While Tesla Founder Martin Eberhard wants to design electric cars around battery limitations, others are taking a different approach. A bunch of former Apple and BMW employees believe we should do away blinkered thinking regarding what constitutes a car. To them this is no longer merely a mode of transport. Instead, it becomes a digital heaven filled with a new kind of Byton muscle.
About the Byton Muscle in the Batteries
Byton – the name comes from ‘byte on’- has batteries that charge to 80% in thirty minutes, and do up to 325 miles per recharge. Mind you, it is not a pocket-rocket like a Tesla. To Byton, it’s more about the digital at the driver’s disposal, as they sit back and let artificial intelligence to do the work.
“We want to be the company bringing into the market the first real smart car,” its chief executive told the BBC. When the prototype unveils at CES shortly, crowds will stun to silence at the sight of a digital display spread out across almost the entire dashboard. Byton wants to be ‘the fastest car on the digital highway’.
More About An Amazing Piece of Digital Art
And that’s not all. Digital Byton muscle extends to a tablet computer in the steering wheel hub, with a repeat set in the rear of each front seat. Hidden cameras will identify the passengers, and load up their individual profiles. The company wants to ‘turn boredom to freedom’.
In self-drive mode, the front seats will swivel to convert to a comfortable lounge. Clearly, the Chinese backers have been generous with their seed capital.
But there’s a catch. While Tesla already has 8,496 charging stations at strategic points around the world, Byton has none.
You got it, zilch, not even a shadow of one and that’s a big problem for customers. But it’s no problem for the cheeky startup’s CEO. He expects Tesla ‘would be happy – or be forced – to share’ its stations with Byton muscle cars. That’s okay says Tesla, but then you must pay a reasonable share of the costs too.
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