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Lucid struggles to ramp production and keep those tasked with solving it
Lucid Motors is continuing to struggle with its initial production ramp of its introductory EV, the Lucid Air. However, it is also having trouble keeping the high-ranking executives it hired and tasked with solving the issues that have kept the electric vehicle startup from reaching mass production.
Lucid Group has lost at least six high-ranking, manufacturing-focused executives in “recent weeks,” according to a new report from Business Insider. Struggling to ramp mass production of its electric vehicles, Lucid has lost the following members of its manufacturing team:
- Vice President of Global Manufacturing – Peter Hochholdinger
- Vice President of Programs – Ralph Jakobs
- Head of Arizona Operations – Mike Boike
- Head of New Production Introduction and Program Management – David Peel
- Senior Manager of Logistics Engineering – Chris Barber
- Director of Operational Excellence – Keith Champion
Champion and Peel have already acknowledged their departures on LinkedIn.
“As I fondly look back at the many accomplishments and achievements that I had the honor of being part of, such as the development of the Lucid Production System and all the exceptional programs implemented by the global Operational Excellence teams, I realize that what made Lucid so special were the many brilliant people I got to work with daily,” Champion said in a post.
“Bittersweet to be leaving this great team that I developed for Lucid’s New Product Introduction in Casa Grande, AZ,” Peel said, then stating he had joined Nikola Motor as the company’s Director of Advance Manufacturing Engineering.
The exact reasons for their departures is unknown. Lucid is overhauling its manufacturing processes to reach mass production, but it seems the executives who departed may have disagreed with the moves. People familiar with the matter who wished to remain anonymous said they were unsure of how the mixup would affect the company, which is scrambling to remain afloat after cutting its production forecast on two occasions this year.
Lucid plans to make between 6,000 and 7,000 electric vehicles this year, a far cry from the 20,000 units it expected to build at the beginning of 2022. In February, this figure was cut to between 12,000 and 14,000 vehicles.
Credit: Lucid
“We’re overhauling our logistics processes and introducing a series of improvements to simplify the system and yet make it more efficient and robust,” CEO and CTO Peter Rawlinson said on the Q2 Earnings Call on August 3. Rawlinson also detailed that everything from improvements to line side supply, which would improve future production rates, can affect manufacturing forecasts. “Our guidance of 6,000 7,000 cars for the year, I believe, is a very balanced and a realistic guide for the future.”
Lucid brought warehouse and logistics operations on site, the report also stated. Lucid builds its vehicles at the AMP-1 Facility in Casa Grande, Arizona. Teslarati recently reported that Lucid plans to expand the plant, bringing a new wave of manufacturing buildings and other facilities to the campus.
Despite Lucid’s very-public manufacturing challenges, the company recently introduced another trim level of its Air sedan. Known as the Sapphire, Lucid plans for the vehicle to compete with the Tesla Model S Plaid, bringing forward a 1,200-horsepower, tri-motor powertrain capable of reaching 60 MPH from 0 in less than 2 seconds.
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Tesla revealed a major new Cybercab detail in a guide it released for First Responders, showing new territory in its beliefs and intentions for the ride-hailing-focused vehicle that entered production in April.
The First Responders Guide is released to give fire departments, paramedics, and other emergency personnel the proper guidance on what to do in the event of an accident, entrapment, or other situation that would require immediate attention.
On one of the pages of the First Responders Guide, Tesla revealed a stark detail about the Cybercab, which could help personnel enter the vehicle more easily in case of an emergency.
Tesla Cybercab has one important piece that AI4 cars might need for FSD
It shows Tesla has no intention of releasing any Cybercab units that were initially proposed for ride-hailing services for the general public with any manual controls, meaning a steering wheel or pedals:
“A Cybercab equipped with steering wheel, brake pedal, and an acceleration pedal is typically an engineering or test vehicle, and operates at SAE Level 2 autonomy. Cybercab is not typically equipped with a steering wheel or acceleration and brake pedals.”
New official Cybercab documentation from Tesla:
“A Cybercab equipped with steering wheel, brake pedal, and an acceleration pedal is typically an engineering or test vehicle, and operates at SAE Level 2 autonomy. Cybercab is not typically equipped with a steering wheel or… https://t.co/P6ut1mZyzr pic.twitter.com/yq6skl9s2J
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) June 27, 2026
This is a major development for those who continue to believe Tesla planned to release the Cybercab with any sort of manual controls so that passengers could take over if needed. However, when Tesla started manufacturing production versions of the Cybercab in Giga Texas earlier this year, they were spotted without a steering wheel or pedals.
It essentially confirms the company has no intentions of bringing manual controls to the car’s production versions. Some have argued that the likelihood of Tesla having something
There still are some Cybercab units out there with a steering wheel and pedals, and as Tesla said, these cars are engineering or test vehicles, which have Safety Monitors on board to help the car out of a precarious situation or emergency.
Tesla released the Full Self-Driving v14 ‘Lite’ suite to owners of Hardware 3 or AI3 vehicles today, adding several new features to the vehicles that were once believed to be capable of unsupervised self-driving.
Now, Tesla has released this modified suite to older Tesla vehicles, adding plenty of new features and capabilities.
Here are the full release notes for the suite:
- Distilled the intelligence from HW4 V14 into HW3. This allows HW3 to directly learn how to handle scenarios using HW4 V14 as a guide. This process unlocks the improvements that have been made to HW4 including Reinforcement Learning (RL) and offline models for HW3.
- Improved both proactive and reactive responsiveness across a wide variety of categories including navigation handling, merges and forks, pedestrian interactions, traffic lights, and vehicle cut-in scenarios.
- Improved general comfort in nominal scenarios through fewer false slowdowns, smoother steering and more consistent lane centering.
- Introduced parking, unparking, and reversing capabilities.
- Added Arrival Options for you to select where FSD should park: in a Parking Lot, on the Street, in a Driveway, or at the Curbside.
- Speed Profiles are now available at all times, to further customize driving style preference.
These improvements, according to Tesla’s Head of AI, Ashok Elluswamy, help distill the driving behavior from AI4’s v14 series into both the camera and compute configurations of AI3.
Tesla Full Self-Driving v14 ‘Lite’ for older cars finally gets released
He added:
“It includes destination options and speed profiles on city roads, but more importantly significantly improved safety. We hope you’ll enjoy it, once the build ships wide.”
FSD v14 Lite is now rolling out to AI3 early-access customers. Based on the feedback, will rollout to more customers over the next few weeks.
This build distills the driving behavior from AI4’s v14 series into both the camera and compute config of AI3. It includes destination…
— Ashok Elluswamy (@aelluswamy) June 29, 2026
Tesla will continue to roll out the v14 Lite suite more widely in the coming weeks, the company said.
Tesla has finally released its Full Self-Driving v14 ‘Lite’ suite for older cars that equip the Hardware 3 or AI 3 chip, which have not been able to handle the newest versions of the company’s driver assistance software.
Tesla officially started releasing the v14 Lite suite to owners in the Early Access Program last night. The company’s Head of AI, Ashok Elluswamy, said that the rollout will continue over the next few weeks. The build distills the driving behavior from AI4’s v14 series into both the camera and compute configurations of an AI3 car.
🚨 Tesla is releasing v14 Lite for AI3 owners who are in early-access
This will give AI3 cars the ability to experience new FSD features like parking preferences. https://t.co/pp6Q5FOKoz pic.twitter.com/tqexMB8SVy
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) June 29, 2026
It also includes a variety of new features that were available to AI4 cars running v14, including:
- Start Self-Driving from Park
- Arrival and Parking Options
- Speed Profiles
The release is highly anticipated because those owners with AI3 vehicles were early adopters into the FSD platform and were promised that their cars would be capable of achieving Full Self-Driving.
However, Tesla CEO Elon Musk admitted during the company’s recent Q1 Earnings Call that these vehicles would not be capable of achieving unsupervised Full Self-Driving, which is what Tesla had originally said.
Owners were not pleased with this answer, or the idea that their commitment to buying the suite outright for thousands of dollars would not yield the ability to drive without operating the car. Tesla gave some solutions for this, including a discount on a new car, or an upgrade to an AI4 or AI5 self-driving computer and new, upgraded cameras.
Tesla owners do not seem pleased with these options, as they require giving the company more money.
Nevertheless, it is important to note that Tesla came through for owners here by releasing v14 Lite before the end of Q2, something it had promised owners during the previous Earnings Call. Tesla has had trouble keeping up with timelines, but this is a big achievement for the team.
Tesla reveals huge Cybercab detail in new guide for First Responders
Tesla Full Self-Driving v14 ‘Lite’ Release Notes: new capabilities and features
