Faraday Future Activates New Website Prior To CES Reveal

Want to know what the first production car from Faraday Future will look like? The company activated a new front page for its website on December 13 that will show it to you — sort of. The image on the page starts with the car’s chassis. Its silhouette will be slowly filled in by a series of graphic dots over the next 20 days until it is completed at 6:00 pm on January 3. That’s when the actual car will be unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The website home page will turn into a live stream at that point, viewable on any digital device.

The dots you see on the company home page represent the particle imagery the car’s computer uses to create a three dimensional view of the environment around it based on input from Lidar and other sensors. The suggestion is the car will have advanced semi-autonomous capability when built and could be capable of full self driving operation when and if regulators approve the sale of such cars. So far, Michigan is the only state to do so.

There is a link at the bottom of the page that allows interested people to create an account with Faraday Future to receive e-mail updates about when and how to reserve a car. Of course, before Faraday Future sells a car, it must first build a car. Construction of its proposed factory in North Las Vegas has stopped amid reports that it owes the general contractor millions of dollars in past due payments, but the website says construction will resume soon. Very soon.

Dan Schwartz the treasurer of Nevada has gone on record saying that the company’s principal financial backer, Jia Yueting, has no money. “Could he get more money? My sources in China say the government there isn’t financing him. I wonder where and how they’re going to continue this project.”

Faraday has recently extended its contract with the city of Vallejo in California to study whether it should build a second smaller factory and “customer experience center” in a commercial development zone owned by the city. Will Faraday Future survive? It may all depend on how the reveal in Las Vegas goes. There is a good chance the event it meant as much to convince potential investors to open their wallets as it is to wow the public.

While you are waiting for January 3 to arrive, you can amuse yourself by watching a prototype Faraday Future dust off a Tesla Model X in a drag race. The fact that the company chose Tesla’s SUV to square off against probably tells us more about what kind of car is under all that camouflage than all those dots on Faraday’s home page. Here’s a bold prediction — the first Faraday Future will be an electric SUV designed to compete head to head in features and price with the Tesla Model X. In 20 days, we will know for sure.

Source: Faraday Future press release.