Lucid Motors Reveals Dream Drive ADAS System To Take On Tesla

Lucid Motors which has just started production of the Lucid Air Dream Edition EV - but now it is in to stick it to Tesla even more so now with the announcement of its ADAS capability called DreamDrive system that comes with 30 features. There will also be a Dream Drive Pro option that even adds a LiDAR and a future highway pilot program that delivers hands-free driving capability. The Lucid Air was in development for over a decade and it has accrued investment of over a billion which includes investors from Saudi Arabia as well. 

The Lucid Air features 32 sensors which include 14 visible-light cameras, five radar units, and four surround-view cameras, and ultrasonic sensors throughout the vehicle exterior. There is also a version with LiDAR something that Tesla has admonished but the fact remains cars with upwards of Level 2 autonomy all have LiDARs. In a way, Lucid motors are saying that this system is not fully self-driving, but ADAS, but also superior to what Tesla is offering. 

Lucid Motors has also detailed an ethernet ring, which has a high-speed data network that enables a computer gateway in every four corners of the car to communicate at gigabit speeds. Its performance is overkill and hence also doubles as redundancy for key systems like brake, steering, and overall power. 

As a part of the DreamDrive Pro system, users will keep getting additional features via over the air (OTA) updates. 

"DreamDrive Pro has been designed to grow in capability, thanks to our ability to deliver software over-the-air and key equipment already in place in the vehicle. Thanks to highly integrated hardware and software teams, Lucid has the ability to develop new functionality for DreamDrive Pro in-house. This can benefit every facet of the DreamDrive Pro experience, from the frequency of updates to the planned rollout of the Highway Pilot system for conditional automated driving on select roadways in the coming years," said Dr. Eugene Lee, senior director, ADAS and Autonomous Driving at Lucid Motors. 

In the US, it could be the first consumer-grade application of a LiDAR on a mass-produced car. Sure, there are self-driving cars from Waymo and Cruise in the US, but those are not owned by consumers. 

This LiDAR will also support Lucid's surround-view monitoring with a 360-degree view being provided to the drivers. It will be offered to either the Air Dream Edition trim or the Grand Touring trim. 

Lucid's ADAS technology is called DreamDrive

DreamDrive will assist the driver in high-speed and traffic-filled situations like for example its highway assist will mix adaptive cruise control with lane-centering to keep the Lucid Air at a safe distance from the car ahead while on the highway. The traffic jam assistant will operate the car at 64 kph and the lane assist will keep the vehicle entered when the lines are being blocked or covered by a traffic light. Lucid has also hinted that the highway assist will also perhaps provide a hands-free driving experience in the future something that's not even offered by the Tesla AutoPilot. 

There is an auto-park feature as well for parallel and perpendicular parking spots and will bring the car to you and will even exit the spot. It will even turn the front wheels towards or away from a curb if it parks itself on a hill. DreamDrive will debut this month as deliveries of the Lucid Air begin.