A Lucid owner reported their vehicle locked with their 1.5-year-old child inside after they stepped out of the car, sparking fresh complaints on the Lucid Owners Forum that lock and unlock issues have intensified following the most recent software update.
The user described an incident in which the sedan locked itself with their 1.5-year-old child stranded inside the vehicle.
“I’ve defended Lucid for a long time. This is actually my second Lucid Air in 3 years, and I’ve tried to be patient with all the software glitches, key issues, random bugs, and ‘it’ll get fixed in an update’ stuff,” the owner stated. “But yesterday honestly was the worst for me.”
According to the owner, they had been driving home with their toddler asleep in the back seat when Apple CarPlay first disconnected without warning.
When the owner pulled into the driveway, exited the driver’s seat, and walked around to the passenger side to retrieve the child, the car locked itself and stopped responding.
“I can’t even explain the panic of standing outside your own car, trying everything, while your kid is locked inside screaming,” the owner wrote.
The owner described eventually being able to open the vehicle, however adding that the experience had shattered their confidence in the car.
“I can deal with little tech annoyances. I can deal with bugs here and there. But basic reliability and safety issues like this? On a car that’s been out for years? Unacceptable,” the owner wrote.
Latest Update Issues
The thread quickly drew responses from other Air owners who said the issue had worsened since the latest software update.
“Ever since I updated to 2.9.0 I’ve had a similar issue with locking,” one user replied, noting that the vehicle unlocked when they approached the passenger door, but then locked as they moved to the driver’s side.
“I had to press the door handle to get in,” they noted, adding, “but this is a new, and extremely unwelcome behavior. All this was with my iPhone, which worked fine in this identical situation before this latest update.”
Another owner described a pattern of repeated service visits and broader connectivity failures.
“That is horrifying. And something went wrong with Lucid lately — my car is on its way back to service for the third time because my door handles were doing the same thing,” they wrote.
According to the user, this included lock and not unlock, being unresponsive to commands, pressing handles not working and “the car not connecting to the app to control or unlock or anything.”
“Since the last few updates my car is ‘offline’ a lot, or unable to wake up, GPS not working, problems I never had before,” the same owner added.
One user went further, arguing that Lucid should disable the convenience features entirely until they work reliably.
“Today, in May 2026, the best solution is for Lucid to get rid of autolock and unlock, phone as a key, proximity detection and anything that doesn’t involve pressing the fob button to lock and unlock the car,” the owner suggested.
They noted that “all those things are minor conveniences at best, and pale in comparison to the experience of locking your freaking kid in the car.”
“They have failed to make it work for 3 years now and should just end the services, make sure the pressing the FOB button works 100% of the time,” the user wrote.
Issues Already Flagged in 2.8.0
However, the locking complaints did not begin with update 2.9.0.
Owners on the forum had already flagged problems with the mobile key and key fob following the 2.8 release late last year.
“Key fob not found randomly flashes on the screen with fob in my hand, pocket or seat while parked or in motion,” one user reported in March, in a collective feedback thread about the update.
Another owner in the same thread said the mobile key had stopped working entirely after the update and required a full reset to restore functionality.
“I was able to restore functionality by deleting it on both ends and going through the add flow again,” they wrote. “Now I’m back to complaining about it constantly locking/unlocking when I’m 1 floor away at home. It really needs a ‘don’t auto lock at home’ feature, like Tesla.”
A Pattern Years in the Making
Lucid Air owners have been discussing challenges with the vehicle’s passive entry system, door handles, mobile key functionality, and overall locking and unlocking mechanisms since the model’s early availability.
Complaints spanning software glitches, hardware failures, and connectivity problems stretch back to early 2023.
In February of that year, one owner started a thread about the mobile key no longer being detected, resulting in neither automatic unlocking on approach nor manual locking via the door handle push.
By September 2023, delays in passive unlocking had become a major frustration.
In a thread titled “Doors painfully slow to unlock…,” a user described waiting approximately three minutes to access the vehicle after the passive system failed to respond.
“Go stand by your door and count to 180 before opening it and then realize how frustrating it actually is,” the owner wrote.
One month later, a new phenomenon emerged that owners labeled “ghost handles” — where the door handles would extend on approach or unlock command but fail to actually unlatch the door.
“Handles present themselves, but can’t open the door unless you go through the inside,” one user wrote.
Forum participants suggested the issue often followed software updates and could sometimes be resolved with a full power-cycle reboot.
Hardware failures escalated in early 2024.
In February, an owner reported a complete door mechanism failure in which the driver’s door made a grinding noise, the handle would not present itself, and the door could not be opened from inside or outside.
Lucid mobile service reportedly addressed these cases by replacing the entire door opening mechanism.
The EV maker has released over-the-air updates addressing entry-related bugs and provided guidance in its official owner’s manual for using the key fob, key card, or app as backups.
Forum threads indicate that similar locking and unlocking anomalies have continued into 2025 and 2026, however, now mostly with the Gravity SUV — which was launched early last year in the US.
Gravity Key Fob Issues
The Gravity SUV has been widely known for its key fob issues since deliveries began in late 2025.
Even after Lucid said it had fixed the key fob problems — including through an OTA key fob firmware update rolled out via the mobile app in October 2025 — users continued to report issues.
“So when the update came out earlier this year, 3.4.1, my key fob issues largely went away and with the update to the fob firmware and replacement of the fob from the bad batches, I hardly ever see access issues with my Gravity anymore,” an owner wrote on Thursday.
However, the user noted that since they’ve been driving a Gravity loaner, they’ve realized that the issues aren’t fully resolved, as other users have pointed out.
“I have had a Gravity loaner for a few days and this one is definitely one of the problem ones with key issues. (…) Vast majority of the time, it doesn’t unlock/lock on proximity or even remote presses. Several key not found warnings,” they wrote.
In December 2025, then-interim CEO Marc Winterhoff sent an email to Gravity customers acknowledging the company had failed to meet its standards on software quality.
Three months later, newly appointed SVP of Engineering and Digital Emad Dlala said the 3.4 software update had resolved 90 to 95% of the Gravity’s issues — a claim that has not held up for all owners.
Lucid‘s interim CEO also revealed earlier this year that it has fired software staff amid the persistent issues.
Since the beginning of 2026, Lucid has released two major software updates for the Gravity SUV and the Air sedan, respectively.
VP of Communications Nick Twork confirmed earlier this month that a Mobile Key feature — allowing owners to use a smartphone as a primary vehicle key via Bluetooth Low Energy — is expected in the third quarter of 2026.
The feature is now standard on most premium electric vehicles, including Tesla, BMW, Mercedes, Hyundai and Kia models.
The next Gravity software update is currently in final validation with Lucid employees and is expected later this month, with additional key fob stability improvements among the planned fixes.
