Lucid Group and European shared-mobility company Bolt have formed a strategic partnership to develop and deploy autonomous ride-hailing services across Europe, with Bolt targeting a fleet of at least 25,000 autonomous Lucid vehicles.
The vehicles will be based on Lucid’s upcoming Midsize platform and deployed across multiple European cities and countries. The initiative represents a major step toward Bolt’s broader goal of having 100,000 autonomous vehicles operating on its platform by 2035.
Lucid and Bolt plan to jointly develop an autonomous-driving-system-ready vehicle platform supporting SAE Level 4 operation, where a vehicle can perform the full driving task within designated operating conditions.
The platform is expected to use NVIDIA Hyperion, NVIDIA’s production-ready reference architecture for autonomous vehicles combining high-performance computing with a standardized suite of sensors.
Bolt will contribute data and operational knowledge gained from more than a decade operating shared mobility services across European markets, while Lucid will contribute its software-defined vehicle architecture and automotive technology.
Bolt Autonomous Driving Solutions will lead Bolt’s portion of the program from vehicle co-design through commercial operation.
The company will help establish vehicle, software, safety and rider-experience requirements and will develop the fleet infrastructure, operational systems and relationships with European cities needed to deploy the service. Bolt intends to own and operate the fleet.
Lucid’s work will be led by the newly established Lucid Technologies organization, which consolidates its AI, advanced driver-assistance, autonomy and other digital technologies as the automaker seeks to commercialize its technology beyond traditional consumer vehicle sales.
Bolt operates in more than 850 cities across over 50 countries and serves more than 200 million customers across services including ride-hailing, scooters, e-bikes and car rental. More than 4.5 million drivers and couriers use its platform.
KEY QUOTES:
“Shared autonomous mobility offers the perfect opportunity to extend our unique technology beyond consumer vehicles. Bolt’s reach and operating expertise make it an ideal partner to scale autonomous mobility across Europe.”
Silvio Napoli, CEO of Lucid
“Autonomous driving in Europe requires data, software, vehicles, and operations to work as one system built for European roads and regulation. Lucid brings a world-class platform, and together, we will co-design the vehicle and software based on our data and more than a decade of operating experience across more than 850 cities.”
Markus Villig, Founder and CEO of Bolt
