Lucid Motors said on Thursday it will begin offering subscription-based autonomous driving software in 2027, opening a recurring revenue stream that Tesla has already established and that Rivian will begin in April.
The information was revealed by Kai Stepper, who has been serving as the company’s VP of Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems (ADAS) and Autonomous Driving over the last ten months.
During a presentation at Lucid‘s first Investor Day event, Stepper outlined the EV maker’s bet and progress towards different levels of autonomy, which includes partnerships with other companies, such as Nvidia, Uber and Nuro.
Besides its bet on robotaxis, Lucid is advancing autonomy for its retail customers, expecting to include city drive-assist and hands-free highway driving in the Gravity SUV in the next two years.
Upcoming Features
Lucid‘s management announced on Thursday that the company will be introducing city-drive assist in the Gravity by the year’s end, followed by hands-free highway and city driving next year.
Stepper said that hands-free driving will also be available in Lucid’s upcoming mid-size EV, the ‘Cosmos,’ which is expected to enter production by year-end at its Saudi Arabia plant.
Eyes-off driving is expected to follow in 2028.
“And last but not least, eyes-off, hands-off, mind-off highway and city operations [will be available] by 2029,” the VP stated.
Subscription Model
For the first time, Lucid announced that starting in the first half of 2027, customers will be able to subscribe to the company’s ADAS software.
Kai Stepper said the EV maker will “offer different levels of autonomy, once they become available, starting from $69 a month.”
The pricing will be between $69 and $199, depending on the autonomy level, according to the executive.
It is expected to begin with Level 2+ autonomy, equivalent to hands-free driving.
Levels of Autonomy
Considering the SAE International standards, it ranks similarly to Tesla‘s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) and Rivian‘s Autonomy platform.
Level 1 and Level 2 technologies correspond to driver-assisted and partial automation systems and have been deployed by several automakers in the past few years.
Level 3 (conditional automation) and Level 4 (high automation) autonomy levels, which are not yet available for private consumer vehicles, are currently being tested by several companies, primarily in public transportation and logistics.
Tesla
Tesla‘s Full-Self Driving (FSD) is quickly advancing towards full autonomy since Version 14 was launched last October.
In late January, CEO Elon Musk said the company had achieved “100% unsupervised FSD,” as it began Robotaxi rides in Austin with no safety monitors inside the vehicles and removed the chase cars following the unsupervised fleet a few days later.
Musk said it is, however, remaining cautious on the rollout to personal vehicles, for safety reasons.
Starting from February 14, Tesla stopped offering the one-time purchase option for its FSD software, which was priced at $8,000. Customers can only opt to subscribe to the service, which costs $99 per month.
In late January, Musk wrote on X that the subscription price “will rise as FSD’s capabilities improve.”
“The massive value jump is when you can be on your phone or sleeping for the entire ride (unsupervised FSD),” he stated.
Tesla takes a different approach to autonomy than most of the industry, relying primarily on camera-based vision while rejecting LiDAR sensors.
Both Lucid and Rivian integrate LiDAR sensors in their autonomy stack.
Rivian
Rivian’s driver-assistance software currently falls between Tesla’s Autopilot (L1) and the more advanced Full-Self Driving (Supervised), which is gradually moving toward Level 3 autonomy.
The Irvine-based autonaker uses a neural network approach, with confirmed plans to include LiDAR in future models.
The R2 SUV, for which pricing and specs were officially revealed this Thursday, will launch with the current hardware used on Gen 2 R1 vehicles and is expected to be shipped with LiDAR later in the year.
The R2 Launch Edition debuted with lifetime Autonomy+, the brand’s most advanced autonomy suite, which includes Universal Hands-Free Driving.
The company rolled out a major autonomy-focused software update late last year, which included the expansion of the Autonomy platform coverage by 24 times to 3.5 million miles of marked roads.
Rivian’s Autonomy+ platform is currently available as a free trial through April, though customers are expected to begin paying either a one-time fee or a monthly subscription afterward.
According to the latest information from the company, the suite is expected to cost $49.99 per month or $2,500 for a one-time purchase.
With upcoming features, the company aims to reach Level 3, where the system handles all aspects of driving and the driver remains available to take over.
Level 4 autonomy is also in the plans, as the EV maker unveiled its custom 5nm processor and transition to in-house silicon.
