Lucid CEO:

• The Lucid Gravity SUV launched with a bevy of software issues, including glitching screens and a key fob that often became unrecognizable and prevented driving.
• Lucid Motors’ interim CEO, Marc Winterhoff, said that the company replaced much of its software team in the wake of the launch.
• Winterhoff said he expects those final glitches to be fixed at the end of January, or “at the latest, the end of March.”

Marc Winterhoff said he is aware of the irony. His company, Lucid Motors, releases one of the most advanced electric vehicles the U.S. market has ever seen. That vehicle, the Lucid Gravity, has class-leading range, efficiency and fast-charging. The Gravity is a good enough platform that it’s going to be used as a driverless taxi in Uber’s network.

And yet its key fob didn’t work. 

While the Gravity was Lucid’s most important launch yet—an SUV that can grow the brand in ways the Lucid Air sedan could not—it debuted last year with a raft of technical issues. Those problems included a glitching screen and a key fob that the vehicle sometimes couldn’t recognize, preventing someone from driving away. We at InsideEVs encountered both in testing last year, which kept the otherwise-impressive Gravity from taking the top honors at the InsideEVs Breakthrough Awards.

Lucid Gravity Uber Nuro Robotaxi CES 2026

Photo by: Patrick George

So at CES 2026 last week, Winterhoff, Lucid’s interim CEO, told InsideEVs that the automaker made some big personnel changes in the wake of the Gravity’s launch. “I basically replaced the whole software leadership team,” Winterhoff said in a briefing with reporters. “We’re working through this, and we’re actually very close.”

A Lucid spokesperson confirmed the changes to InsideEVs, and could not provide the total number of firings, but said it was “more than a handful.”

The automaker announced in November that Lucid’s chief engineer, Eric Bach, was leaving the company after more than a decade; TechCrunch reported that Lucid’s VP of Engineering, James Hawkins, also departed. (Bach later filed a lawsuit against the automaker, alleging a hostile work environment and slurs against his German nationality. InsideEVs has reached out to both Bach and Hawkins for comment.) Lucid Motors’ former Senior Vice President of Powertrain, Emad Dlala, was then promoted to oversee all of “Engineering and Digital.” It is unclear which, if any, of these departures are directly related to the Gravity’s software challenges.

Lucid Gravity Screen Glitch

Photo by: Kevin Williams/InsideEVs

Since the Gravity’s launch, Lucid has released a number of over-the-air (OTA) software updates. Today, Motor Trend reported that the latest one, 3.3.20, has fixed two of the car’s biggest issues: key-fob detection and inconsistent unlocking and starts. 

At CES, Winterhoff said that at least one more OTA update is coming to the Gravity at the end of January, followed by another one in two months. “So our expectation is that for the Gravity, we will be over the hump by end of January, latest, latest, end of March,” he said.

Winterhoff acknowledged the Gravity’s key fob issue, which sometimes left owners unable to start their vehicles. But that issue, he said, has been “to an almost complete extent, fixed.” Another OTA update coming in the next few weeks will address how the key continually “pings” the car until its own battery runs out. 

2026 Lucid Gravity

Photo by: Patrick George

Software has been a pervasive challenge for nearly every automaker in the modern era, from both newcomers like Lucid to more seasoned players like Volvo and General Motors. EVs are often testbeds for brand-new technologies, and as such, their software suites carry complexities—and operate components from many different suppliers—that can wreck the entire experience if something goes wrong.

For Lucid’s part, Winterhoff said, the company is aware of the problem and “made drastic changes to turn that around.”

Gallery: 2026 Lucid Gravity

“It’s sometimes embarrassing. We have such a fantastic car, by the way,” he said. “Under the hood, in order to make that car perform like it performs, is tons of software that all works. And then the key fob doesn’t. I mean, I kind of laugh at it now, but, believe me, I wasn’t laughing a couple of months ago.” 

Contact the author: patrick.george@insideevs.com

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