Photo: Alex on LucidOwners.com
Software updates can bring nice things and improved functionality, but they can lead to a permanent loss when they go wrong. This is something many people experienced with their smartphones, but having a bricked car is a whole new level. It is what happened with a Lucid Air after a botched OTA update.
We hear about bricked phones or laptops, the term describing a situation when the device can no longer boot up. This usually happens when the software gets corrupted. Experts talk of a “soft brick” when a new software can still be installed to fix the brick problem and a “hard brick” when the device stops responding to any software. It’s basically turned into a very expensive paperweight or a brick, hence the term.
We’ve not heard about a car turning into a brick so far. We guess that this was bound to happen sooner or later because modern vehicles are basically computers on wheels. And for one unlucky Lucid Air owner, it has become a nightmare. He initiated the software update after the 1.2.6 version rolled out last Friday. Soon after, the car became unresponsive, and the message “Software Update Failed Vehicle May Not Be Drivable” was displayed on the car’s screen.
To be sure, this same software update went smoothly for many other Lucid Air owners, but certain conditions still investigated by Lucid turned this Air into a brick. The owner, who is active on Lucid Owners Forum under the name Alex, described his experience dealing with the problem.
According to his post on the forum, the Air was totally dead, and he couldn’t unlock the doors with any method. Luckily, he could open the rear trunk to get into the car. He could open the front doors “mechanically” from the inside, but the rear doors would not open, a real problem in the case of an accident. The customer service was nice but not helpful in solving the problem.
After about an hour, Alex heard the car alarm go off, and he could silence it using the key fob. The doors would unlock, but the error message was still there. He could put the car in drive and reverse and move it inside the garage, so it was probably drivable. Following the advice from Lucid customer care, he initiated another update. This time the update went to 24% in about an hour, but the same error message popped up.
Ten hours later, Alex posted an update on his situation, saying that the car would come alive about an hour after the error message popped. He could charge it overnight, and in the morning, there was no error message in the car. In the Lucid app, however, there was a warning about his car not being drivable. The customer service reps advised him not to try another service update and wait for a solution to his problem.
This is a good example of why carmakers should do much more beta-testing before releasing an OTA update to their fleets. It also shows that initiating the update should be carefully considered if you don’t want to end up with a dead car when your life depends on it.
We’ve not heard about a car turning into a brick so far. We guess that this was bound to happen sooner or later because modern vehicles are basically computers on wheels. And for one unlucky Lucid Air owner, it has become a nightmare. He initiated the software update after the 1.2.6 version rolled out last Friday. Soon after, the car became unresponsive, and the message “Software Update Failed Vehicle May Not Be Drivable” was displayed on the car’s screen.
To be sure, this same software update went smoothly for many other Lucid Air owners, but certain conditions still investigated by Lucid turned this Air into a brick. The owner, who is active on Lucid Owners Forum under the name Alex, described his experience dealing with the problem.
According to his post on the forum, the Air was totally dead, and he couldn’t unlock the doors with any method. Luckily, he could open the rear trunk to get into the car. He could open the front doors “mechanically” from the inside, but the rear doors would not open, a real problem in the case of an accident. The customer service was nice but not helpful in solving the problem.
After about an hour, Alex heard the car alarm go off, and he could silence it using the key fob. The doors would unlock, but the error message was still there. He could put the car in drive and reverse and move it inside the garage, so it was probably drivable. Following the advice from Lucid customer care, he initiated another update. This time the update went to 24% in about an hour, but the same error message popped up.
Ten hours later, Alex posted an update on his situation, saying that the car would come alive about an hour after the error message popped. He could charge it overnight, and in the morning, there was no error message in the car. In the Lucid app, however, there was a warning about his car not being drivable. The customer service reps advised him not to try another service update and wait for a solution to his problem.
This is a good example of why carmakers should do much more beta-testing before releasing an OTA update to their fleets. It also shows that initiating the update should be carefully considered if you don’t want to end up with a dead car when your life depends on it.
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