Lotus is getting into the robotaxi game

Does a full week go by when some carmaker or other isn’t launching their own robotaxi company? This week it’s – somewhat surprisingly – Lotus’s turn. Yep, its Robotics self-driving division is powering the new CaoCao Mobility autonomous driving (AD) platform.

Together, both Geely stablemates CaoCao Mobility – a Chinese Uber-and-Zipcar combo, operating in 57 out China's 707 cities – and Lotus Robotics have created a fully customised car with fully unmanned piloting skills, and fully automated operations. The system has achieved over 8,400 miles of test driving without human intervention in and around Suzhou and Hangzhou.

Lotus Robotics' driving intelligence package – specifically the 'ROBO Soul', 'ROBO Galaxy' and 'ROBO Matrix' – sits inside the belly of CaoCao Mobility's AD platform. Breaking that down, the 'Soul' is the full software stack, parts of which can already be found on the Eletre SUV and Emeya GT, and the Galaxy is the cloud-based analytics engine, keeping the Soul suitably oiled (metaphorically speaking, of course).

Finally, the Matrix dimension of this package is the AI-powered computing of the physical environment around the car, which uses mapless 'Navigation on Autopilot' to make lane changes, U-turns and smart obstacle avoidance.

By winter this year, the tech will be deployed on a global scale, so Lotus reckons. Coming soon to a city near you? Maybe, albeit this is one yellow cab you can't whistle for.