zzdcar
Home
/
Reviews
/
Tech
/
The Electric Byton K-Byte Comes With Big Promises And A Huge Dash Screen
The Electric Byton K-Byte Comes With Big Promises And A Huge Dash Screen-April 2024
2024-02-19 EST 22:10:37

Electric car startup Byton made a big splash at this year’s CES Conference, introducing an SUV concept with . Now, it has a half-billion dollars more in funding to get off the ground, along with a new concept, a fully-autonomous, all-electric sedan called the K-Byte. It looks sharp.

Byton’s $500 million of funding this week came by way of a series of new investors, and the Chinese-based startup announced a new HQ in Nanjing, China. The startup also has a research and development center in California.

If the company’s ambitious production plan goes according to plan (and having things going to plan is a big honking wish in the world of startups), Byton thinks , even including the massive 49 inch screen splashed across the center dash.

The K-Byte is an interesting idea, though, if only for the timing of it. The auto industry’s consumed by an incredible appetite for SUVs and crossovers. It’s almost as if Byton’s trying to stick out its feelers and gauge how people react to the sedan, and keep it in their back pocket in case the tides change over the next few years.

That could be to its benefit, because the K-Byte is a looker, save for the weird, future-y face.

Byton offered few specifics about the car, but pegged it as a ride of the future. (They seemingly all are today.) In particular, the company says it wants the K-Byte to be a level 4 autonomous car, meaning it can handle all driving tasks in some but not all environments.

The startup said it has teamed up with Aurora, an autonomous driving tech firm helmed by Chris Urmson, Google’s ex-car chief, and Sterling Anderson, the former lead of Tesla’s Autopilot program. Aurora already has some big names amid its list of partners, including Volkswagen and Hyundai. With Byton, the startup said, it plans to develop a fleet of prototype vehicles with level 4 capabilities by the end of 2020.

It goes without saying that planning the launch of a commercially available, autonomous vehicle is about as ambitious as it goes right now. Byton thinks it can make it happen by 2021 with the K-Byte. I’ll hold my breath for now.

The idea of the K-Byte as an autonomous car makes sense, though. Byton says it’ll integrate the vehicle’s suite of sensors in a sleek way, including the bow-shaped handle looking-thing on top the car. Byton says that particular sensor provides a “panoramic scan of the vehicle’s surroundings.”

The K-Byte’s going to share the same platform at the SUV concept, according to the startup, whose CEO about 65-70 percent of the parts between the two will be the same. That, the Verge notes, includes the center screen that covers the entire front of the car.

If you need a reminder, here’s what that looks like:

The tablet in the steering wheel is what really gets me.

Ambitious, aggressive timelines haven’t stopped car startups from issuing ambitious, aggressive goals before. The same goes for Byton. The startup thinks it can begin making the K-Byte sedan in 2021.

Comments
Welcome to zzdcar comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Tech
GM Says It's Dropping Apple CarPlay And Android Auto Because They're Unsafe (Update)
GM Says It's Dropping Apple CarPlay And Android Auto Because They're Unsafe (Update)
GM is still dealing with the fallout of its decision to drop Apple CarPlay and Android Auto in favor of developing its own in-house system. In the last eight months, the company has had to deal with while still maintaining its in-house system will be “.” Since neither of...
Apr 22, 2025
Truck Fans Would Rather Wait For A Toyota Tacoma EV Than Buy A F-150 Lightning Or Cybertruck
Truck Fans Would Rather Wait For A Toyota Tacoma EV Than Buy A F-150 Lightning Or Cybertruck
fans are already cooling on despite more options on the market and news of upcoming models from the likes of Chevy and Ram. The and have yet to be released, while the has recently joined the and for sale in the U.S. And, yet, all of these current and...
Apr 22, 2025
Biden’s First EV Charging Station Goes Online After $7.5 Billion In American EV Investments
Biden’s First EV Charging Station Goes Online After $7.5 Billion In American EV Investments
Despite in investments for the development of in the , not a single charging station had gone live thanks to — until now. The first EV charger paid for by Biden’s Bipartisan deal has come online in Ohio, according to , which marks the operational start of what the...
Apr 22, 2025
Danish Investors Dump Tesla Shares After Elon Musk Calls Strikes In Sweden 'Insane'
Danish Investors Dump Tesla Shares After Elon Musk Calls Strikes In Sweden 'Insane'
Danish pension fund PensionDanmark is dumping all of its stock and putting the U.S. EV maker on its exclusion list of the companies it chooses to invest in – or not. The fund is selling all of its shares due to Elon Musk’s refusal to enter into labor agreements...
Apr 22, 2025
Costco Will Sell The Chevy Blazer EV At A Discount To Go With Your Rotisserie Chicken
Costco Will Sell The Chevy Blazer EV At A Discount To Go With Your Rotisserie Chicken
knows that you keep coming back for the and Kirkland brand, but you can now also buy a cheaper at your local warehouse. Chevy notified its dealers that members are eligible for a $1,000 rebate on the through January 2, according to . The discount is part of ,...
Apr 22, 2025
Volkswagen EVs Can Now Power Your House For Two Days (Update)
Volkswagen EVs Can Now Power Your House For Two Days (Update)
Experts have said that one of the ways to speed up EV adoption is for them to support . The ability for owners to power their house off their car or from the grid is vital. Just nine EVs on the market currently support bidirectional charging, but now VW...
Apr 22, 2025
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.zzdcar.com All Rights Reserved