Lucid job posting hints at adding Apple and Amazon Music

A recent LinkedIn job opportunity posted by Lucid Motors less than 24 hours ago hints at a new infotainment media app for EV drivers. According to Lucid’s new role of senior product manager, media partner management, one of the key responsibilities includes working with Apple Music, Amazon Music and other “media application partners.”

Lucid Motors ($LCID) remains a relatively young EV startup with one flagship model on the market and another in the pipeline, we’re sure to learn more before the end of the year. While overall response to the Lucid Air sedan has been mostly positive, its top-of-the-line pricing as the most luxurious and powerful vehicle has alienated its customer base.

Aircraft sales continue to trickle in, but the American automaker is sitting on a ton of inventory. According to Lucid’s recent third-quarter report, it produced 1,550 vehicles — a nearly 29% drop from the previous quarter, setting the stage for it to fall short of its goal of producing 10,000 EVs this year.

To drum up some buzz, Lucid has introduced a new referral program that benefits new and current owners. Meanwhile, while the infotainment systems may not be the deciding factor in a consumer’s decision to switch to an Air purchase, convenience and familiarity certainly don’t hurt.

So it makes a lot of sense, and Lucid is clearly looking to add access to both Apple and Amazon Music to its EVs. Additionally, a recent job posting begs the question, “what other media apps will soon be added to Lucid’s infotainment screen?”

According to the following job posted 5 hours ago by Lucid Motors, its new senior manager of media partner management will begin work on implementing Apple and Amazon Music into its EVs immediately. Here are the duties of the new position according to the position:

• Fulfill product owner responsibilities for Apple, Amazon Music, and other media application partners
• Work with internal stakeholders to define requirements and deliver solutions that bring value to our ecosystem of third-party systems
• Be an expert on the needs, motivations and challenges of our internal business partners
• Conduct qualitative and quantitative research to discover feature ideas and validate them before development
• Work closely with Program Management, Engineering and Partner Development team to develop roadmap and proprietary specifications, development cycle and monitor for success
• Plan and prioritize work across multiple projects and communicate priority to relevant stakeholders
• Plan and prioritize the backlog and development of product features for the internal systems team(s).
• Be responsible for identifying and achieving key performance indicators
• Use data and statistics to inform decisions
• Use metrics to improve system usability

Given this information, it seems that the addition of Apple Music is inevitable. The automaker finally brought Apple CarPlay to Air owners via an OTA update last March, so further integration of Apple’s technology makes sense. What may be even more interesting, however, is the last part of the first line of responsibilities – “other media application partners”.

With Spotify, Tidal, and IHeartRadio already available, plus Apple and Amazon Music supposedly on the way, Lucid seems to have the major music apps covered. So what other media apps will we see next? AppleTV+? Amazon Prime Video? Netflix? How about YouTube? Lots of options.

However, if you’ve been in an Air EV before, you’ve probably noticed that the center display is vertical, not ideal for video streaming. It’s certainly something the automaker has already considered when discussing video streaming, and perhaps it will provide a solution in its Gravity SUV.

It’s all hearsay at this point, but it looks like Lucid Motors is making moves (or at least hiring the best staff to make those moves) into the media app realm.

Perhaps we’ll hear more during the upcoming third quarter report. Stay on the line.