NIO EP9 record-breaking electric car revisited

Autonomous vehicles don’t come more relaxing or crazy than the NIO Eve and EP9, two candy-colored vehicles that desire you to think the automobile future is nearly here.

The vehicles drew stable crowds during weekend at SXSW Interactive, which once again welcomed technologists from huge automakers and bold start-ups alike to lay out their roadmaps for the future of mobility.

Tucked inside a low-slung downtown structure that the Chinese-funded business had actually taken control of for the festival, Eve provided a vision of mobility that turns the feared commute into a dreamy knitting or TV-watching escape.

A few feet away sat the streamlined NIO EP9, which had only recently set an autonomous automobile speed record at the close-by Circuit of the Americas, lapping the Formula One circuit at a driverless top speed of 257 km/h.

“Today’s automobiles are the (Internet equivalent) of the dial-up modem,” states NIO’s US CEO Padmasree Warrior. “The true next generation automobile will come fully from the digital side.”

NIO is charging into a progressively crowded space. Traditional automakers are rising to the electrical and connected-car obstacle by intensifying engineering personnels or partnering with tech companies, including Waymo and Fiat Chrysler, and Uber Technologies Inc and Volvo.