This wild-looking electric SUV concept has way more tech than anyone needs
CES has barely begun and already there's no shortage of pie-in-the-sky electric vehicle concepts.
Today, Chinese EV startup Byton unveiled its electric SUV concept, a wannabe Tesla killer that's crammed full of so much tech it would make Elon Musk's head spin.
Seriously. The vehicle, which will allegedly go into production sometime in 2019 and start at $45,000, is overflowing with so many displays and tech industry buzzwords it's hard to know where to begin.
For starters, it has a total of four -- yes, four -- different displays, including 49-inch monstrosity that stretches across the entire dash and a smaller panel built right into the steering wheel. Two more tablets sit behind the driver's seat and passenger headrest for the rear passengers.
That's just the beginning. The 5G-ready vehicle also boasts facial recognition (for unlocking doors and automatic seat adjustment), gesture recognition abilities (so you don't have to actually touch all those displays), and Amazon's Alexa.
But what really pushes Byton over the top is that it doubles as some kind of fitness tracker. Really. It can help you keep tabs on your heart rate, blood pressure, weight, and "give fitness advice," according to the company.
To be fair, the vehicle also looks pretty cool. It has clean lines that would please any Tesla fan, and the interior looks spacious enough that the idea of a "digital lounge" in the backseat does't seem entirely ridiculous.
Byton also promises not to disappoint from an EV standpoint: It has a maximum range of 323 miles, and a rapid-charging mode means 30 minutes of charging will get you up to 80 percent of your battery. It will also, eventually, have self-driving abilities -- Byton says some autonomous driving features will be available in 2019 when the first cars hit the road.
Put it all together and the company, which is lead by BMW and Nissan veterans, has managed to create an impressive-sounding concept.
Whether the actual electric vehicle will live up to hype Byton's trying to create is another matter. Shiny bells and whistles aside, last year's Faraday Future debacle proved that it takes much more than flashy demos and extravagant promises for an EV startup to make a viable product.
We'll have more impressions and will take an up close look at Byton's SUV later in the week during our test drive, so stay tuned to Mashable's CES 2018 coverage for more.
Topics CES Electric Vehicles Tesla Cars
Karissa was Mashable's Senior Tech Reporter, and is based in San Francisco. She covers social media platforms, Silicon Valley, and the many ways technology is changing our lives. Her work has also appeared in Wired, Macworld, Popular Mechanics, and The Wirecutter. In her free time, she enjoys snowboarding and watching too many cat videos on Instagram. Follow her on Twitter @karissabe.
