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Lucid Air Dream Edition shows impressive initial build quality thanks to human craftsmanship

Credit: Vivianna Van Deerlin | YouTube

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With the Lucid Air Dream Edition finally beginning initial deliveries more than a year after its unveiling, the automaker’s first builds are showing an impressive build quality thanks to Lucid’s focus on fine craftsmanship. A spacious, luxury interior also fills the inside of the Air Dream Edition, giving the impression that first owners are more than happy with what they have been given after a lengthy wait.

Vivianna Van Deerlin was one of the first owners of the Lucid Air Dream Edition and attended the October 30th, 2021 unveiling event in California. While Van Deerling attended the West Coast-located ceremony, which included breakfast, numerous speeches from Lucid executives, and a trunk full of Lucid-inspired goodies, she is a resident of New Jersey, and putting 3,000 miles on the car in the first few days was not what she planned for. The vehicle was then shipped to New Jersey, where she plans to take delivery soon.

However, a video Van Deerlin took at the Lucid Delivery Event in California showed the impressive build quality the Air sports in its early builds, and it may be the reason the car was awarded MotorTrend’s “Car of the Year” award. Lucid has already detailed that the first few units of the Air would be built by hand. In March, Lucid detailed the tedious-but-necessary process of taking out automation and bringing humans in to build the cars. It eliminates the uncertainty of mass production, and while fewer units can be built, quality is unmatched. “At this stage in the process, it’s less about the robots and more about the hands-on human element. It’s all carefully choreographed,” Lucid wrote in its blog. “We do have some robots and we do have automation, but this vehicle is put together by humans. And it takes real craftsmanship,” Art Schlaud, Director of Manufacturing for General Assembly said.

Lucid shows the tedious process of building the Air Dream Edition

If the Air Dream Edition delivery event told us anything, it’s that Lucid is bringing its finest vehicles to the forefront during its shiny-and-pretty delivery event. The cars are nearly flawless, and the exterior is almost as pretty as the interior.

Van Deerlin may be one of the most qualified people on Earth to give a first impression of an EV. In 2009, Van Deerlin was a Model S reservation holder, and took delivery of an S85 in December 2012, she said. There was no infrastructure, Superchargers were not a thing, and electrification was far away from the mainstream. “It was a gamble at the time, but we believed firmly in the mission to transition the world to sustainable energy, so were excited to be early adopters of Tesla and help spread the word,” Van Deerlin said.

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Lucid’s competitive nature, which has included plenty of mention of rival Tesla, does not make anything different for Van Deerlin. “This purchase of a Lucid Air in no way diminishes my passion for my Tesla vehicles, energy products and the Tesla community. I love our Model 3, Model S, and Roadster. For anyone who truly believes in the Tesla mission, and not just making money from Tesla stock, the success of more than one EV company is imperative. I see a future of transition to electric vehicles — but I do not see a future where everyone drives a Tesla,” she said on YouTube.

Build quality is a term that many Tesla enthusiasts are familiar with because it was a strong point of conversation for media for some time. Tesla was struggling with build quality when ramping up the Model 3 several years ago, after having the reputation of well-built cars with early adaptations of the Model S being handbuilt. CEO Elon Musk has always said that “production is hard,” and Lucid may get to experience that lesson in a few years when it begins to mass-produce the Air sedan or the “Project Gravity” SUV it will unveil. The real question is whether Lucid will be able to keep this impressive build quality up while it begins to scale its manufacturing processes. Past experiences have taught us that automakers tend to struggle with perfect build quality while balancing thousands of units per day.

Nevertheless, Lucid brought its A-game for its first impressions. Check out Van Deerlin’s video on the delivery experience below.

I’d love to hear from you! If you have any comments, concerns, or questions, please email me at joey@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @KlenderJoey, or if you have news tips, you can email us at tips@teslarati.com.

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Joey has been a journalist covering electric mobility at TESLARATI since August 2019. In his spare time, Joey is playing golf, watching MMA, or cheering on any of his favorite sports teams, including the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles, Miami Heat, Washington Capitals, and Penn State Nittany Lions. You can get in touch with joey at joey@teslarati.com. He is also on X @KlenderJoey. If you're looking for great Tesla accessories, check out shop.teslarati.com

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Tesla Cybercab improvements are already on the minds of company engineers

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Credit: Tesla Europe & Middle East | X

Tesla Cybercab might have just rolled out to the public as it entered the company’s Robotaxi suite in Austin this past week. However, the vehicle might already be on its way to becoming even better, as the company is asking riders to describe what they’d like to see improved with the Cybercab.

Tesla sent a rider experience survey to Cybercab passengers only days after paid rides began in Austin. The questionnaire asks how satisfied riders were with the overall trip. Then it requests star ratings for availability and wait time, door functionality, vehicle touchscreen, mobile app experience, seat comfort, interior space, ride comfort, cleanliness, and cargo space.

A later section asks which features riders would most like to have and allows selection of up to three items from a list that includes heated seats, ventilated seats, fully reclining seats, a tray table, a wireless phone charger, a better sound system, and more storage. Respondents may also choose none of these or write in another idea. The survey closes with a recommendation score from zero to ten.

This rapid request for input illustrates Tesla’s habit of treating early users as collaborators rather than mere customers. The company has long refined vehicles through software updates and hardware changes informed by real-world use across its passenger cars.

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Collecting structured opinions so soon after commercial service started shows the same mindset applied to a purpose-built autonomous taxi. The questions themselves reveal an openness to cabin changes even after the first vehicles reached public streets, which is no surprise.

Tesla has always hoped to cater a great experience to anyone in its vehicles, which is why so many fan-requested features have made it into its vehicles.

Replies already circulating online favor reclining seats, tray tables, wireless charging, improved audio, and extra room when seats fold back.

Tesla Cybercabs narrowly miss deadly Amazon cargo plane crash

Those preferences point toward comfort upgrades that Tesla can implement in later production batches or through cabin revisions. Because the Cybercab is designed around software first principles, many requested amenities can arrive faster than in traditional automakers.

Tesla’s willingness to survey riders immediately after launch therefore makes near-term cabin and experience improvements likely as the team reviews responses and iterates toward a more refined robotaxi people will choose daily.

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Tesla Cybertruck engineer reveals new changes in ‘constantly evolving’ pickup

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Credit: Joe Tegtmeyer | YouTube

Tesla Cybertruck Lead Engineer Wes Morrill revealed the company has made several changes to the all-electric pickup, which he calls a “living thing, constantly evolving and improving.”

Cybertruck is manufactured at Tesla’s Gigafactory Texas just outside of Austin, and over the past few years, Tesla has continued to make small changes to the pickup to improve everything from cost, reliability, serviceablility, and manufacturability.

“The finish line isn’t getting to production. A product is a living thing, constantly evolving and improving,” Morrill added.

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Some of those changes are yet to be revealed, but perhaps the most notable one was the change Tesla made to the aero shield that sits underneath the truck. In the past, it was aluminum, but now the Cybertruck is using a self-reinforcing polypropylene.

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Morrill said that the polypropylene is “stretched into fibers and then laminated into the form,” and is much more durable, much lighter, and significantly cheaper than aluminum when it is manufactured this way.

It also enabled some improvements in the geometry of the Cybertruck, improving the manufacturing around the bolts and edges, in addition to minor form changes. These all benefitted the Cybertruck in more ways than one: specifically with durability and improved drag.

Typically, Teslas are not necessarily identified by model year because these changes are fluid and occur when the company sees fit to implement them. It is not like other automotive companies, which usually make sweeping manufacturing changes when building a new model year.

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Instead, Teslas are recognized by their “generation” or “era.” For example, those with a newer Model Y might refer to their car as a “Juniper.” This is the same with Model 3, as many refer to the new body style as the “Highland.”

Tesla’s manufacturing changes are proof of the company’s constant need to improve its products and move things forward with its vehicles. There is no need to drag one’s feet and wait until next year if the product can be made better right now, and that’s precisely what Tesla did with the Cybertruck.

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Elon Musk

Tesla Cybercabs narrowly miss deadly Amazon cargo plane crash

An Amazon cargo plane crash near Miami’s airport stopped feet from dozens of Tesla Cybercabs.

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Photorealistic depiction of the Amazon Prime plane crash in Miami on Sep 3, 2026 near a fleet of Tesla Cybercab
Photorealistic depiction of the Amazon Prime plane crash in Miami on Sep 3, 2026 near a fleet of Tesla Cybercab

An Amazon Prime Air Boeing 767 cargo jet overran the runway at Miami International Airport on Sunday afternoon, killing five people and injuring five more. The jet, operated by North Carolina based carrier 21 Air as Flight 7598, touched down around 2 p.m. after arriving from San Juan, Puerto Rico, then crossed the airport perimeter, plowed across NW 67th Avenue and struck multiple vehicles before catching fire, according to the Associated Press.

Photos and video from the scene show the aircraft’s nose stopped within meters of a fenced staging lot holding dozens of gold painted Tesla Cybercabs, the steering wheel free robotaxi Tesla began putting on public roads in Austin last week. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue has confirmed the plane struck “multiple vehicles” but has not said whether any Cybercabs were among them, and neither Tesla nor airport officials have addressed the fleet directly.

The Cybercabs had not yet entered commercial service in Miami. Tesla’s existing Robotaxi operation there runs on modified Model Y vehicles and has been unsupervised since Ashok Elluswamy confirmed the detail on X in July.


Elon Musk offered the briefest of reactions. Replying to a Zero Hedge post about the Cybercabs sitting so close to the wreckage, he wrote a single word: “Weird.” He has not commented further, and Tesla has not issued a statement.

The timing puts Tesla’s newest vehicle near an unrelated but highly visible tragedy just days after its Austin debut, a launch that had already drawn scrutiny from federal regulators. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an audit how Tesla certified the Cybercab as compliant with federal vehicle safety standards, a process Teslarati covered after the vehicle’s September 3 launch event. That inquiry concerns the car’s lack of a steering wheel and pedals, not the Miami crash.

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Investigators from the FAA and NTSB are focused on the plane, not the parking lot beside it. Flight data reviewed by outlets including Simple Flying show the 767 touched down around 170 knots, well above the 135 to 140 knot range typical for the aircraft, though investigators have not determined a cause. Amazon said it is working with authorities and that its priority is the safety of everyone affected.

Whether any Cybercabs were damaged, and what Tesla plans for the fleet parked near one of the country’s busiest airports, remain open questions.

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