The Chinese car company Byton has just revealed the first look at the high-tech electric car that it claims will “perceive more than what a human being will ever do.” The first driveable prototype was released at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas whereas it had been teased since September.
The company plans to release the mid-sized vehicle in China in 2019 before moving to the US and Europe in 2020. The cars start at $45,000 and will have level 3 autonomy. The base model will have the ability to achieve 250 miles on a single charge. The higher models will have a mileage of up to 325 miles and the firm has said this much that the cars will be really fast.
Much of the focus has been smart human-vehicle interface and the cars are designed to be the “next generation of smart devices for shared mobility and autonomous driving.” According to a Byton test driver, the car is a “smartphone on wheels.”
It will be equipped with gesture recognition, facial recognition, and even emotion recognition, to differentiate between the driver and passenger and personalize the rider experience. Safety is of the paramount importance in all its features and it will adjust according to the conditions. “If the exterior lighting conditions change, your Byton will adjust to your needs automatically,” the co-founder said.
It also has a touchscreen built into the steering wheel. This allows the driver to interact while keeping the road in his line of vision. It comes with Amazon’s Alexa for a voice control. The intuitive gesture control system responds to 5 different hand commands.
The interior of the car is made as comfortable as possible and aims to provide a “digital lounge experience”, as explained by Dr. Breitfeld. “Once you have taken your seat, you will feel as if you’re in a luxurious living room.” The cars will have lever 3 autonomy from the beginning with level 4 coming in another year.
Another interesting feature is the 49 by 10-inch touchscreen display that covers the length of the dashboard. The firm claims that this will be the “fastest car on the data highway.” The firm will also provide users with constant connections having a bandwidth of up to 1000 Mb/s.
This is 100 times faster than the smartphones and the passengers will be able to stream TV shows, play games, and video chat through the car. The cars will also be able to read traffic signs, monitor blind spots, and communicate with other cars using an array of sensors and advanced image processing.
The firm has plans to launch three models in the next five years. We will see once it’s on the market if it can rival Tesla or not.
