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At a very big event in Las Vegas ahead of CES, Faraday Future displayed off the FF ninety one — its very first production car — and display off a few of its features.
Faraday Future has been in the news a lot lately, but not necessarily for good reasons. In November, the company’s factory construction was paused and putting its targeted ship date at risk among a host of other issues. Faraday Future has thus far been very flashy, but has yet to get a product in the arms of consumers — and it needs to get there. But, at least part of the way is ultimately displaying a production car, which Faraday Future attempted to do with bravado at the event.
There were two big parts of the demonstration (thus far — we’re live-blogging it here): the spectacle of the car and its range. Via both parts of the presentation Faraday pitted the car against Tesla’s Model S and Model X. To be fair, those cars are essentially benchmarks for the electrical car industry. And Tesla’s troubles getting enough cars on the road are evidence enough that it’s a very, very hard industry.
It also demonstrated off some parts of its autonomous driving technology by demonstrating a movie of the car finding a parking spot and parking itself. Owners can send the car off to park itself and summon it through the smartphone application, and the car packs thirty sensors including cameras and Radar, Faraday Future director of self-driving Hong Bae said.
According to Faraday Future, the car is able to hit sixty mph in Two.39 seconds — which, if accurate, would narrowly hammer out the Two.Four seconds it takes a Tesla Model S to hit sixty mph. It demonstrated a movie of the car striking the Model S in a race, and while the company had each car hit utter acceleration on stage, they did not go head-to-head. So we’ll basically have to go by the movie for now, until we actually see the cars in person race each other in an independent setting.
The FF ninety one also has a range, the company says, of three hundred seventy eight miles (EPA adjusted). The Model S has a range of three hundred fifteen miles (also EPA adjusted), and the car goes further at a constant fifty five miles per hour. That’s enough to get from Silicon Valley (launch point not specified) to Los Angeles “with miles to spare,” VP of propulsion engineering Peter Savagian said on stage.
Beyond that, the car has a few extra flourishes like a dual antennae that permits a wifi hotspot, facial recognition that permits for keyless entry and one hundred fifty one cubic feet of space internally.
To get their palms on the car, users have to register and put down a $Five,000 deposit. And it will ship in 2018, the company says. Whether it actually works will, of course, be a different story. On stage, the company attempted to activate part of its self-driving parking technology, and it didn’t operate. To re-iterate, Faraday Future indeed needs this car to work beyond just a very big flashy event at CES.
Before we close, here are a few choice quotes from the event:
Faraday SVP of engineering Nick Sampson
“We’re gonna showcase the very first of a fresh species.”
“Tomorrow is too significant for us, and for humanity. We have to roll the automotive industry on its head… independent of fossil fuels.”
“We’re ready to take that final decisive charge into the future… Faraday Future intends to lead that charge.”
“There are companies that have shown good electrical vehicles… but while these companies inspire us what they are doing is a slight progression of where we’ve been before.”
Director of self-driving Hong Bae
“A car that adapts to you, a car that can drive itself, a car that is smartest ever.”
“This intelligent entity is also a caring entity. It looks out for you, it protects you… You will grow to trust it.”