Lucid Motors is set to roll out a software update on July 30 that will enable hands-free highway driving on its Air sedans, a major step forward for the company’s advanced driver assistance system.
The rollout will put Lucid Motors on a short list of companies that have made hands-free driving possible in the United States. Ford has a system called BlueCruise, General Motors has Super Cruise, and Mercedes-Benz has Drive Pilot, although it’s not as widely available. In the right conditions and in cars equipped with an in-cabin camera, Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) can also be used hands-free.
Lucid says the hands-free update is only coming to the Air sedans for now, with an update rolling out to owners of the new Gravity SUV slated for later this year. (The company has barely started shipping Gravity SUVs anyway, with Cox Automotive reporting this week that only five were delivered in the second quarter.) The system is also only available to customers who bought an Air equipped with the $2,500 “Dream Drive Pro” package, which includes a “comprehensive suite of 32 sensors” that includes lidar, radar, cameras, and ultrasonics.
The company declined to say how many customers have purchased the Dream Drive Pro package to date. Lucid has delivered around 20,000 cars since 2021.
Drivers will have to keep their eyes on the road ahead and be ready to take over at any moment, much like the competing driver assistance systems. Lucid says this will be done with an infrared camera-based system in the car that sits on top of the steering column. They’ll also only be able to use the hands-free system on “compatible” pre-mapped divided highways.
Update: Added information about pre-mapped highways and the system’s infrared camera.
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