Lotus wants its future sports cars to drive themselves

“Known as the creators of handmade automotive masterpieces, and a brand synonymous with racetracks and adrenaline, Lotus might not be considered an authority on autonomous driving,” says erm, Lotus itself on its own website. “This assumption would be wrong.”

Yep, new-age Lotus wants its cars to drive itself. Heck, we already know the Eletre SUV comes with Lidar cameras and enough computing power to make up to 508 trillion calculations per second. It’s basically Carol Vorderman in EV form. We also know that means it’s prepped for proper Level 4 autonomy, but Europe has only recently allowed the use of Level 3.

“From a technological point of view both the software and the hardware are at a very high level already,” Lotus’ chief commercial officer Mike Johnstone tells TG. “It's just having the right infrastructure and regulatory frameworks to allow us to do it.”

A position lots of manufacturers are in right now of course, and perhaps some people do want Level 4 autonomy in their fancy electric SUV, but Lotus builds sports cars, right? The company tagline is ‘For the Drivers’, so does self-driving really belong in a proper Lotus?

“I think it comes down to choice,” says Johnstone. “What I'm intrigued by is how can we apply autonomous driving to a sports car to help enhance the driving experience on a track. At one point the idea of ABS or traction control was scoffed at for sports cars, but actually it has enhanced the experience. I'd like to think that when it comes to sports cars there may be a way that we can utilise autonomous driving technology to make the experience safer, but also more exhilarating on the race track.”

Hmm, certainly sounds like the upcoming Type 135 could have the same all-seeing capabilities as the Eletre. Would you like your sports car to be able to show you the perfect lap before handing over the reins? Answers in the comments below please…