Byton has revealed an electric SUV concept car at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

With digital design and innovative human-vehicle interaction, the premium SUV functions as a next generation smart device, built for the coming era of truly shared, smart mobility and autonomous driving.

The new SUV will be manufactured at Byton’s plant in Nanjing, China. Its price will start from $45,000 (£33,000). The car will be available in China towards the end of 2019, and in the U.S. and Europe in 2020.

Key features include:

  • Shared lounge experience for in-car communication, entertainment and work, with content and connection driven by the Byton Life cloud platform.
  • A single 125 x 25 cm (49 x 9.8 inch) shared experience display centre console, along with three additional display screens.
  • Unique human-vehicle interaction incorporating voice recognition, touch control, biometric identification and hand gesture control technology.
  • Incorporation of Amazon Alexa for intelligent voice control, with additional Amazon collaboration on audio and video content.
  • Maximum range of 520 km (323 miles) on a single charge.

Dr Carsten Breitfeld, CEO and co-founder of Byton, said: “The Byton concept SUV connects both the automotive and digital industries in ways that will deliver an entirely new connective experience for people on the move. The result is the world’s first smart intuitive vehicle, or SIV.”

Unique human-vehicle interaction

As a next generation smart device, Byton creates new and convenient human-vehicle interactions, such as Intuitive Access; a different method of unlocking the car.

Face recognition cameras recognise the driver or passenger to unlock the door. Byton also recognises driver and passenger information to auto-adjust seat angles, entertainment preferences and other information according to user preferences and usage.

No matter which yton the driver sits in, his or her profile can be downloaded from the cloud to the car, making the customer feel as if every Byton is his/her own car.

Furthermore, Byton Air Touch for advanced gesture control feature allows for display control via easy hand gestures at any position within the car.

For example, users can caption a location with a grabbing motion in the air, and then put it into the maps function in the middle of the display to start the navigation.

There are also four Byton life features on display at CES include My Health, My Communication, My Entertainment and My Activities. Built-in hardware synchronises with user’s other devices, enabling Byton to track the user's health status, including weight, heart rate, blood pressure; and synchronise user’s data to give fitness advice.