Gargantuan 49-Inch Screen Coming to Byton M-Byte Crossover

Chinese startup Byton unveiled a new vehicle at the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show, well, sort of.

The would-be manufacturer of all-electric vehicles, “smart devices” in their own parlance, revealed the interior of its upcoming production model. That may sound like as much fun as scrubbing your bathroom’s grout lines with a toothbrush, but there’s actually quite a bit to get excited about here.

To date, the firm has taken the wrapper off two concept models, the M-Byte crossover and K-Byte sedan. What they’re showing at this year’s CES is the production M-Byte’s dashboard.

And wow, is there a lot to talk about! What you’re certain to notice immediately is the gargantuan 49-inch Shared Experience Display dominating, or, rather, entirely replacing the dashboard. It literally runs from one A-pillar to the other.

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The steering wheel is augmented by another display, the seven-inch “Driver Tablet,” a fixed unit, one that does not turn along with the wheel. It serves as a shortcut for various vehicle functions and is much more accessible for the person piloting this machine.

But if that’s not enough screen real estate for you, there’s a third display down on the center console, one controlling a variety of other vehicle features and settings. This one is aimed primarily at the passenger.

Byton executives view their vehicles not as cars, rather as next-generation smart devices. They want to combine automotive engineering with digital technology to transform transportation as we know it.

Headquartered in China, this company is developing much of its advanced technology in Silicon Valley, while its design center is located in Munich, Germany. Management is likewise diverse, with team members hailing from BMW, Tesla, Apple and other industry-leading organizations

Today, the company is building an intelligent manufacturing base in Nanjing, China. But don’t think Byton is some hole-in-the-wall wannabe automaker. Vehicle testing is already underway as they’ve already built some 100 prototype models for evaluation. Production of Byton’s first smart EV expected to commence by the end of 2019.

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