The Lucid Display can be seen at the New York International Auto Show on April 16, 2025.
Danielle DeVries | CNBC
Lucide Group is aiming for a new goal that would make it the first automaker to offer highly advanced autonomous driving capabilities in its vehicles in the coming years, the company announced Tuesday.
The all-electric vehicle maker plans to launch what it calls “mental” driving, in which a car can essentially drive itself under normal circumstances without the need for a human to monitor or intervene unless circumstances change, such as extreme weather. It would be like an occupant playing a game of cards or watching television while the car is moving.
Lucid announced Tuesday that it plans to leverage NvidiaGoogle’s “Drive AV” platform and multi-sensor suite that includes cameras, radar and lidar – or light sensing and sensing, which allows the vehicle to better “see” its surroundings – for the next system.
Marc Winterhoff, Lucid’s interim CEO, said the plan is to launch the new system “certainly in the coming years,” but he declined to specify an exact timeline, except that it won’t be in 2026. The system is first planned for Lucid’s next midsize vehicle before expanding to other models, he said.
“I want to make sure that we can deliver this to our customers in a time frame that I consider very ambitious, but at the same time we’re also realistic,” Winterhoff told CNBC. “The main reason why I decided not to start from scratch, but to do it ourselves, is simply the time to market. … Plus, it would be very expensive.”
Winterhoff said Nvidia’s technologies will be an enabler for the system, while Lucid plans to actually run the autonomous driving technology.
In the meantime, Winterhoff said Lucid plans to continue increasing automated technologies on its current vehicles – the Air sedan and Gravity SUV – in partnership with Nvidia.
A teaser image provided by Lucid of its upcoming mid-size vehicle behind its current Gravity SUV.
Lucid
“It will be a stepping stone,” said Winterhoff, who has served as interim CEO since company founder Peter Rawlinson stepped down as chief executive in February.
Many companies, including General engines And Teslapromised autonomous personal vehicles but failed to deliver on their promises. Automakers have invested billions of dollars in autonomous vehicles in recent years, with most cutting back on spending after years of trying to deploy the technologies.
What Lucid aims to launch is what the industry calls “Level 4: High Driving Automation.” As defined by SAE International, formerly the Society of Automotive Engineers, Level 4 technologies should not require human monitoring or intervention under some, but not all, conditions.
There are currently a limited number of Level 4 vehicles on U.S. roads. More particularly, AlphabetWaymo’s operates robotaxis in various cities. Lucid says it plans to be the first for a consumer vehicle.
Realizing such a system for Lucid will be daunting, especially given its track record in advanced driver assistance systems, or ADAS.
The company, by its own admission, failed to meet its customers’ expectations. It took time to launch systems capable of hands-free driving, as many companies offer, or to compete with well-known “Level 2” technologies such as GM’s “Super Cruise” or Tesla’s “Autopilot” or “FSD.”
Meanwhile, this is expected to be a record year for electric vehicle sales, but demand for fully electric cars is expected to decline with the end of federal incentives of up to $7,500.
Lucid announced its autonomous driving technology plans and other initiatives in conjunction with the Nvidia GTC Global Artificial Intelligence Conference taking place this week in Washington, DC.