Lucid Apple CarPlay launch

After being rumored as coming with an update for some time, luxury electric vehicle maker Lucid has officially announced wireless CarPlay and Android Auto are now available and come standard with its connectivity suite.

Lucid announced the news on Twitter today with a short teaser video and also updated its website noting that the CarPlay integration is wireless and “comes standard.”

It’s difficult to tell exactly what size the CarPlay portion of the screen comes in at. Here’s how Lucid describes the whole screen which spans from the driver’s side instrument cluster to the middle of the dash: “The Glass Cockpit display is a 34-inch, 5K floating screen that sweeps around the driver, curving like the cockpit of a jet.”

But with the way the display tapers, it seems like the CarPlay portion is relatively small. Nonetheless, it’s nice to see Lucid add the support as Tesla is a notable holdout (Rivian too) on the popular in-car experience.

Lucid put most of the focus on launching wireless Apple CarPlay with the tweet above and the section covering Lucid Air’s connectivity on its website. However, Android Auto as previously seen in testing is available now too.

A bit below the image shown below, the company says “Air is even compatible with Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, and countless other apps.”

For a detailed look at the luxury EV sedan, check out my colleague Scooter‘s first drive of the Lucid Air Touring over at Electrek:

9to5Mac’s Take

With a luxury EV at this price point ($88k to $250k) it feels like CarPlay and Android Auto support should be a given. But that’s not really the norm as Tesla has held out on the capabilities since 2014. Rivian has decided to skip the integrations so far as well.

Meanwhile, EVs from Ford like the Mach-E, VW ID.4, and Chevy Bolt have all included the in-car experience from Apple and Google from the start.

As mentioned above, the CarPlay/Android Auto portion seems somewhat small compared to the full 34″ display, but kudos to Lucid for following through with making it happen. It will be interesting to hear about real-world experiences from owners.

What do you think about the integration of CarPlay and Android Auto on the Lucid Air? Share your thoughts in the comments!


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