Having just added hands-free driving with automated lane changes to its DreamDrive Pro driver-assistance tech over the summer, Lucid has announced plans for further development of its autonomous-driving system. The California electric-vehicle maker has partnered with chipmaker Nvidia with the goal of being the first to market with what the companies in a statement call a “true eyes-off, hands-off and mind-off (Level 4) consumer-owned autonomous vehicle.”

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Leveling Up

For a primer on autonomous-driving technologies, you can check out our handy guide. But in short, Level 4 autonomy means the car is capable of taking control of all driving functions under certain conditions. Of the many partial-automation technologies available today — such as Ford BlueCruise, GM Super Cruise, Tesla Autopilot and the like — virtually all are Level 2 (or Level 2+, or Level 2++). Currently, only Mercedes-Benz Drive Pilot achieves true Level 3 capability, and only on a small number of highways in Southern California and Nevada.

The distinction between Level 3 and Level 4 is that with the former, the driver has to be ready to take control of the vehicle at all times — which is why Lucid calls its in-progress tech “mind-off.” As a further indicator of the scale of Lucid’s ambition, GM recently announced its plans to debut a Level 3 development of Super Cruise in 2028.

Lucid plans to debut Level 4 functionality on its upcoming mid-size vehicles. Nvidia’s Drive AV computing platform and the tech giant’s sensor suite will enable the leap to Level 4. Cameras, radar and lidar will feed data to two Nvidia Drive AGX Thor computers, centralizing all driver-assist and related systems and enabling their functions to be updated over time as the technology evolves. In the nearer term, Lucid says its partnership with Nvidia will allow “eyes-on, point-to-point driving (Level 2++)” in the recently launched Gravity SUV as well as in upcoming smaller vehicles.

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