Lucid Motors plans on pushing out software updates to continue to improve the car features over time. That is one of the perks of getting a Lucid (or a Tesla) – the software updates make you feel like you are getting a new car , or at least new features for your new car, frequently and often.
It seems these software updates, at least some of them, make the car super hot. The Lucid Owners Forums has a post from one user who set his car to download version 1.2.1 and he said the update made the fans on the car go super fast and loud. Here is his experience as he wrote it in the forums:
Okay so I got the notice for the new update. Says it will take about 90 minutes. Also says you have to make sure nobody is in the car because it will lock and you cannot unlock it until the update is completed. It gives you a 2 minute countdown to get out of the car. Then it did in fact lock itself and begin the update process. Just kept showing zero progress so after a couple of minutes I went into the house. After about 20 minutes I went out to the garage to see what was happening. The car was “running” very loudly, and it showed 24% complete on the update when I looked through the window. I’m assuming all the noise is the cooling system?? Anyway, must be a fairly major update if it will really take 90 minutes. I just finished giving her the first wash and she looks great. I’ll post some photos soon.
He then came back and wrote “So now its been 30 minutes and boy is it loud. Sounds like every possible fan is running full bore. I’m assuming this is normal? Only 38% done at this point.”
Yes, this is normal according to other Lucid owners, but to this Lucid owner, he said this was “somewhat scary” to experience for the first time. I guess no one warned him?
I have no idea if other EVs do this, I assume different updates use different levels of battery levels. I know with some CPU upgrades for computers, they can sometimes trigger the fans on the machine to really crank up. So I guess this is just one big computer on four wheels…
Lucid Air Software Update 1.2.1
It terms of what is included in version 1.2.1 of the Lucid Air software update, that includes improvements to:
- Climate Control
- Access for door handles and passive entry
- Display Updates to make the pilot display smoother
- Other Minor Updates
Here is a photo from Twitter of those software update screens with more detail: