It was only a few months ago that Lucid Group announced it was not only offering hands-free Level 2 driving as part of its DreamDrive Pro software, but also that it planned to partner with Uber to create a new robotaxi service. Now, Lucid is taking a huge leap along with Nvidia and offering up true SAE Level 4 (L4) autonomous driving capabilities for public vehicle owners. This means that the American luxury EV maker is poised to be the first OEM to market with L4 cars and SUVs, potentially beating out the likes of Tesla and Mercedes-Benz.
Yes, Lucid and Nvidia aim to bring true autonomous driving to the public with a vehicle they can purchase and have in their own driveway. Lucid’s DreamDrive Pro qualifies as an SAE Level 2++ (also referred to as L2 Advanced) system, where there is still the need for an alert and attentive driver behind the wheel. Now, using Nvidia’s Drive AV platform and DriveOS running on its AGX Thor vehicle computer, Lucid says it will be able to offer true L4 autonomous driving that will not require a human driver to be alert behind the wheel of its upcoming midsize vehicles. These include the vehicle rumored to be called the “Earth.”
Further, as part of the scalable software-defined design, Lucid intends to add Nvidia software architecture to the Gravity SUV and incorporate new automated driving features that DreamDrive Pro currently doesn’t have. While this marks a change from its in-house-developed software, Lucid will continue to improve its systems through regular over-the-air (OTA) updates. It doesn’t mention, however, how or if it will apply this new Nvidia architecture to current Gravity SUVs in the wild. There was also no mention if the Air will receive similar Nvidia software updates/upgrades.
There are No Level 4 Vehicles for Sale, for Now
While many drivers in the U.S. (and globally) dream of letting their car take the wheel for commutes, road trips, and the like, to date there are no truly autonomous vehicles that an American consumer can buy and own. Tesla’s Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD), Ford’s BlueCruise, GM’s Super Cruise, and Mercedes-Benz’s MB.Drive Assist Pro are all L2++-capable systems, and such vehicles are typically limited to geofenced or pre-mapped areas and/or speed ranges. In the case of Tesla, full functionality is also limited to vehicles it owns itself as part of its Robotaxi program. That’s what makes this announcement from Lucid Motors such a huge deal.
Not Just Autonomous Driving
Lucid also plans to leverage Nvidia’s industrial platform to bring software-driven manufacturing to its factories. By utilizing predictive analytics, intelligent robotics, and real-time process optimization, Lucid hopes to make production lines easily reconfigurable, increase quality control, and easily scalable. This will be done by creating digital twins of production plants to plan, simulate, and validate layouts and processes in an accelerated timeframe versus blueprinting and estimating. It also hopes this will drive down costs and accelerate delivery of current and future vehicles.
No Timeline on L4 Becoming Reality, Yet
As of right now, there is no exact timeline for when Lucid’s midsize vehicle lineup will start to take shape. That means there is potentially some time for Tesla and Mercedes-Benz to accelerate their plans on L4 consumer vehicles before Lucid brings its own technology to the road. Then again, if the company is announcing this news now, it’s possible more details are right around the corner.
