New Chinese Car Can Be Driven By Remote Control

11 years, 8 months ago - 29 August 2012, Autoblog
New Chinese Car Can Be Driven By Remote Control
The successor to the BYD F3 has gone through a couple of name changes on its way to production, finally settling on Su Rui, but its USP has been locked in since the beginning: remote control operation.

That's right, a full-sized, road-legal sedan that can be driven by remote control. Of course, the R/C functionality has strict limitations: the Su Rui has a max speed of two kilometers an hour when being operated remotely and it only works when the operator is no more than 10 meters away. But who cares about that – it's a full-size R/C car!

In case you were wondering about the Su Rui's specs, there are two engines on the menu, one is a 1.5-liter four-cylinder with 109 horsepower running through a five-speed manual, the other a 1.5-liter turbo four with 154 horsepower and the choice of a six-speed manual or a six-speed automatic. The remote control comes standard with the 1.5 turbo and, we're assuming, the automatic.

The car can be started and driven in all directions with the remote, and BYD has pushed the feature as handy for getting into tight parking spots or retrieving your car when it's raining and you don't have an umbrella. We figure that once the black hats get working on it, there'll be a few more tasks the Chinese sedan is good for.