Byton

Byton



Byton

Byton

Byton







Byton

Byton

Byton

The transformation of the annual Consumer Electronics Show into an increasingly automotive-heavy trade show continues apace, particularly with electric vehicle startups like Byton. The company made a big splash at CES in 2018 with its first battery electric concept, the M-Byte. Industry watchers took note of the vehicle's highly experienced management and engineering team, with everyone else being dazzled by the M-Byte's 48-inch (yes, forty-eight inches, or 1.2m) infotainment screen. With production starting later this year in Nanjing, China, it used this year's CES to show us what sort of user experience we can expect from all those pixels.

Earlier Byton demos of the concepts involved a lot of talk about "the Byton life" and cloud-based user profiles that will follow Byton's customers from car to car, complete with facial recognition as biometric authentication. But with Chinese deliveries happening in a few months (and US and European deliveries scheduled for the first half of 2021), the company is getting concrete about developer partnerships, including one with ViacomCBS.

"We knew from the outset that in order to deliver the industry's first Smart Device on Wheels, we would need to invite partners to create truly compelling interactions. We also believe that Byton's unique user interface offers developers a challenge and an opportunity to engage with an in-car experience like none they ever seen," said Jeff Chung, vice president of Digital Engineering at Byton.

Xperi has signed on to bring its HD radio technology to Byton's vehicles. ViacomCBS is working with Access to use the latter company's Access Twine for Car streaming platform to bring ViacomCBS video content to the car, which means you'll probably be able to watch people pilot Starfleet spaceships from a car interior that also looks a bit like a Starfleet spaceship. "The future of in-vehicle infotainment is an exciting opportunity to strengthen and extend our connection to our audiences within today’s fragmented media environment," said Ray Hopkins, president of US Networks Distribution at ViacomCBS.

TV content is all well and good if you're a passenger or the car is driving itself autonomously—Byton has a partnership with self-driving startup Aurora. But the company is working with other developers, too. AccuWeather has signed on to provide "hyper local forecasting." Aquido brings voice recognition tech to the party, and M-Byte drivers and passengers will use voice inputs to search for things using CloudCar's platform. And travel booking site Road.Travel has partnered with Byton to make planning that trip easier. (To ensure that those road trips will be possible in the US, Byton is partnering with Electrify America to provide free 20-min DC fast charging sessions, which should add up to 150 miles (241km) of range in that time.)

"When BYTON committed to creating the first smart device on wheels, this is exactly the kind of engagement we had in mind," said Byton CEO Daniel Kirchert. "The BYTON M-Byte with its unique user experience will offer developers the opportunity to present in-car interactions in a way that is more engaging than ever before."

The M-Byte should start at around $45,000 (before any applicable federal or local incentives) when it goes on sale in the US in 2022.

Listing image by Byton