Lotus Robotics, the self-driving technology unit of Lotus, is partnering with CaoCao Mobility, the ride-hailing company in which Geely Holding has taken a strategic investment, to speed the deployment of its autonomous driving solutions globally. Together, the brands have launched what they describe as China’s first fully comprehensive autonomous driving system, powered by Lotus Robotics. This features a fully customized car, fully unmanned autonomous driving and fully automated operations.
Both companies have successful completed a pilot programme across Suzhou and Hangzhou in China, with the self-driving technology achieving 13,545km of driving in test areas without human intervention – proving the real-world safety and reliability of Lotus Robotics software and services.
Lotus Robotics and CaoCao Mobility will continue operating across both cities in China, as they look to refine the vehicle-road-cloud integration model, blending vehicle intelligence with infrastructure to address persistent challenges including unexpected pedestrian crossings.
The announcement comes on the heels of Lotus Robotics’ partnership with Aramco Digital, the digital and technology subsidiary of Saudi Aramco. Both companies are exploring implementing Robotaxis in the Middle East.
Lotus Robotics continues to scale globally, offering a full stack of autonomous software and services for businesses wanting to deploy self-driving technology in their operations safely, securely and efficiently.
Lotus Robotics offerings include:
- Robo Soul: full self-driving software stack, which can be integrated into any vehicle, in any environment. The company currently offers an end-to-end solution and can provide up to Level 4 autonomy, which means the vehicle can perform driving tasks such as parking and highway driving, under specific circumstances, with human override as an available option. Components of this technology are currently being employed in Lotus’s next generation electric vehicles, its hyper-SUV Eletre and hyper-GT Emeya.
- Robo Galaxy: a range of cloud-based tools that underpins Robo Soul. It enables businesses to manage and analyze data, in order to increase efficiency and accessibility of their autonomous fleets. Lotus Robotics collects data from multiple sources such as sensors, road information and algorithms, so Robo Soul can continue to learn and improve its self-driving capabilities throughout its testing and development phases.
- Robo Matrix: uses real-time monitoring to provide drivers with improved remote safety including guidance, control and parallel driving solutions through analyzing real-time data. It also deploys AI to continually learn from its environment and improve the safety and accuracy of its self-driving.
The company’s latest advancements to its self-driving technology include:
- Urban road navigation without the reliance of maps, otherwise known as Navigate on Autopilot (NOA). This delivers seamless transitions between highways and urban roads, smart lane changes, intersection U-turns and detouring.
- High navigation precision that can effortlessly achieve variable lane driving, seamless transitions between highways and city roads, U-turns at intersections, intelligent lane selection, and smart obstacle avoidance, among other functions.
This technology is already deployed in China, with global market rollout expected to take place in Q4 2025. The level of autonomy offered in each region is subject to market-specific regulation.
Lotus Robotics says it currently works with multiple leading global automotive brands to enable them to reap the benefits of self-driving technology including Lynk & Co, Farizon Auto, and more.
To scale its offering and deliver to customers around the world, the company has tapped into Amazon Web Services (AWS). It stores and analyzes the data collected across its product portfolio on AWS, and adheres to all regulations in each market it operates in.
CaoCao Mobility’s services is available in over in 57 cities across China, and serves over 35,000 businesses and seven million professionals.