Lotus Eyes US Expansion for Self-Driving Tech at CES 2024

Lotus Robotics has plans to increase its presence in North America in 2024 – and used CES to showcase its latest autonomous tech in the United States for the first time.

The self-driving arm of legendary sports car maker Lotus has already demonstrated its expertise on the brand’s electric hyper-SUV, the Eletre, which is targeting Level 4 full autonomy once regulatory conditions allow.

Now it’s hoping to attract the attention of other companies seeking to implement self-driving tech and highlighted a number of its solutions at the Las Vegas show.

Among these was ROBO Soul, a full self-driving software stack which can be integrated into any vehicle.

As on the Eletre, this can offer up to Level 4 self-driving, meaning cars fitted with it can essentially drive and park themselves in specific operational design domains.

It is underpinned by ROBO Galaxy, a suite of cloud-based tools which enables businesses to efficiently manage autonomous fleets by analyzing their data. Information is collected from sensors and algorithms that lets ROBO Soul continue to learn and improve its self-driving capability.

Lotus Robotics also highlighted its ROBO Matrix tech, which uses real-time monitoring to provide remote assistance if necessary.

The software showcase was accompanied by some intriguing hardware, too. 

Related:Lotus’ Super SUV Targets Self-Driving Fast Laps at Racetrack

Taking center stage was the modular V1 chassis, created to work in tandem with the autonomous driving software and offering what’s claimed to be unlimited scalability.

There was also a reminder that the company isn’t focused exclusively on tech for the road via the Robocube, an intelligent cleaning robot that features a full stack of Level 4 autonomous driving software which allows it to operate on sidewalks, for example.

“As adoption of self-driving technology accelerates, we are seeing a strong demand for our solution here [in the U.S.] and see this as a key market for us to tap into in 2024 and beyond,” said Li Bo, CEO at Lotus Robotics.

Alongside this, Lotus confirmed it has just received approval to test the Eletre’s Level 3 automated driving capabilities on designated highways in Wuxi, a city near Shanghai. It’s one of a number of automakers recently granted permission to assess Level 3 tech in China.