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
Fighting to have the biggest:
-Front grill: audi, bmw, lexus
-Lifted truck: idk some people that’ll never go off road
-Suv: soccer players in england
-Screen: Cinemas, TV makers, Monitors makers, Tesla, Byton
Apple and Samsung are in on that last one as well
Still better than Tesla.
Do people still not realise that touchscreens aren’t as good as buttons for certain things in cars? You can’t feel for the buttons because it’s a screen, therefore distracting drivers more. And you can’t use them if you’re wearing gloves.
YASSSSSSSSSSSSS
The point is that soon the car will drive for you so you wont need to feel for knobs anyways.
Looks like an Eclipse Cross, except with 500% more screen
Wow,
They even beat Tesla
It really doesn’t seem impressive IMO, but rather unnecessary.
What a pile of shit! Automakers investing time and effort into more screens instead of making a better car. Idiocy at it’s finest.
For 99% of people this is a better car. No one cares about handling or driver feel except for car enthusiasts. Get real.
Makes Tesla’s info system look weak
Call it a smart device all you want, that doesn’t change the fact that it is a car.
More of a dumb device than a smart device, but that pile of sh*t sure isn’t a car lmao. What ever happened to beautiful cars that people could actually admire? This is nothing but a awful joke of an appliance that will say a lot of negative things about the owner.