From VR to HMI: why Lotus is still one of auto’s biggest disruptors
November 18, 2024
Back in 1976, design engineer and founder of Lotus Colin Chapman started on a journey that would lead to the construction of a groundbreaking new Formula One car—the Lotus 78.
Inspired by the de Havilland Mosquito fighter bomber, Team Lotus added wings and shaped the undersurface of the car to create downforce—revolutionizing Formula One with ground-effect aerodynamics in the process.
It’s a moment in time that captures the innovation that’s at the heart of the Lotus story.
A British manufacturer of luxury sports cars and electric vehicles, Lotus has done more than just thrive as the automotive industry has evolved over the past seven decades; it’s often been a driver of that evolution.
Inspired by the de Havilland Mosquito fighter bomber, Team Lotus added wings and shaped the undersurface of the car to create downforce—revolutionizing Formula One with ground-effect aerodynamics in the process.
It’s a moment in time that captures the innovation that’s at the heart of the Lotus story.
A British manufacturer of luxury sports cars and electric vehicles, Lotus has done more than just thrive as the automotive industry has evolved over the past seven decades; it’s often been a driver of that evolution.
Copyright © Lotus Technology Innovative Limited 2024. All rights reserved.
With modern vehicles now incorporating cutting-edge technology from AI to LiDAR, the industry is changing at a faster rate than ever before.
“We’ve seen the biggest shift that we’ve ever seen in the last 100 years since it started,” says John Bulmer, Head of Visual Communications at Lotus Creative. “And I think Lotus, the same as everyone else, has to adapt and move forward.”
In the effort to meet that change head-on, Lotus has become an early adopter of many cutting-edge technologies, including real-time tools.
In this article, we’ll reveal how the automaker went from using game engines to explore early designs to creating commercials, human-machine interfaces (HMI), and beyond with the technology.
“We’ve seen the biggest shift that we’ve ever seen in the last 100 years since it started,” says John Bulmer, Head of Visual Communications at Lotus Creative. “And I think Lotus, the same as everyone else, has to adapt and move forward.”
In the effort to meet that change head-on, Lotus has become an early adopter of many cutting-edge technologies, including real-time tools.
In this article, we’ll reveal how the automaker went from using game engines to explore early designs to creating commercials, human-machine interfaces (HMI), and beyond with the technology.
Accelerating development cycles
Lotus is not a brand to bury its head in the sand when it comes to new ideas.
A few years back, its decision-makers noticed game engines were starting to be adopted in the automotive industry—and at a time when the company itself was looking to become a much more tech-centric business.
“This was something that was starting to flow into the automotive industry, and for us, it was the right time to integrate it,” says Ben Payne, Vice President of Design for Group Lotus.
Partly driven by a company-wide impetus to rejuvenate the Lotus brand for a new generation of customers, Lotus wanted to engage younger, digitally native consumers—ones who had a whole new set of expectations of the technology in their vehicles. “It’s become a critical thing in the automotive industry to look at the UI and UX systems inside the car,” says Payne.
At the same time, development cycles were beginning to speed up exponentially.
The past decade has seen the onset of electrification, vehicle intelligence, connectivity, and digitalization push automakers to rapidly expedite development cycles from R&D to purchasable vehicle.
A few years back, its decision-makers noticed game engines were starting to be adopted in the automotive industry—and at a time when the company itself was looking to become a much more tech-centric business.
“This was something that was starting to flow into the automotive industry, and for us, it was the right time to integrate it,” says Ben Payne, Vice President of Design for Group Lotus.
Partly driven by a company-wide impetus to rejuvenate the Lotus brand for a new generation of customers, Lotus wanted to engage younger, digitally native consumers—ones who had a whole new set of expectations of the technology in their vehicles. “It’s become a critical thing in the automotive industry to look at the UI and UX systems inside the car,” says Payne.
At the same time, development cycles were beginning to speed up exponentially.
The past decade has seen the onset of electrification, vehicle intelligence, connectivity, and digitalization push automakers to rapidly expedite development cycles from R&D to purchasable vehicle.
In essence, it’s an arms race: technology is evolving so fast, there’s a need to get the latest innovations into the car and on the road before they become outdated.
“We’re now working to development cycles of less than three years—whereas traditionally ten years ago, a luxury automotive manufacturer might take six or seven years to develop a car,” explains Payne. “That means the technology inside the car is as up to date as it can possibly be.”
But while the timelines might be shrinking, the need to hit the quality bar is not.
“The biggest thing is not sacrificing quality, because Lotus is steeped in heritage and has had this great past—and we want to represent that in the right way,” says Bulmer.
This poses a conundrum for the automaker: how to maintain best-in-class luxury but on tighter and tighter timeframes.
That’s where Unreal Engine comes in.
“We’re now working to development cycles of less than three years—whereas traditionally ten years ago, a luxury automotive manufacturer might take six or seven years to develop a car,” explains Payne. “That means the technology inside the car is as up to date as it can possibly be.”
But while the timelines might be shrinking, the need to hit the quality bar is not.
“The biggest thing is not sacrificing quality, because Lotus is steeped in heritage and has had this great past—and we want to represent that in the right way,” says Bulmer.
This poses a conundrum for the automaker: how to maintain best-in-class luxury but on tighter and tighter timeframes.
That’s where Unreal Engine comes in.
“The fidelity of Unreal was the initial attraction for us,” says Robert Heath, External Content Manager at Lotus. “We could see the quality we were getting in real time. It would inform decisions quicker than using physical models.
“We can just go straight to digital using VR within the design studio. You can get that one-to-one scale sense very, very quickly. You can iterate on designs and simply speed up the entire process.”
Lotus initially brought real-time tech into the business to communicate design ideas to internal stakeholders early on in the concepting stage. “Now, our use of Unreal Engine has developed way beyond that,” says Payne
“We can just go straight to digital using VR within the design studio. You can get that one-to-one scale sense very, very quickly. You can iterate on designs and simply speed up the entire process.”
Lotus initially brought real-time tech into the business to communicate design ideas to internal stakeholders early on in the concepting stage. “Now, our use of Unreal Engine has developed way beyond that,” says Payne
Building the automotive pipeline on real-time technology
It soon became apparent to Lotus that game engines have much more to offer than fast and fluid visualization—real-time technology can be the backbone of the automotive production pipeline.
That’s because the data set used for early concepting can be reused again and again—from design through manufacturing, out to marketing, and beyond.
“We now work in a single data set which supports all of those systems and all of those activities,” says Payne. “And the efficiency that gives us—and indeed, the visual consistency—is a really key thing.”
All the teams working on a new vehicle design at Lotus work from a single master file that’s constantly updated.
Anyone accessing and using data from the master file can be sure they are working with the very latest version, in sync with all the engineering data and the creative work streams, all brought together as a seamless single source of truth.
“The master file has really been the catalyst to how we’ve integrated Unreal into more of the business,” says Bulmer. “Not only is it one source of truth for the data file, it’s the physically accurate representation of the car.
That’s because the data set used for early concepting can be reused again and again—from design through manufacturing, out to marketing, and beyond.
“We now work in a single data set which supports all of those systems and all of those activities,” says Payne. “And the efficiency that gives us—and indeed, the visual consistency—is a really key thing.”
All the teams working on a new vehicle design at Lotus work from a single master file that’s constantly updated.
Anyone accessing and using data from the master file can be sure they are working with the very latest version, in sync with all the engineering data and the creative work streams, all brought together as a seamless single source of truth.
“The master file has really been the catalyst to how we’ve integrated Unreal into more of the business,” says Bulmer. “Not only is it one source of truth for the data file, it’s the physically accurate representation of the car.
“So all the specs, all the color materials are correct; if it’s the carbon fiber, or if it’s the leather, Alcantara, they’ve gone through a process of color grading, signed off by color material experts and designers to make sure they represent the color correctly. And that makes its way into all the aspects of the Unreal file.”
To keep the data updated for everyone, Lotus has its own dedicated data preparation team that constantly feeds the updates through Perforce and pushes it out to all of the teams.
It was the appeal of this unified, streamlined approach that led to Lotus moving one of their key work streams across to Unreal Engine: virtual reality.
To keep the data updated for everyone, Lotus has its own dedicated data preparation team that constantly feeds the updates through Perforce and pushes it out to all of the teams.
It was the appeal of this unified, streamlined approach that led to Lotus moving one of their key work streams across to Unreal Engine: virtual reality.
Unreal Engine-powered VR at Lotus
“VR is an integral part of our process,” says Payne. “It allows us to get as close to a physical representation of a car—which in a traditional sense would be a one-to-one model, both inside and out—much faster.”
Lotus can take the early design data used for concepting and push it to their VR pipeline. From there, senior execs, designers, and engineers can get an accurate experience of what the car is going to feel like.
“It shortcuts the time frame of getting to that sensation of either walking around the vehicle or sitting inside it,” says Payne.
Lotus has used VR for a long time to present early design ideas to internal stakeholders. Traditionally, the team used a VRED-based workflow.
“We’ve managed to make a transition into using Unreal Engine because the fidelity of the result is so much stronger,” explains Payne. “We’ve seen a huge uplift now in our capability through the pipeline. We can take the models and the data sets, and process these faster and get a much more compelling visual result in VR through the use of Unreal.”
Visuals aside, the move made sense because the team already had the data set available from the initial design phases.
“Previously for VR, we always used to build a custom file,” says Bulmer. “We had to spend time optimizing it, tweaking it, and it would take away from that one source of truth.
“But now, the same file we use for the marketing work and design work is straight into Unreal. There’s no break in the source, there’s no change to the original file. We just go straight through to VR.”
Lotus can take the early design data used for concepting and push it to their VR pipeline. From there, senior execs, designers, and engineers can get an accurate experience of what the car is going to feel like.
“It shortcuts the time frame of getting to that sensation of either walking around the vehicle or sitting inside it,” says Payne.
Lotus has used VR for a long time to present early design ideas to internal stakeholders. Traditionally, the team used a VRED-based workflow.
“We’ve managed to make a transition into using Unreal Engine because the fidelity of the result is so much stronger,” explains Payne. “We’ve seen a huge uplift now in our capability through the pipeline. We can take the models and the data sets, and process these faster and get a much more compelling visual result in VR through the use of Unreal.”
Visuals aside, the move made sense because the team already had the data set available from the initial design phases.
“Previously for VR, we always used to build a custom file,” says Bulmer. “We had to spend time optimizing it, tweaking it, and it would take away from that one source of truth.
“But now, the same file we use for the marketing work and design work is straight into Unreal. There’s no break in the source, there’s no change to the original file. We just go straight through to VR.”
Virtual production at Lotus
Beyond the initial concepting and design phases, Lotus uses Unreal Engine for a variety of marketing streams, from producing videos to configurators.
The automaker increasingly leverages cutting-edge virtual production techniques to make cost- and time-saving efficiencies during this phase of production.
There’s no longer a need to transport an expensive (and possibly top-secret) car to a stunning location for a few minutes filming exactly as the sun goes down: you can project the environment in stunning fidelity on an LED screen closer to home, with fully accurate lighting and shadows.
The automaker increasingly leverages cutting-edge virtual production techniques to make cost- and time-saving efficiencies during this phase of production.
There’s no longer a need to transport an expensive (and possibly top-secret) car to a stunning location for a few minutes filming exactly as the sun goes down: you can project the environment in stunning fidelity on an LED screen closer to home, with fully accurate lighting and shadows.
Whether it’s full CG or a real car shot against a virtual background, visual fidelity is always of paramount importance to Lotus. The image can’t look like a fake CG image: it has to stand up to real-life imagery, which it may be shown alongside.
“We’re always pushing for photorealism in everything that we do,” says Heath. “We don’t want to see a difference between a CG image and a real photo.”
Features like UE5’s Nanite have made the difference between hitting this bar or falling short.
“Nanite means we can push the quality of everything,” says Heath. “The density of meshes is limitless now, we don’t need to worry about poly count. We don’t need to worry about how we are going to actually light this thing at the end of the day.”
“We’re always pushing for photorealism in everything that we do,” says Heath. “We don’t want to see a difference between a CG image and a real photo.”
Features like UE5’s Nanite have made the difference between hitting this bar or falling short.
“Nanite means we can push the quality of everything,” says Heath. “The density of meshes is limitless now, we don’t need to worry about poly count. We don’t need to worry about how we are going to actually light this thing at the end of the day.”
Real-time automotive configurators
The automotive industry has long leveraged configurators to enable would-be buyers to customize their vehicle. Previously, Lotus used offline rendering to produce their configurator.
Offline rendering can produce high-quality results, but because it’s static, you need to reproduce the content every time you make tweaks..
“What we find now with Unreal and real-time is that we can make those changes straight away on the fly,” says Heath. “We can do it in render. We can see the changes very, very quickly.”
Lotus moved over to Unreal Engine for their configurator around two years ago and report that customer interaction has improved drastically.
“We’re no longer producing static content,” says Heath. “Everything is real-time. It’s dynamic. It’s fully Pixel Streamed, so it gives the user a brilliant experience from start to finish.”
Pixel Streaming enables you to stream high quality content to almost any web browser on any platform—even mobile devices—with zero download and zero install requirements. It’s no more complicated for the participant than accessing a YouTube video.
Lotus fans are able to experience the power of Lotus Chapman Bespoke that allows customers the capability to customize everything from badges and trims to an entire Lotus vehicle.
Offline rendering can produce high-quality results, but because it’s static, you need to reproduce the content every time you make tweaks..
“What we find now with Unreal and real-time is that we can make those changes straight away on the fly,” says Heath. “We can do it in render. We can see the changes very, very quickly.”
Lotus moved over to Unreal Engine for their configurator around two years ago and report that customer interaction has improved drastically.
“We’re no longer producing static content,” says Heath. “Everything is real-time. It’s dynamic. It’s fully Pixel Streamed, so it gives the user a brilliant experience from start to finish.”
Pixel Streaming enables you to stream high quality content to almost any web browser on any platform—even mobile devices—with zero download and zero install requirements. It’s no more complicated for the participant than accessing a YouTube video.
Lotus fans are able to experience the power of Lotus Chapman Bespoke that allows customers the capability to customize everything from badges and trims to an entire Lotus vehicle.
HMI and digital twins in Lotus cars
Since its inception, Lotus has been laser-focused on performance. Initially, that was in a literal sense—the fine-tuning of mechanics to make a car faster and more powerful.
Now, they’re taking that ethos to the system used by the driver of the car. “It’s a very logical next step for a brand like Lotus to take that performance DNA and apply it across all of our digital systems and our digital touchpoints,” says Bulmer.
One of the key areas this plays out is in the digital touch points of new Lotus products.
Now, they’re taking that ethos to the system used by the driver of the car. “It’s a very logical next step for a brand like Lotus to take that performance DNA and apply it across all of our digital systems and our digital touchpoints,” says Bulmer.
One of the key areas this plays out is in the digital touch points of new Lotus products.
Digitization is creeping into virtually all of the human-machine interfaces in modern vehicles—with physical dials and knobs replacing touch screen buttons, adjusting the settings in your vehicle now feels more intuitive and tactile.
At Lotus, true to form, they’re pushing this one step further.
The integration of real-time tech has opened the door to a bunch of useful and interesting possibilities with HMI—including introducing an interactive digital twin of the vehicle.
When a user changes something on their car, such as opening the door, that’s reflected on a 3D model of the vehicle on the dash. “When you’re interacting with the screen, you’re seeing everything the car is doing, the latest status of the car: if the doors are open, the spoilers up, or if the charge flap is open,” says Bulmer. “You see it all live and you can interact with it.”
At Lotus, true to form, they’re pushing this one step further.
The integration of real-time tech has opened the door to a bunch of useful and interesting possibilities with HMI—including introducing an interactive digital twin of the vehicle.
When a user changes something on their car, such as opening the door, that’s reflected on a 3D model of the vehicle on the dash. “When you’re interacting with the screen, you’re seeing everything the car is doing, the latest status of the car: if the doors are open, the spoilers up, or if the charge flap is open,” says Bulmer. “You see it all live and you can interact with it.”
Designing the next generation of Lotus cars
When it comes to the future of design at the automaker, Lotus is determined to live up to the boundary-pushing heritage of its past 76 years.
“To innovate, we need to incorporate as many new technologies as we can,” says Payne. “That’s really what it’s about.”
With something special coming from Lotus this year, fans of the Lotus brand will have a chance to see many of those technologies in action. From the design of the car to its HMI and beyond, real-time technology will be an integral part of bringing the vehicle to market.
“In the six years that I’ve been with Lotus, we’ve seen a huge uplift in the quality of everything we can do and the speed at which we are progressing,” says Payne. “And technologies like Unreal allow us to push the limits and the boundaries of everything.”
“To innovate, we need to incorporate as many new technologies as we can,” says Payne. “That’s really what it’s about.”
With something special coming from Lotus this year, fans of the Lotus brand will have a chance to see many of those technologies in action. From the design of the car to its HMI and beyond, real-time technology will be an integral part of bringing the vehicle to market.
“In the six years that I’ve been with Lotus, we’ve seen a huge uplift in the quality of everything we can do and the speed at which we are progressing,” says Payne. “And technologies like Unreal allow us to push the limits and the boundaries of everything.”
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