Behold The Byton Crossover And Its 49-Inch Display Screen
Remember Byton? The new EV startup that insists it’ll sell ‘smart devices’, not cars? Well, here’s the firm’s first ca… err, smart device. Nope, still sounds weird.
Putting the marketing nonsense aside though, we’re quite intrigued by what the Chinese startup has come up with. Under the leadership of former BMW i Division chief Carsten Breitfield, Byton - which has facilities in Nanjing, Munich and Santa Clara - has cooked up a mega tech-fest EV.
It’s a crossover (because of course it is), which has been imaginatively named the ‘Crossover Concept’. Revealed at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, it’s not exactly inspiring to look at from the outside, but that’s just fine, as all the action’s going on in the cabin.
With a 49-inch display that spans almost the entire width of the dashboard - plus an additional screen in the steering wheel and two more up back for the rear passengers - it’d only need Chris Pine and/or Zachary Quinto sitting in its sumptuous seats to pass for a Star Trek reboot film set. You don’t need to worry about the futuristic space being toned down for the production version, either: that vast screen will be carried over.
Said production car will be here in 2019, with a starting price of around $45,000, Byton claims. You’ll have the choice of a rear-wheel drive model producing 268bhp and 295lb ft of torque, and a dual-motor, all-wheel drive version making 469bhp and 524lb ft of twist. For an EV startup, those are some relatively restrained figures. The standard range is 248 miles meanwhile, with up to 323 miles available via an optional, beefed-up battery pack.
Because unlocking a car with a remote is just too old fashioned, the Byton concept is accessed via facial recognition. There are further facial recognition cameras inside, so the vehicle load up the preferred settings (think climate control, seating position and so on) for each occupant.
All being well (building a new electric car company can be a fraught business, don’t forget), Byton will upgrade the car from Level 3 to Level 4 autonomy in 2020. There are also plans to spin off an MPV and a saloon from the same platform.
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
Faraday Future 2.0
Once again, I don’t expect it to go mainstream. I do think however that it will fail just like the Faraday Future did
Wow that is mad! But also the future.
The future is exiting(some text from a Dutch commercial)
Well, Ludacris’s dreams have finally come true
nice iPad
i seriously have no idea as to how this is called the future…when they say everything will be digitalized, these people take it literally…smh
TV IN THE MIDDLE OF MA STEERING WHEEL !
When a crash happens you can see whats the weather is..
“I got a TV in the steering wheel like Luda. And if you run up on, me look dirty, I’ll shoot ya”
How long do you think before this yet another EV start up will die?
That screen is bigger than General Grievous’s lightsaber collection.
He needs all of those lightsabers… But if only someone will steal it
Well, what would happen to the drivers face in the event of a collision if there is a screen in the middle of the steering wheel instead of an airbag?
The airbag will go through the screen and you get glass blasted all over face
I think what surprises me mosy about this concept is that it’s a chinese car that doesn’t completely copy the looks of another vehicle
But it’s not a car tho
Chinese company but designed by Germans. Ergo not looking a bit crappy.
I don’t mind the interior and the rear of the car looks kinda nice in its simplicity, but jeez I hope they fix the front of that thing. It could use a redesign.