China's LeEco unveiled Wednesday its very first driverless electric car in Beijing.
Up to date, the Chinese electronics manufacturer company LeEco was known just for its smartphones and TVs. But earlier this year, the company has announced investments in Aston Martin and Faraday Future automakers, according to Engadget.
Now, LeEco showed off in Beijing its very first electric car, a sleek, white four-door electric sedan called LeSee. As reported by the same publication, using voice commands via a mobile app LeEco CEO Jia Yueting performed a live demo of the vehicle's self-parking and self-driving capability.
No specs of LeSee car are known yet. At the moment this is more of a concept car, but by all means it does appear as a solid start. The first driverless electric car concept by LeEco will make its proper debut at this year's edition of the Beijing Auto Show, scheduled to start on April 24.
LeEco envisions its future LeSee cars to be part of a fleet of autonomous taxis. The car's front lights indicate its availability using various colors.
LeSee electric car features rear suicide doors and conventional front doors. Its back memory foam seats can adapt to the shape of the passengers' bodies and the front seats feature touchscreens behind them.
According to Los Angeles Times, LeEco Chief Executive also touted the car's steering wheel as part of its user-friendly features. When the car is in autopilot mode, the steering wheel folds toward the dash, giving the driver more space.
CEO Jia also added that the LeSee car will feature self-learning capability and face recognition technology. However, no demo of these features was done yet.
Jia didn't say when the autonomous electric car concept would go into production and did not reveal its price. The LeSee's production is apparently still far.
The car could be manufactured in China, in the U.S. or elsewhere, according to Ding Lei, co-founder and global vice chairman of LeEco. He declined to specify when manufacturing of LeSee will start but added that "the sooner the better."
