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Byton is going full-on Pimp My Ride at CES with a touchscreen steering wheel

A dashboard made almost entirely of screens wasn't enough for Byton. Now it's adding one to your steering wheel.

Byton K-Byte Sedan Concept
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Byton K-Byte Sedan Concept

Byton has the exterior looks thing figured out, but it's maybe a little screen-crazy on the interior.

Byton

Chinese car startup Byton is planning on debuting something pretty cool next week at CES 2019 in Las Vegas, and if a recent teaser tweet is any indication, it looks like it's going to be a touchscreen steering wheel.

The photo included with the tweet shows us Byton's massive dash screen with which we're already familiar, and then on the upper half of the (frankly enormous) steering wheel hub, we see a screen with several icons. The bottom half looks to contain a reasonably traditional airbag.

It's unclear what functionality Byton has planned for its wheel-mounted screen, but this isn't the first time we've seen this idea employed. At CES last year, we saw a touchscreen steering wheel system from automotive supplier ZF that also incorporated gesture control. 

Going even further back, the idea of making the center part of your steering wheel more useful took a lower-tech route with General Motors' 1990's dalliance with buttons in the wheel hub, as seen on cars like the Pontiac Grand Prix ASC McLaren, but I digress.

We plan on taking a good long look at Byton's setup next week at CES, and we'll let you know how it works.

Byton's K-Byte sedan concept previews a pretty future

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Kyle Hyatt Former news and features editor
Kyle Hyatt (he/him/his) hails originally from the Pacific Northwest, but has long called Los Angeles home. He's had a lifelong obsession with cars and motorcycles (both old and new).
Kyle Hyatt
Kyle Hyatt (he/him/his) hails originally from the Pacific Northwest, but has long called Los Angeles home. He's had a lifelong obsession with cars and motorcycles (both old and new).

Article updated on January 2, 2019 at 12:15 PM PST

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Kyle Hyatt Former news and features editor
Kyle Hyatt (he/him/his) hails originally from the Pacific Northwest, but has long called Los Angeles home. He's had a lifelong obsession with cars and motorcycles (both old and new).
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