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-October 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
Employee Injuries At The Tesla Factory Are Way Above Industry Average
Employee Injuries At The Tesla Factory Are Way Above Industry Average
Workplace conditions at Tesla’s California factory have been scrutinized for months, after an employee in February , sparking a renewed effort to unionize the Fremont facility by the United Auto Workers. And claims the automaker’s own internal data shows that injury rates at Fremont exceed what’s found across the industry....
Oct 17, 2026
The Tesla Model 3 Will Do 0-60 In 5.6 Seconds
The Tesla Model 3 Will Do 0-60 In 5.6 Seconds
Over at , new specs on the have emerged in the form of what appears to be a retail comparison chart for the Model S and the automaker’s new, more affordable sedan. The newest insight? The Model 3 will move 0-60 in 5.6 seconds, a time Tesla confirmed today to...
Oct 17, 2026
Uber's Paying Back NYC Drivers Millions Of Dollars After Shorting Them For Years
Uber's Paying Back NYC Drivers Millions Of Dollars After Shorting Them For Years
Uber, in the latest blemish of a never ending firestorm that began months ago, announced Tuesday that it has underpaid New York City drivers since late 2014. In what the company described as an effort to win regain trust of drivers, it’s planning to dole out an average of $900...
Oct 17, 2026
Tesla To Allow Free Supercharging Again But Only If You Have The Hookup
Tesla To Allow Free Supercharging Again But Only If You Have The Hookup
Back in November, Tesla announced it would no longer offer free access to its global Supercharger network, an obvious bummer to Tesla owners everywhere. But now, the automaker’s bringing back the consumer benefit—but only under limited circumstances. But now, under a new referral program unveiled this month, free Supercharging is...
Oct 17, 2026
Autonomous Cars Must Let Us Wander And Explore Without A Destination In Mind
Autonomous Cars Must Let Us Wander And Explore Without A Destination In Mind
The more I think about autonomous cars, the more questions I have. And sometimes these questions can get pretty surreal. For example, the latest question I had sounds, on the surface, like a paradox: how should an autonomous car let us get around without completely limiting our freedom to wander...
Oct 17, 2026
Faraday Future Employees Reportedly Leaving In Droves; CFO Says The Company's Fine
Faraday Future Employees Reportedly Leaving In Droves; CFO Says The Company's Fine
On Tuesday, electric car startup Faraday Future’s main financier—the Chinese tech conglomerate LeEco—announced a significant round of layoffs at its US operations. While that doesn’t seem to bode well for Faraday, the startup’s chief financial officer told staff that LeEco’s cuts won’t affect it, . Nonetheless, scores of more employees...
Oct 17, 2026
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.zzdcar.com All Rights Reserved