I think it’s incredibly easy to forget that we are living through one of the great technological revolutions in human history. And the car is of course well and truly part of that revolution. Yesterday I sampled what might be one of the most advanced cars on the road today, and to be honest, I’m not sold.

I don’t know when it happened exactly but the future arrived and didn’t really let anyone know. Like a distant cousin knocking unexpectedly on your door and making himself comfortable on your couch, it’s not going anywhere and you’re just going to have to live with it, whether you like it or not. Except, as you’ve suspected for some time now, your cousin is from space.

This week I was invited to attend the launch of the new Lexus CT200h, which sounds like the model number of a microwave. As a machine, as a technological piece of equipment, it is remarkable. Stealing many bits and pieces from the Toyota Prius, the Lexus looks like a hot hatch in the vein of the Golf GTI or Mazda MPS. But this car will only be sold with a hybrid system, marking it out as a world first. Manufacturers love world firsts. Even if it doesn’t particularly mean anything, it makes for good powerpoint slides.

Sitting in the private Odeon cinema of the Pepper Club Hotel, we were treated to one of those joys of marketing. There was much said about drivetrains and generators and batteries and EV and regenerative braking, but there wasn’t a word about acceleration, top speed or handling ability. And that’s fine, not every car is aiming to tear your face of and scare the missus. But then don’t make the car look like a Japanese teenager designed it while high.

This was to be the first proper hybrid I’d ever driven. I’ve driven all the Honda Hybrids, but they are, at best, petrol-powered cars with electric boost. They’re very good, and I particularly liked the Insight, but the Toyota/Lexus system is lightyears ahead, more complicated, and a damn sight more expensive.

The Honda Insight Hybrid, yesterday.

The first oddity was switching the car on. Well, you don’t. You press the POWER button, not the START button I should point out, and then a light appears in the speedo, which reads READY. Then you start moving. Silently, effortlessly. In parking situations the car doesn’t bother with the petrol motor, so this is a bit like pottering around in a golf kart. It’s quite exciting actually.

At about 30km/h the petrol engine will kick in, but so seamlessly that you’d need to hold a stethoscope to the dashboard to notice. They really have got this right, and if you’d like to know how, do email me and I’ll tell you. I fear most 2OceansVibers will instantly fall asleep on their keyboards if I were to explain it here. Unless you are a car nerd, like me, it is very dull and involves phrases like “planetary gear systems”.

Moving right along then. A little light to the side of your POWER gauge flicks on and reads EV. This is to let you know that the car is now an electric vehicle. It comes on at low speed in traffic, or when coming to a halt, or when pulling away, or when cruising at highway speed on a relatively flat gradient. Now this I like very much, it makes so much sense as it transfers the tasks which the electric motor is suited for away from the petrol motor, thus saving buckets of fuel.

Fuel economy is superb. Some of the journalists (by leaning an elbow on the EV manual override button) achieved a fuel economy of 2.8litres/100km. A bicycle uses more fuel. I achieved 5.8 litres/100km, still admirable, but one of the main reasons I missed Lexus’s fuel claims of 4.4 litres/100km was for the same reason I would never buy this car. It bored me near to death.

The car runs in Eco, Normal or Sport mode, with Eco and Normal feeling pretty much identical. It softens the accelerator response, so even if you do have a heavy right foot, it will negate that. But it makes the car feel sluggish, unresponsive and reluctant. Sport mode helps a bit and admittedly I need more time to take it through its paces, but on first impressions the car is essentially the automotive version of a lullaby.

That’s not a bad thing. I do enjoy a car with a kick and I’m probably a bit too young; falling outside of this car’s target market. I get that, but it just looks like it wants set your hair on fire and that’s where I think I was let down. But if you’re the sort of person who doesn’t need to be anywhere particularly quickly, and you like the idea of a Prius but can’t stand the idea of a Prius, then boy have Lexus got a car for you.

The CT200h is pioneering another technology which I imagine will become more commonplace over the next few years: Drive-by-wire. In your car, the pedals, steering wheel and gear lever are all linked, via mechanical means, to all the parts they need to operate, like the brakes, wheels and gearbox. Important stuff. Drive-by-wire does away with all mechanical linkages completely. Sensors in the steering wheel and pedals send signals down wires and the all the action happens remotely. And you know what’s frightening? You wouldn’t even know.

Growing up, my dad had a Mustang. It looked phenomenal, sounded like war and used about two litres of fuel to get up the driveway. We didn’t have a big driveway. I know those cars are silly now, but I can’t help but long for them. I drove the future this week: a normal looking car that is far from it. I don’t think I like what’s coming.