CES 2018: Your car could soon replace your smartphone
Founded by BMW and Infinity, a new China based company, Byton has launched an all-electric SUV with technology that aims to super size the experience and functionality of a smartphone.
The company aims at combining the technologies of two indispensable devices, that is, your smartphone and your car and aims at zeroing the need of the drivers and passengers to reach for their smartphone while driving and travelling. A simple voice command or hand gesture is the only thing one will need to communicate.
According to a report by Fortune, this latest invention is loaded with technology. It boasts of a display that takes up the entire dashboard and a touchscreen on the steering wheel. The car is expected to use Amazon Alexa to understand the voice commands. In addition, it will also monitor the driver’s heart rate, weight, oxygen saturation, or blood pressure.
The launch also saw the company introducing the concept of Byton Life, a “smart and open digital cloud platform that seamlessly connects all your applications, data and devices.” It will allow the driver and passengers to integrate third-party services like music and video streaming, and other ecosystems, like syncing to their fitness trackers or wearables. Information collected is connected to the user’s personal Byton ID and stored in the company’s cloud. When the driver enters the car, a facial recognition technology will identify the person and their personal profile.
The base version of the car, which starts at about $45,000 (approximately Rs 28.5 lakhs), will have a 71-kilowatt-hour battery pack that can travel 250 miles on a single charge. This base model will be able to charge its battery 80% in 30 minutes. A more expensive version will be four-wheel drive and be able to travel 325 miles on a single charge. The SUV is expected to come with Level 3 autonomous capabilities. This designation, determined by SAE International, is what’s described as conditional automation. The Level 4, which Byton is promising in the future would mean the car taking over all of the driving in certain conditions.
This new SUV will be available in Chinese markets initially and by first half of 2020, the vehicle will be available in North America and hit the European markets only later that year.