 So at this year's CES, the biggest electric car announcement was from a company called Byton, a China based company that wants to sell its car in the United States. And before we tell you any more about it, we're going to hop in because we get a ride in it. Now you may not have heard of Byton. They are a China based company that wants to release an all electric SUV sometime in mid to late 2019, both in China and around the world. We've seen a lot of these electric vehicle startups come to places like CES over the last couple of years to announce their cars. And they're usually big flashy events that talk about high top speeds and really crazy zero to 60 times. We didn't get any of that from Byton. What they really focused on was more about what it's going to be like to be inside this car. And that means whether you're driving it or whether you're riding in it or whether you're riding in it when it's operating in semi or fully autonomous mode. And the centerpiece of all of this, and I can't believe I haven't talked about it yet, is a gigantic dashboard sized screen. It is 49 inches long. That's 1.25 meters long. It is a just endless screen. You sit in the car and it is, it occupies your entire periphery. It's a really strange thing that I've never experienced in a car before. And while this version of the car that we saw here at CES is a concept, Byton says that that dashboard screen is going to be in the production vehicle that comes out in a couple of years. On top of that, there's also an eight inch touchscreen tablet in the steering wheel. And Byton says that's coming to the production car too. As if a giant screen in the dashboard wasn't enough, there's a whole other part to this in that it's not a touchscreen. You're actually controlling it either by the tablet on the steering wheel or through gesture recognition. There are cameras right below the screen that let you point and sort of move your hand around and pinch. You can do all these different things to move through the menus and open up media streaming or teleconferencing or navigation. All the things that you would expect in a futuristic smart car. There's so much more going on in this car too. There's a whole part of the user interface that connects to your wearables and will track things like your health. There's facial recognition on the side of the car that can recognize when you come up to the car and load up all your preferences and unlock the car for you. It's a pretty wild take on the future of cars and Byton really wants to deliver that in the near future, which is really strange. Now, Byton plans to offer all of this in both an economy sort of base level model that will cost around $45,000 US and a high performance model that will get you a little bit closer to that feeling of being in a Tesla Model X. And we did get a chance to ride in the car. We got to see all of those UI elements at play. They're all definitely still a work in progress, especially the gesture control. And it was fun to ride around in, but it's not the kind of thing that will blow you away like other high performance EVs that we've seen over the last couple of years. Even with the talent that Byton's acquired, this is going to be an immense challenge to get a car like this onto the road in just two years time. They do have a factory that they're already working on in China and they are headed towards this goal. But if we've learned anything from the EV startups we've seen over the last couple of years, it's that Byton's going to have a very long road ahead to get there. For more electric cars, self-driving cars, all the crazy stuff we're seeing here at CES 2018, subscribe to The Verge on YouTube, youtube.com slash theverge. And go to theverge.com slash CES, everything else is there. What are you waiting for? Thanks for watching. Oh god, I've got Lyft drivers emailing me angry about the self-driving piece. No, about the whole thing, like they hate Lyft. But they drive for Lyft? I don't know. I didn't look at it. Yeah, it's weird. I don't know.
 So at this year's CES, the biggest electric car announcement was from a company called
 Byton, a China based company that wants to sell its car in the United States.
 And before we tell you any more about it, we're going to hop in because we get a ride
 in it.
 Now you may not have heard of Byton.
 They are a China based company that wants to release an all electric SUV sometime in
 mid to late 2019, both in China and around the world.
 We've seen a lot of these electric vehicle startups come to places like CES over the
 last couple of years to announce their cars.
 And they're usually big flashy events that talk about high top speeds and really crazy
 zero to 60 times.
 We didn't get any of that from Byton.
 What they really focused on was more about what it's going to be like to be inside this
 car.
 And that means whether you're driving it or whether you're riding in it or whether you're
 riding in it when it's operating in semi or fully autonomous mode.
 And the centerpiece of all of this, and I can't believe I haven't talked about it yet,
 is a gigantic dashboard sized screen.
 It is 49 inches long.
 That's 1.25 meters long.
 It is a just endless screen.
 You sit in the car and it is, it occupies your entire periphery.
 It's a really strange thing that I've never experienced in a car before.
 And while this version of the car that we saw here at CES is a concept, Byton says that
 that dashboard screen is going to be in the production vehicle that comes out in a couple
 of years.
 On top of that, there's also an eight inch touchscreen tablet in the steering wheel.
 And Byton says that's coming to the production car too.
 As if a giant screen in the dashboard wasn't enough, there's a whole other part to this
 in that it's not a touchscreen.
 You're actually controlling it either by the tablet on the steering wheel or through gesture
 recognition.
 There are cameras right below the screen that let you point and sort of move your hand around
 and pinch.
 You can do all these different things to move through the menus and open up media streaming
 or teleconferencing or navigation.
 All the things that you would expect in a futuristic smart car.
 There's so much more going on in this car too.
 There's a whole part of the user interface that connects to your wearables and will track
 things like your health.
 There's facial recognition on the side of the car that can recognize when you come up
 to the car and load up all your preferences and unlock the car for you.
 It's a pretty wild take on the future of cars and Byton really wants to deliver that in
 the near future, which is really strange.
 Now, Byton plans to offer all of this in both an economy sort of base level model that will
 cost around $45,000 US and a high performance model that will get you a little bit closer
 to that feeling of being in a Tesla Model X.
 And we did get a chance to ride in the car.
 We got to see all of those UI elements at play.
 They're all definitely still a work in progress, especially the gesture control.
 And it was fun to ride around in, but it's not the kind of thing that will blow you away
 like other high performance EVs that we've seen over the last couple of years.
 Even with the talent that Byton's acquired, this is going to be an immense challenge to
 get a car like this onto the road in just two years time.
 They do have a factory that they're already working on in China and they are headed towards
 this goal.
 But if we've learned anything from the EV startups we've seen over the last couple of
 years, it's that Byton's going to have a very long road ahead to get there.
 For more electric cars, self-driving cars, all the crazy stuff we're seeing here at CES
 2018, subscribe to The Verge on YouTube, youtube.com slash theverge.
 And go to theverge.com slash CES, everything else is there.
 What are you waiting for?
 Thanks for watching.
 Oh god, I've got Lyft drivers emailing me angry about the self-driving piece.
 No, about the whole thing, like they hate Lyft.
 But they drive for Lyft?
 I don't know.
 I didn't look at it.
 Yeah, it's weird.
 I don't know.