manufacturer to have figured out the software side of the car. Yet this Air Touring shows that even a technically brilliant EV can be undermined when basic functions, like doors, cameras, audio, climate control, CarPlay, and drive settings still don’t behave predictably.

Multiple recurring issues led Lucid to offer to buy back the Air leased by Jason Fenske from the Engineering Explained YouTube channel. Fenske had the car for 11 months, and while he says there were many things he loved about it, his time with it was a constant stream of weird software-related issues.

YouTube video player

He recalls one 400-mile weekend trip that pushed him to want another car. First, the rear doors wouldn’t open even though the car was unlocked. Then the rear climate control was inconsistent, blowing cold air from one vent and hot air out of the other. The reversing camera guides disappeared, then Apple CarPlay stopped working (a recurring issue), and the car switched from Hold to Roll mode, creeping forward instead of remaining stopped until you tap the accelerator.

Fenske says he observed eight different issues on this one trip, but over 20 while living with the car for nearly one year. There were never any major issues with the car, and it never left him stranded, but this death by a thousand software cuts eventually made him happy to give the car back and get a full refund for all payments made up to that point.

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Lucid initially wanted to give him another identical Air. "I respect Lucid for acting here and trying to do the right thing," Fenske said.  

But since it’s a small company making a relatively low-volume vehicle with many options, the manufacturer couldn’t find an adequate replacement. Fenske also notes that replacing his Air with another would have looked bad either way: if the car was perfect, it would have looked like Lucid made one flaw-free just for him, while if it still had problems, it would have still reflected badly on the automaker.

That’s why buying it back made more sense for Fenske, who has millions of subscribers on YouTube and a huge reach on social media. Lucid said he could lease another Air completely separately from the first one, but Fenske said no for several reasons he lists in the video. 

"I love this car on paper, and I love the way it drives. Dynamically and practically, it's an awesome car, but I don't want to risk spending a bunch more money and having the same bad software experience," he said.

Lucid gave him a long-term Gravity SUV loaner to serve him until he gets another vehicle.

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Going through owner forums and Reddit posts, it appears others have encountered these problems too, although we don’t know how widespread they really are. Lucid owners' forum threads include reports of Hold/Roll settings changing on their own, CarPlay and audio failures, odd trunk and frunk behavior, and door or lock problems. On Reddit, I found owners who described similar complaints about door handles, audio randomly stopping, and general software instability.

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Fenske may have just been unlucky and gotten a car with more problems than others. However, his experience still matters, and even with the Air’s excellent underlying engineering, the ownership experience can still be marred if basic functions don’t behave predictably. For his part, Fenske admitted that it may not be as straightforward for another customer without a huge platform to get their car bought back. 

"And so I feel like I have to acknowledge that yes, this was easier for me to navigate due to my profession, but also that I'm very appreciative of Lucid for just doing the right thing," he said.

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