Unbelievable computing power in Lotus Emeya

When the cars are to become self-driving, they also need a huge computer brain, because here you cannot leave anything to chance, or luck if you like.

The cars must take account of all conceivable situations, and be able to react correctly every time. When these brains and all the aids they need to get the information are in place, autonomous cars will virtually eradicate all car accidents, and we can finally approach the ambitious goal of zero fatal accidents. But powerful and lightning-fast computers have several advantages. Lotus says processing power is the new hp. So don’t count the number of horsepower, but count how many calculations the brain of a supercar can do. And we promise you there are many – unimaginably many. Lotus has a new supercar in the works called Emeya, and this hyper-GT is also built on the data platform called Nvidia Drive. And this is wild stuff. Namely, the car can complete up to 25 trillion operations in the same time it takes the human brain to identify an image, which is about 50 milliseconds, or 1/20 of a second. Blink and Emeya’s one half of the brain has done 25 trillion operations. Because there are two such. Yes, unbelievable.

Lotus says that now that the car industry is going electric, processing power will become the new horsepower – and Emeya is therefore a thoroughbred. More precisely, the Nvidia Drive platform paves the way for Orin systems-on-a-chip (SoCs) that are used to process data from 34 state-of-the-art surround sensors up to 30 times per second, offering 360-degree perception without blind spots. There are four lidars, 18 radars, seven 8 MP cameras (megapixels) and five 2 MP cameras which in combination scan the area around the car at a distance of up to 200 metres, and this in all directions and even in poor light and bad weather . These create a virtual environment around the car so that it is possible to define the best path – an essential requirement in an autonomous future. All this processing power comes from two Nvidia SoCs, which together deliver 508 trillion operations per second, or TOPS, of computing in a compact form factor, measuring the size of a postage stamp, just 3mm thick, explains Lotus. If you follow along below, you should see a picture of this. Built on Geely’s brand new platform called Electric Premium Architecture (EPA), which possibly also the brands Volvo, Polestar, Zeekr, Lynk & Co and Smart will use in the future, everything is in place for both the Lotus Eletre, the very first EPA car, and not least the upcoming Lotus Emeya, are state-of-the-art. Yes, we know, Volvo with its EPA tractor should have been first on this platform. But as we know, we don’t always get what we want in this life. Emeya will therefore use all the advantages of EPA, including a lightning-fast computer brain. ‒ Process power is quickly becoming the new horsepower, says Maximilian Szwaj, vice president of Lotus Technology. ‒ That’s why we have built a supercomputer on wheels with Emeya. It is packed with high-tech features designed to give customers confidence, security and satisfaction. It is also fully future-proofed and ready for an autonomous future, with software that can be continuously updated over the air. So they can thank the graphics card giant Nvidia for that. ‒ With Nvidia Drive Orin as the brain of Emeya, Lotus customers will be able to experience new convenience and safety features throughout the car’s lifetime, says Ali Kani, vice president of Automotive at Nvidia. Why Szwaj believes this is the new hp also shows other things. The dual Nvidia Drive Orin configuration allows, for example, for Emeya to sense the road through an electronically controlled air suspension at a speed of 1,000 times per second, and make dynamic adjustments for perfect driving comfort. There’s also a host of advanced aerodynamic technologies, including an active front grille, rear diffuser and rear spoiler, all of which should provide near-perfect handling by constantly adjusting ground pressure. This should therefore be glued to the asphalt. Emeya is thus an electric car, and under the floor sits a modern 800-volt, 102 kWh battery pack, and this is important for the charging time. Lotus says that the charging time from 10-80 percent goes away in just 18 minutes when the car is connected to a 350 kW fast charger, and that is impressive for a car with such a large battery. The inside also follows suit. For example, there’s the 15.1-inch OLED touchscreen that boasts over 16 million colors, and the central screen and Lotus Emeya’s intelligent “Digital Cockpit” are powered by a dual-configuration setup of Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8155 processor and Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 3 – software. So yes, here we also find the latest graphics engine used in near-realistic games. The software and hardware are part of Lotus’ Hyper OS, and here there should be zero lag with real-time graphics. At the top, literally, we find a head-up display, and road information is displayed in real time with navigation and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). This is how the navigation looks from the screen:

Lotus Emeya will of course learn to know the driver, and will be able to learn individual driving patterns, such as departure times, destinations and routes, to offer more personalized journeys. The supercar is of course equipped with 5G, which all self-driving cars in the future will depend on, and this also opens the door for wireless OTA updates that make the car even better over the years – just like with a good wine. We do not yet know what more Lotus Emeya can offer, because the plan is that it will not go into production until sometime next year. But at least we’ve learned that there’s crazy computing power in this car, and Lotus can thank this little chip for that, among other things:

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