The latest and best British luxury sports car, Aston Martin, is adding bang to the buck by collaborating with Beijing-based tech company, LeTV Holdings Co. Ltd., on tech smart cars.
The firm's vehicles, mostly associated with the famous secret agent James Bond, will sport new looks with many tech gizmos incorporated to give the ultimate in driving experience, according to China Daily.
Aston Martin Lagonda Ltd. and LeTV displayed their first model called the Rapide S, which is powered by LeTV's automobile Operating System, on Thursday, Jan. 8, at the ongoing Consumer Electronics Expo in Las Vegas.
The new car features a 13.3-inch HD touch screen from LeTV as the vehicle's central console, as opposed to the conventional 12.2-inch display dashboard, First Post reported. The publication added that the 2015 version sedan also has LeTV's under-development Speech Recognition Technology. The feature allows the car to take commands from the driver such as lowering windows.
Furthermore, the cloud-based system enables other services like remote monitoring.
The whole project took some months to be completed. By collaborating with LeTV, Aston Martin has indicated that it wants to incorporate high-end tech into its already reputable vehicles.
Ding Lei, co-founder and global vice chairman of LeTV's automobile subsidiary, LeTV Super Car, said that the Chinese firm has added "an Internet brain" to Aston Martin, which has a legacy of over 100 years.
The two companies signed the partnership on research collaboration in Dec. 2015. The projects include manufacturing and the development of the next-generation electric cars.
Meanwhile, Aston Martin's CEO Andrew Palmer said, "The integration of LeTV's advanced connected technologies into this bespoke environment is a natural progression as we look to the future demands of our customers."
LeTV and Aston Martin do not intend to sell the upgraded version of the Rapide S because the technologies utilized on the $610,000 (4 million yuan) speed car will be introduced in future releases.
LeTV, a firm reputable for making smartphones and televisions, announced its automobile intentions in Nov. 2015, adding that it was seeking traditional automakers for partnership. The company as well invested in a two-year-old electric carmaker in the United States to challenge pioneers in the industry such as Tesla Motors Inc. in the near future.