Tech geeks around the world had their eyes and ears focused on Las Vegas this past week, as the International Consumer Electronics Show unveiled some of the coolest concepts and most advanced products coming to the marketplace over the next few years. For automotive aficionados, nothing on the show floor turned heads quite like the Faraday Future FFZERO1 concept car.
With financial backing from Letv, a Chinese media and technologies company with a market value of tens of billions of dollars, the FFZERO1 began as a doodle sitting on the desk of Richard Kim, Faraday Future’s design head. Along came Nick Samson, the company’s product architect and VP of product R&D who promptly saw a potential publicity powerhouse for its Variable Platform Architecture. This past weekend, the world saw the ultimate fate of that idle doodling in the unveiling of the 1,000-horsepower, all-wheel drive hypercar being touted as the future of automotive design and technology.
With a sleek, strong, Batmobile-meets-Tron look to the exterior, the FFZERO1 seats one very lucky driver in the center of a carbon fiber cockpit-like cabin. The dashboard extends over the driver’s shoulder and twists around to reveal an instrument panel. In the center of the steering wheel is a port for a smartphone, allowing the car to gather information via an app. This info is used to configure personalized settings for automotive options like traction control and throttle response. Conceptually, the ride is fully autonomous, able to read and reveal lines, signs, etc. both on the roadways and the racing track.
Unfortunately, the FFZERO1 isn’t likely to hit the production stage, at least not anytime soon. But its various technologies ultimately may be implemented in production cars to help create a stress-free commute for drivers and passengers.
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