Eyes on the road, not on your Netflix. Obvious but smart advice for drivers, at least until we have fully self-driving vehicles.
The Chinese-based EV company Byton thinks differently. For them, it’s a post-automobile world, and they’re gonna fill your eyeline with as much future tech as possible.
Byton’s M-Byte, an SUV concept being dubbed the “world’s first Smart Intuitive Vehicle,” already features side-view cameras in lieu of side mirrors and facial recognition as user ID. But most interestingly, in lieu of a traditional car dashboard, it has a 48-inch “Shared Experience Display.”
And that’s besides the eight-inch touchscreen within the steering wheel and individual screens between the driver and the passenger (and two more optional ones for headrests).
The four-foot curved end-to-end display will allow gesture controls and voice commands. But this isn’t a fully autonomous vehicle, so while passengers are playing games, making calls or watching videos, the driver will have to be fully engaged with the road.
Which seems rather difficult, but Byton has definitely been positioning themselves as less a car company and more of a maker of “smart devices.” Although the M-Byte isn’t scheduled to hit the road until later this year (and not until 2020 in the U.S.), you can already download the Byton app and use Augmented Reality to craft and envision your next ride.
It seems better suited to a virtual experience.
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