[ad_1]
Lucid has used an over-the-air (OTA) update for its electric flagship Air sedan to find out which vehicles are affected by the recall issue, the company reported in documents filed with the federal government and posted earlier this week.
The recall of approximately 259 Lucid Air luxury electric cars from the 2022 and 2023 model years involves replacing potentially faulty parts, and thus cannot be resolved with a software update alone. But that’s the result of a much smaller pool of vehicles, after Lucid pushed out an OTA update to help identify problematic parts.
The contactor is a switch that closes while driving to allow power to flow from the battery pack to the motor or motors. In affected vehicles, the contactor may open unexpectedly, causing a loss of power. This is because their spring force is overcome by magnetic forces, according to the drawing documents.
Lucid Air Grand Tour 2022
When operating normally, the contactor exhibited “single dip marks” caused by the movement of components in a magnetic field, according to the document. The “double-dip signature” indicates a vulnerability to open unexpectedly, Lucid found, cutting power to the motor. In recall documents, the automaker indicated that the display, power steering and power brakes will not be affected.
Kontaktor switched to an updated design in October, but for older cars Lucid uses OTA updates to remotely analyze the vehicle for the risk of these defects. It initially identified 232 customer cars with contactors that might require replacement, and expects an additional 27 vehicles to require contact replacement once owners update their software and allow analysis to run. The owner will replace the affected contactor free of charge.
This sounds like a problem Ford had with the Mustang Mach-E—and in this case Ford was able to fix it via an OTA update that changes the behavior of the contactor. What Lucid is doing here fits into another category—using OTA updates to push diagnostic software, helping to reduce the physical recall recovery size.
This type of remote diagnosis of potentially faulty components is something General Motors might find useful, for example, when turning to dealers to flash tens of thousands of Bolt EVs with battery diagnostic software.
As Lucid underlined, a large part of the potential vehicle pool will need to be physically brought in for the update as well, but that’s only because their owners don’t keep up with them.
Tesla already has a track record of providing recall solutions via OTA updates, for possibly much larger service challenges, including issues with the power steering, heat pump and power windows. Now Lucid is taking the benefits of such an update to the next step — if it can get its owner to accept it.
[ad_2]
Source link
