Interviewing is a two way process. I asked my interviewers “What is Byton doing
differently than the competition?” The answer was “China’s market is huge and we just want a piece of the pie. We’re not trying to compete with Tesla.” While yes, you can tap into the massive demand for EVs, that’s not a competitive advantage....
Their website as of 11-8-18 states “as one of the key pioneers in autonomous driving, we develop our own autonomous driving technology.” Oh really? Read any news article on leading AVs, Waymo, Cruise, Argo AI, Zoox, Tesla, Apple, there’s never any mention of Byton.
I interviewed prior to the styling being released to public (which is now released). They showed me the unique interior, which is just a bunch of screens jammed into the vehicle. Autonomous vehicles are supposed to create more social environments, I don’t see how giving everyone a screen does that.
I’m sure it’s a fun environment working for a startup car company but ask yourselves, what really, truly makes this company unique? There are other EV startups that have true differentiating factors. If a major OEM were to buy out Byton tomorrow, what key pieces of IP and design would they keep? Byton’s strategy is using off the shelf parts from suppliers to keep costs low but this gives them no unique technical advantage.
Take Faraday Future as a lesson. Stay away. I had
offers from 4 car companies, I turned this one down.