Software is hard. While I love our Lucid Gravity, I realize that they are behind Tesla with software. A few of the weird UX and software engineering decisions they’ve made.
This is part of a series of thoughts on cars, just for fun. These are my thoughts and opinions based on my experiences.
Confirmations
When I got the car, the phone-as-key wasn’t working. I could open an app on my phone and unlock the doors and enable driving (two buttons), but I had to select these items. Unlike my Tesla Model Y, these weren’t automatic.
I understand that, as building apps that run with low power and detect things is hard. I’ve had numerous items not work well for doors, devices, etc. though I think Lucid should have made this a priority sooner. However, I’m not trying to start a car company, so what do I know.
However.
Phone as a key seems like table stakes for car software, but let’s ignore that. The big thing for me is the confirmation when I open a door or the trunk(s). Why is there a pop up asking me if I want to do this. Engineers might think, of course, give a confirmation.
For me, if I press a button on the fob, there’s no confirmation. If I hit the button inside the car, no confirmation. Why add one in the software? Or maybe more importantly, why not have this as a toggle the user can enable or disable. Toggles are cheap, they are often implemented anyway for testing, so why not expose them?
There are UI/complexity considerations, but most of us are used to changing settings in the various apps on our mobile phones.
Deep Linking
On the main screen for a Tesla is a set of buttons on the bottom, one of which is a menu. There’s also a settings button. There are 5 (or 6?) customizable buttons, which I can pick a function and then drag that onto the main toolbar, so it’s available. For me in the Tesla, I had:
- Spotify
- Radio
- Heated Steering Wheel
- Energy usage
- Bluetooth
- Cameras (not sure if this was always there)
Everything on the screen is a function/method call in software. Likely an event calling a method, but still. Why wouldn’t we make things available.
On the Lucid, I only have top level categories available: home, fan/climate, seats, charging, nav, media, etc. You can see these below. I can remove some, or add them back, but I can’t change say, media to radio. I always to to the main media screen and then select radio or Bluetooth or Spotify, etc.
Everything is a function, so why not offer linking those functions to quick buttons?
Summary
There are a few other things I don’t like, but I can guess why the software works that way. I am looking to work with the software, and in some cases, stop doing silly things I would have done before and try to let the car do things for me.
I’ve gone back and forth with Android Auto, and while it sometimes gets in my way, if I live with it and accept it, I’m a safer driver. I do less stuff on screens when I should be driving (or mostly paying attention at red lights).
This is still a fantastic car and I look forward to driving it whenever I can.