For those who missed the launch, please click here to see the 10 min video, released today morning and Breitfeld giving you all the details on vehicle's unconventional design, size, wheel base, variants, price and start of production date.
While Byton is breaking norms at various levels, other car makers - GM, Honda and Toyota, are also leveraging the connected car technology unlike seen before. Its not merely an extension of a smart phone or a tablet (like an advance upgrade of Apple Car Play or Android Auto), but the car itself is an independent smart device in the whole gamut of Internet of Things.
The tech facilitates 'face recognition', making keyless entry literally a reality, saves preferences of your music, your seat positions, your favourite restaurants, allows you to place an order for your favourite cup of Hot Chocolate at your preferred cafe, even before you arrive there... Whats more! all this not just on one car, but several cars that you would use in the future. After all, in few years we would be moving to sharing cars, rather than owning cars. Imagine, a preference is set on the first car, and thereafter, unless your alter it, every car that you hire, the car will automatically adjust itself to your preferences, through face recognition. How about topping all this up with a Loyalty program that gives you offers and freebies after every few transactions exclusively with your car. Well, the day isn't too far!
It doesn't just stop here, when we move to autonomous drives (robotaxis), for all you know Netflix may start a subscription model exclusively for cars, so when its manoeuvring through the city traffic or cruising on a highway, you are actually able to catch the latest series of Narcos - Season 11.
Critics fear that with all this we may be risking our own lives and there is just too much distraction. However I would like to ask them, aren't our smart phones distracting enough, but we love them because they make our lives so simple and efficient.
As Carsten Breitfeld puts it, future of mobility would be replacing Horse Power with Digital Power.
I would love to hear your take on connected cars and the opportunities you see in the years to come. Please leave your comments, its great to hear opinions from around the world. Is the future to fear, or to look forward to?