The thing about marketing is it lets you say… pretty much whatever you want. Keep that in mind when you read about BYD’s Yangwang U9, a new supercar from the Chinese automaker with some very special abilities.
Like Tej and Roman’s space-bound Pontiac Fiero, BYD’s U9 is supposed to be something special. No, the Chinese car won’t drift in space but it’s supposed to hop over obstacles in the road. Obstacles like potholes and spike strips and… rainbow dust?
Grab your Yangwang
It’s supposed to do all of this autonomously, at speeds of about 120km/h. There’s a video of the supercar doing the rounds — you’ll see it above — that claims to show what BYD reckons its Yangwang can do. It launches over a pothole, clearing six metres of road in the process, before doing the same with a collection of caltrops and then a section of coloured dust.
BYD reckons that its DiSus-X suspension, which allows the car to dynamically adjust its ground clearance, is the reason why it’s able to leap and soar the way it does. Intelligent Damping Body Control and Intelligent Hydraulic Body Control are also contributors, allowing for remarkable capability.
There’s just one problem. It all seems wholly unbelievable. This is helped by the production values BYD has lobbed at its Yangwang U9 demonstration video. It looks like it was rendered entirely on a computer, all slick shots and cutaways that show the most flattering angle for… well, everything.
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Far more convincing would be raw footage — a set of static cameras showing the entire run in an unbroken stream from several angles. It’s not that BYD’s vehicle isn’t capable of leaping over obstacles. Sensors and computer-controlled driving may well make it possible. But believing it based on this marketing promo is a tough ask.
If it is true, we probably won’t ever see the BYD YangWang U9 on South African roads. It’s not that we don’t need the capability but this ‘ feature’ would be in constant use. Call us old-fashioned but we’d rather not drive a car that bunny hops down the road like a rabid CounterStrike 1.6 player.