Dream drive pro and autonomy subscription

[Saksak]

It’s more than packaging. The hardware differences are real. DDPremium has 24 sensors instead of 32. It’s missing lidar and 7 cameras (7 cameras instead of 14) compared to DDPro.

We don’t know how important those missing sensors are for just lane centering, and how much engineering work would be involved in supporting lane centering with the reduced hardware. Maybe the missing sensors are critical, maybe not.

Even if it’s possible to support lane centering with DDPremium hardware, there are many other considerations that goes into the decision. Product differentiation, customer value, short and long term engineering feasibility and cost, return on investment, etc. - those are all important factors that come into play.

In any case, we are being armchair quarterbacks. Lucid has made the decision and they probably already know the cost/benefit tradeoff - it’s not just about what’s possible or not. And who knows, as @joec pointed out, maybe that cost/benefit analysis will change over time as DDPro becomes more capable.

 

[DS9]

It boils down to lucid making a choice not to offer hands on lane centering. As other posters have inferred, cars with lesser hardware than the Air with DD Premium have hands on lane centering. I enjoy driving my Air but when we are embarking on longer road trips we take my wife's IX (profile switching works seamlessly, apple car key works 100% of the time, plug n charge available on many other networks, route planning is better and of course the hands on lane centering situation). As a consumer it was my responsibility to check all the features before leasing (which i missed the hands on lane centering) so I'll deal with it for next 19 months.

 

[Aka-none]

Lane centering? Hands on self driving?
I read these posts and wonder what you are talking about. They are different and DD pro is l2 and so is that Leaf mentioned earlier.
Can someone clarify what specific capability you are talking about?

 

[gaskiller]

The Air's steering column design is a bit finicky, because the eye tracker is mounted to the dash and you have to get it just right to get it to behave. I personally have never had excessive warnings with hand-free but it does need a certain person height and seating and steering position....

Clumsy place to put it. After all that engineering!

 

[bcjenkins]

Lane centering? Hands on self driving?
I read these posts and wonder what you are talking about. They are different and DD pro is l2 and so is that Leaf mentioned earlier.
Can someone clarify what specific capability you are talking about?

DreamDrive Premium does not include active lane centering (keeping the vehicle in the center of the chosen lane), while the referenced LEAF does despite the LEAF's inferior hardware, software, and compute.

On the LEAF, the "hands on" refers to the ProPILOT Assist requirement that torque be applied to the steering wheel when ProPILOT is engaged. The car actively steers and stays centered in-lane on any road with well-marked lanes as long as the driver keeps their hands on the wheel. (Or one hand... or a finger or three works, too.)

 

[erigion]

FYI, A base $25k Toyota Corolla comes with active lane centering. Tesla also removed active lane centering (Autopilot) on their '26 vehicles. There's only the monthly/yearly FSD option now.

Of course, Mercedes and BMW also don't come with active lane centering on their new EVs. You need a $2k (Merc) or $2.5k (BMW) option to get that. Lucid charging $6.7k is a bit outrageous. Especially for the Air.

 

[bcjenkins]

FYI, A base $25k Toyota Corolla comes with active lane centering. Tesla also removed active lane centering (Autopilot) on their '26 vehicles. There's only the monthly/yearly FSD option now.

Of course, Mercedes and BMW also don't come with active lane centering on their new EVs. You need a $2k (Merc) or $2.5k (BMW) option to get that. Lucid charging $6.7k is a bit outrageous. Especially for the Air.

I don’t mind the premium associated with DD Pro as long as future updates provide Driver Assistance features that take advantage of the extra hardware.

 

[joec]

A lot of cars claim to have active lane centering. And a lot of them suck at it.

There’s a big difference between checking a box and actually delivering a good feature.

Lucid cars supposedly have auto park. Has anyone actually gotten it to work?

Dream Drive’s highway assist has actually been quite good for me. I know there are exceptions. But I’ve driven many older cars that attempt to do what Lucid (and Tesla) do on highways. And many of them were just bad at it.

As was said earlier, I’m sure Lucid could offer decent active lane centering for Premium, but it would require a whole new software stack for that specific hardware. And that money is better spent on the folks who actually splurged for Pro, no? Given they haven’t fully delivered the promise of Pro yet.