Lucid Motors unveils robotaxi concept called ‘Lunar’

Lucid Motors has released a robotaxi it calls the “Lucid Lunar,” which it showed off at an investor day Thursday in New York City.

It’s a two-seater vehicle without a steering wheel or pedals, designed to be built on the platform Lucid Motors is developing for its upcoming “mid-size” electric cars, the company said.

Longtime CEO Marc Winterhoff said Lucid was already “working on” Lunar and that it would resume after the company launched its mid-range vehicles, but the company also explained to TechCrunch that there is no formal development underway on a dedicated robotaxi — yet.

Lucid Motors said Thursday it is close to a deal with Uber to partner on a robotaxi based on one of Lucid’s midsize vehicles in the pipeline. Lucid Motors is currently working with autonomous driving company Nuro to develop an autonomous version of the Gravity SUV that will debut on Uber’s network later this year in the San Francisco area. Nuro and Lucid have not confirmed whether the new car will use Nuro’s technology.

The announcement came at the end of Lucid’s investor day, but it shows that the company is focused on trying to build a stand-alone business that will support its electric car sales. At one point, Lucid Motors showed a chart showing how they expected robotaxi contract revenue to outstrip their revenue from licensing electric car technology, although there was no sign on the Y-axis.

Lucid also wants to monetize its independent games. The company revealed that it plans to offer monthly subscriptions for DreamDrive Pro with growing capabilities starting in the first half of 2027. Owners can pay $69 per month for the lowest level of driver assistance, or up to $199 per month for self-driving capabilities that will not require a driver to take over at any time. (Lucid Motors hasn’t built a supercar yet, nor does it have any other machines, it should be noted.)

The company shared a slide on Thursday that said independent subscriptions “are the single largest revenue opportunity for software.” It’s something Tesla has been doing for a while with its Full Self-Driving (Supervised) program, and it’s a similar approach. Rivian announced on its “Autonomy & AI Day” at the end of December.

Also like Rivian, Lucid Motors is working on its own AI assistant in the cabin. The company aims to enable the assistant to perform simple tasks such as turning the air up or down, or to answer complex questions such as finding “something to do that is unique, maybe off the beaten track, and maybe of a nautical or nautical nature.” It’s not clear how that works right now; An attempt by Lucid Motors to download the agent during the event failed, and the company instead showed a pre-recorded video.

The Lucid event focused on the company’s efforts to lower the cost of manufacturing its vehicles, as well as its efforts to push the limits of efficiency for its electric drivetrain. This will be very important for mid-size cars to be affordable (they should start at around $50,000) when the first one hits the market later this year. The company revealed that one will be known as the Lucid Cosmos, and the second vehicle will be called the Lucid Earth. The third name was not announced Thursday.