When customer deliveries of the Lucid Air begin in early 2021, the manufacturer hopes it will be the first to market with the combination of a driver monitoring system and a sensor suite that includes high-resolution lidar.
According to the company, its DreamDrive technology suite supports 19 safety, driving and parking assist features that will be available upon start of production, with another eight features expected later via over-the-air updates. It says additional capabilities to enable Level 3 driving in certain conditions are also in development.
“We have developed DreamDrive to be among the most advanced ADAS to ever be offered to consumers,” said Dr Eugene Lee, senior director, ADAS and autonomous driving, Lucid Motors. “By prioritizing safety and updatability, Lucid DreamDrive also sets the stage for offering increasingly sophisticated driver assistance features. We have ensured that the hardware and software platform not only offers a full suite of Level 2 features, but is also Level 3 ready, which means we’ll be able to quickly add features and functions over-the-air throughout the lifetime of Lucid Air and for future Lucid models.”
The vehicle is equipped with 32 sensors comprising camera, radar and ultrasonic sensors, as well as a long-range, high-resolution lidar placed at the front of the car. Lucid says it also includes an in-car driver monitoring system designed to share relevant information with the driver while ensuring their necessary attention to the driving configuration.
The company claims it is the first ADAS built upon a high-speed Ethernet ring, which additionally serves as a fully redundant platform for key functions such as steering, brakes and sensors, including redundant independent power sources and communications paths, fail-operational actuators and fault-tolerant computation.
Lucid has worked with key commercial partners on its hardware systems, including Here, Continental and Bosch. However, it states that the work of integrating these systems into Lucid DreamDrive is conducted entirely in-house.