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An Autonomous Car for Consumers? Lucid Says It's Happening.

posted by jelizondo on Wednesday October 29, @11:34AM   Printer-friendly
from the dystopian-science dept.

Freeman writes:

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2025/10/an-autonomous-car-for-consumers-lucid-says-its-happening/

Is it possible to be a CEO in 2025 and not catch a case of AI fever? The latest company to catch this particular cold is Lucid, the Saudi-backed electric vehicle startup. Today, it announced a new collaboration with Nvidia to use the latter's hardware and software, with the aim of creating an autonomous vehicle for consumers. Oh, and the AI will apparently design Lucid's production lines.

Formed by refugees from Tesla who saw a chance to improve on their past work, Lucid has already built the most efficient EV on sale in North America.
[...]
"We've already set the benchmark in core EV attributes with proprietary technology that results in unmatched range, efficiency, space, performance, and handling," said interim CEO Marc Winterhoff. "Now, we're taking the next step by combining cutting-edge AI with Lucid's engineering excellence to deliver the smartest and safest autonomous vehicles on the road. Partnering with Nvidia, we're proud to continue powering American innovation leadership in the global quest for autonomous mobility," Winterhoff said.
[...]
Car buyers are starting to cotton on to driver assists like General Motors' Super Cruise, which about 40 percent of customers choose to pay for after the three-year free trial ends, and Lucid must be hoping that offering a far more advanced system, which won't require the human to pay any attention while it is engaged, will help it earn plenty of money.
[...]
Nvidia's industrial platform will let Lucid create its production lines digitally first before committing them to actual hardware. "By modeling autonomous systems, Lucid can optimize robot path planning, improve safety, and shorten commissioning time," Lucid said.

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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by anubi on Wednesday October 29, @07:33PM (5 children)

    by anubi (2828) on Wednesday October 29, @07:33PM (#1422728) Journal

    Wouldn't surprise me if the AI vehicles decided it was cheaper to conserve energy and transit slowly, as a machine can have infinite patience.

    A human gets bored. Zoom zoom zoom! Snap snap!

    Gotta have that speed, even if distracted or unsafe conditions.

    I think the autonomous car will be the new pace setters of the road...everything else lined up behind them, as they optimize energy efficiency by minimizing accelerations and braking.

    Especially if the car is in Loiter mode, as the car is now minimizing energy cost per hour on the road against parking fees. It might even seek congestion and add to it as it is seeking idle at least cost to it.

    I imagine the "have-nots" in the human population will resent this symbol of conspicuous consumption in their midst, trap, and disassemble it for marketable parts.

    --
    "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
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  • (Score: 2) by mcgrew on Wednesday October 29, @07:56PM (4 children)

    by mcgrew (701) <publish@mcgrewbooks.com> on Wednesday October 29, @07:56PM (#1422732) Homepage Journal

    You give FAR too much credit to AI. But a passage from my next (unfinished) book:

    Upstairs waiting for the car it was warm, but cloudy. Not nearly as windy as it normally was. The car came, and he got in and gave it Gus’ office address at the university.
            About halfway there he was stopped by a funeral, a train of horse-drawn wagons draped in black, going through the intersection he was to turn on to. The car waited patiently; machinery is far more patient than humans, as are rocks. The hearse had just gone past the intersection.
            So many of those “horse” things! Jerry was mesmerized. He had never known horses existed before a year ago and here was a long parade of them!
            Al and Maude were in the tenth wagon from the horse-drawn hearse. “Heathens,” Al said when they were close enough to the intersection to see Jerome’s car.
            “Yes,” answered Maude. “Those poor clueless people. So sad.” As the wagon that was two wagons ahead was crossing the intersection, one of its wheels came off and the wagon fell over, on top of the man who had been driving it. A woman fell off, but seemed to not have been hurt.
            “Oh, shit!” Jerry exclaimed, and jumped out of the car, running over to see if he could help. He tried to lift the wagon off of the man, but he couldn’t even budge it.
            “Move over, son, let some men in here.” It took five of the big Amish to lift the wagon off of its driver, and two men with the woman who had been in the wagon with the trapped man, who didn’t seem to be much help, to pull him out.
            Even the woman was bigger than Jerry, and very distraught, crying “Herbert! Herbert! Please, God, don’t let him die!”
            Jerry wondered who Herbert and God were, and decided that Herbert and God must be physicians of some sort. But if so, they were too late. The man who had been under the wagon was dead, the woman sitting beside him sobbing and wailing in grief.
            Jerry felt terrible. That poor woman!
            He saw Maude glaring at him; a sky heathen’s evil noise had spooked the horse that caused the man in the hearse’s death; Robert, her and Al’s friend, who was on his way to his grave. Jerome bowed his head and said “I’m really sorry, ma’am.”
            Al walked up and said “You caused this, heathen?”
            “Why, no, sir. I was waiting for the wagons to pass and a wheel fell off and it tipped over.”
            “Then why is you apol’gizin’ fer?”
            “I’m not apologizing, I’m... sorrowful. That poor man.”
            “He’s in a better place now,” Maude said. “Have pity on his wife,” silently thanking God it hadn’t been her husband who died.
            Jerry felt ignorant. “A better place?”
            Maude asked “Can you read?”
            “Why, of course.”
            “Then read this.” She handed him an object, not knowing that the “heathens” didn’t have printed books, but rather used electronic devices for information and literature.
            Jerry took it, wondering what it was but not saying anything.
            By then, the large men had the broken wagon off of the road. Al said “We better get back on the Wagon, Maude.”
            The funeral continued on its way and Jerry got back in the car and laid his Bible on the seat next to him, still wondering about all of those horses, and not a bit about his Bible.
            Neither Al nor Jerry recognized the other from their meeting a year earlier. “Tham little heathens all look alike,” Al said to Maude.
            “I ain’t never seen none ’cept them local heathens. Now I need a new Bible.”

    --
    The #1 domestic terrorist organization in the US is ICE

    • (Score: 1) by anubi on Thursday October 30, @02:12AM (3 children)

      by anubi (2828) on Thursday October 30, @02:12AM (#1422767) Journal

      I am just imagining how people are going to use this.

      Given the concept of "Tragedy of the Commons".

      People will buy into things that will grant them a larger share of a public pie. All it takes is a law-maker to pass law in your favor. Tax Breaks, or increased access to a public good ( like the ability to use the public roads as your parking lot as long as the car is moving - it wouldn't surprise me at all to discover while some rich guy is having dinner, his car is just wandering the roads, as a parked fancy car may attract parts removal specialists from the Midnight Auto Supply Company. )

      --
      "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 30, @02:35AM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 30, @02:35AM (#1422770)
        I imagine how people are going to abuse AI cars. Many human drivers will bully the robocars to cut queues etc.

        1) Slowly drift into the lane you want.
        2) Observe if robocar has noticed you (see if it moves away or slows down).
        3) If robocar has noticed you, proceed to move smoothly into lane
        4) Robocar slams on brakes.
        5) Profit!

        Of course if lots of people start doing this 3) might end up being: move smoothly into lane and crash into car ahead because another robocar has slammed on the brakes.

        • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 30, @08:01PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 30, @08:01PM (#1422821)

          > 4) Robocar slams on brakes.

          They do this all the time already, but often the state operating rules don't require that these "ghost stops" be reported. It's part of the apparent good accident stats for Waymo and possibly others--they cause many, many accidents and are rear ended...but these accidents are not reported.

      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by mcgrew on Friday October 31, @08:38PM

        by mcgrew (701) <publish@mcgrewbooks.com> on Friday October 31, @08:38PM (#1422942) Homepage Journal

        The tragedy of the commons wasn't what the rich people who stole that land from the commoners said it was. Just because someone isn't rich doesn't mean they're stupid. Everyone knew that the commons had to be taken care of or they would lose them, and they did, until the rich man stole it from them on that lie.

        In twenty years when this tech is actually perfected and everyone is using it, the rich won't be using roads any more, the flying car is already here today and like the early automobiles, anybody who is driving a Rolls or a Bentley today will be in their flying cars. IINM they're less than a million bucks, and a Henry Ford is bound to come along.

        This is ironic, because when the first gas tax was instituted in 1919, only the very rich needed roads! Horses, buggies, and wagons need none. Only cars needed them, and a 1901 Oldsmobile needed the kind of riches to own in its economy as the kind of riches you need for a flying car today.

        --
        The #1 domestic terrorist organization in the US is ICE