A company that rolls out smartphones, and is also willing to look into the domain of electric cars? That might sound like Apple to many, but for those who put feet to their talk, it would be China’s LeEco that is first in the industry to do so. As for their inaugural ride that looks like something from the distant future, with me half-expecting its wheels to fold inside and for it to take flight, LeEco has revealed its very own self-driving electric car – the LeSee.
The existing prototype is said to be able to deliver a maximum speed of up to 130 miles an hour, according to Ding Lei, head of LeEco’s automobile division. “See’” in its name is short for “Super Electric Ecosystem”, and Ding claims that this electric car will be able to do beyond what the Tesla Model S is capable of – from the performance point of view, and hopefully, price as well.
Taking 28 months to develop LeSee, one of the first markets in which this ride will be made available would be Hong Kong, although there is no word as to when this particular ride will arrive – that is the frustrating thing. On stage, the LeSee was “summoned” through one of the newly minted handsets from LeEco, and it drove right straight up. With a press of a “button” on the same handset after making a voice call to the LeSee, the LeSee obediently parked itself by making a 3-point turn, much to the delight of everyone. This is not a feature that you would want to use if you are in a hurry, but hopefully things will speed up in the future.
Just in case you were wondering, Faraday Future has no hand in the LeSee, never mind the fact that their FFZERO1 concept that was revealed at CES earlier this year was backed by Letv. This design is totally different from what we have seen at CES 2016, and has a far more family-friendly look to it.
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