I Went To Faraday Future’s Crazy Event For Its ‘AI’ Van, A Vehicle That Has A Face And Can ‘Empathize’

On Thursday night, I attended an event for an “AI” electric van that has a huge digital “face” on the front and that allegedly feel emotions. Put on by Faraday Future, a company founded by Chinese businessman Jia Yueting, the event featured celebrities, influences, and a rebranded Chinese van that apparently has some “AI” capabilities that allow it to “feel what you feel,” including empathy. Here’s an inside look at this truly bizarre event and this vehicle that apparently has a “soul.”

I knew the night was going to be weird — it’s Faraday Future, a California-based (ish) company with a bizarre history that began with lofty promises in 2017, and has led largely to disappointment and very few actual Faraday Future vehicles hitting the road.

Friend of the site Mack Hogan broke down the history of this beleaguered EV startup on InsideEVs back in January after CES:

The full tapestry of Faraday Future’s history …stretches over more than a decade’s worth of corporate takeover politics, geopolitical intrigue and undelivered promises. Those promises typically came from Faraday Future’s founder, Yueting “YT” Jia. He was once hailed as one of China’s greatest internet entrepreneurs, but is now not especially welcome in his home country after failing to repay his considerable debts.

But if you do know the company, you probably know the FF 91.

Unveiled at CES in 2017, the FF91 promised 1,000-plus horsepower, 378 miles of electric range and Level 4 autonomous driving. Those are the sorts of wild technologies we’d expect from one of China’s best EV makers today, but Faraday Future once said it would go to production sometime in 2018 at a planned Nevada factory—one built from the ground-up, not a retrofitted old plant like those used by Tesla and Rivian in their early days.

Yet the factory never materialized, despite heavy investment and incentives from the state of Nevada. The company stopped work on the factory before the FF91 was even revealed, leading the treasurer of Nevada at the time to say it was a “Ponzi scheme,” per Fortune.

Over eight years after that halt, seven years after its introduction, six years after its proposed production start date, Faraday Future has produced just 16 FF 91s. Almost all—if not all—have been given to employees, paid spokespeople and other advocates. One of those spokespeople is also perpetually troubled American singer Chris Brown, so it’s hard to say the company’s judgment has improved.

Now, Faraday Future is back at CES, with another set of compelling promises. But it says this time is going to be different.

And what’s supposed to be different this time? Well, the car that Mack was talking about at CES with Faraday Future was, as he called it, a “rebadged Chinese plug-in hybrid MPV,” the FX “Super One,” with FX standing for Faraday X, the company’s subbrand. That’s what I was going to see at this event.

 

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My invitation said I was going to witness “the world’s first AI-powered luxury MPV and a true disruptor in the electric era” and that “This event also debuts the Super EAI F.A.C.E. (Front AI Communication Ecosystem).” I had no clue what any of that meant.

Between that and the part of the invitation that said “Walk away with a premium gift valued at $300,” (something very unconventional, as journalists aren’t supposed to take bribes), I knew this would be a weird one.

Arriving At The Parking Garage

Faraday Future held the reveal at the top of a parking garage in downtown LA — a beautiful location. Upon arrival on the 9th level (VIP), I took the elevator up a floor and was greeted with a Faraday Future FF91 2.0 Futurist, which turned my brain into ground meat with its acceleration up the ramp to the roof; my God, is it quick.

I was then ushered up some steps to a bar, which featured colorful cakes, each with a Faraday X sticker on its container:

Here’s a look at the crowd, which included journalists, influencers, and employees/people associated with Faraday Future:

After getting a rather unenlightening 5 mph ride in the van the company was about to reveal (the interior was really nice — is about all I gathered from that experience), I stood there in the crowd, chatting with a few of my colleagues, downing a delicious chocolate cake, when a rather enormous man — seemingly a security guard who was helping organize the event — tapped my shoulder and the shoulder of my colleague, Mack. “It’s time for you to go to the red carpet.”

Huh? What? Wait, why just us? Why are we going to the red carpet? How are you so enormous?

Mack and I were confused. “I think they want us to interview their CEO?” I posited.

What actually happened on the red carpet was a bit more confusing. Mack and I were filmed walking up red carpet, and upon getting toward the end of it, we realized that Justin Bell, a literal LeMans winner, was standing in front of an FF91 with a microphone waiting to interview us and a bunch of other journalists.

Why would you interview a journalist at a press event? I mean, maybe if you showed the car and wanted to know people’s opinions, I could see that. But this wasn’t that; this was just… Bell chit-chatting with journalists, and that chit-chat being broadcast over loudspeakers for the whole event to hear. It was strange, and a bit awkward.

Luckily, there were enough other members of the media ahead of us, so we were all called to a nearby seating area before Mack and I ever got our shot at the mic. It was time for the grand event — the reveal of the new FX “Super One.”

The Batshit-Crazy Reveal

Sure, the red carpet interview thing was a little different, but up until this point the event was relatively normal. The reception was really nice, with good food and drinks and decor, plus I heard one journalist say he signed up to have some kind of digital glasses mailed to his home — I assumed this was the “premium gift valued at $300” that was in the invitation.

Sure, the ridealong wasn’t groundbreaking, but at least we got a chance to experience a functioning vehicle — the point is, it was pleasant up to this point. But things would soon get weird.

Journalists were ushered to our seats, which actually featured our names on their backrests — a nice touch, actually, and somewhat unusual. Ahead of us was a screen and two vans under silk covers, with a beautiful LA sunset making up the backdrop.

The presentation began with a mention of a new UAE factory meant to serve not just the local market, but also Europe and North Africa. Then we got a humongous Forward Looking Statement filled with a bunch of legal jargon — something I hadn’t seen before at a new-car reveal:

Co-CEO Mattias Aydt then got in front of the small-ish crowd of journalist and talked us through the company’s history, saying “We are resilient and we are fighters” when discussing the company’s journey, which is shown below (note: Take “FF91 2.0 Delivery” with a grain of salt; the company sold very few of these machines):

This is all fairly normal stuff. We learned about the company’s manufacturing plans:

We heard some marketing mumbo jumbo about the company’s alleged strengths:

And then began the gradual onslaught of this “EAI” term — Embodied AI. Hmm…

Founder and Co-CEO YT Jia hopped on stage and talked about how his company was about to reveal a “disruptor of Cadillac Escalade in the EAI EV Era.”

Before I knew it, Justin Bell was up there, along with Paul Walker’s brother (!) Cody and racing driver Lindsay Brewer; together with Jia and Aydt, they took off the covers of the new FX Super One:

Reveal

What the hell? It’s a van with a huge screen on its nose — and it’s not just any van, it’s clearly the Great Wall Motors Wey MPV!

Later I’ll talk more about how FX’s “AI-powered luxury MPV and a true disruptor in the electric era” shown at the event is clearly a rebadged Wey, but before that, I need to get to the crazy part: This face-having van, TY Jia said, is “expressive, emotional, and continuously evolving,” with the ability to perceive and, eventually, act. One of the presenters said the FX Super One “feels what you feel” and is “like a smart copilot that actually understands you.” It offers “multimodal reasoning and decision making.” Huh?

If that’s not enough to weird you out, watch this:

I never thought I’d type these words, but allow me to quote the speaking-car here:

“Thanks to the brilliant minds at FF and FX, the Super EAI Face system has given what you might call a soul.”

Holy crap.

“More importantly, with the ability to perceive, think, reason, empathize, and eventually express, I turn each vehicle into a portal for communication with the world.”

What? A car that can empathize? Woh!

“You will love me because I was built to understand you, and express your unique vision to the outside world.”

Oh wow, I’m being told I have to love the van, by the van! Yeesh that’s spooky.

Faraday X’s team then showed a bunch of slides talking about the van’s stand-out features, most of which — as far as I can tell — are shared with the Wey van on which this FX Super One is based (more on that in a moment). Here’s Cody Walker talking about how the van is for celebrities, businesspeople, and families:

Here’s FX’s slide about how the Super One is better than the Escalade — something the company kept coming back to.

Here’s Walker talking about the car’s five “breakthroughs”:

Here’s a slide about how the “EAI” (again, that means “embodied artificial intelligence) cabin “knows what you want — before you do.”

These slides mention the two powertrains — fully electric and hybrid

And here’s some information about the chassis, though really it’s just a bunch of “EAI”s thrown in front of a bunch of seemingly normal features:

I will say: The interior actually is absurdly nice:

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And FX showed off that interior via some videos that featured actors who I could have sworn were at the reception:

Even the CEO’s daughters were featured in one video, using the van’s face to sing karaoke:

One of the stranger moments was when YT Jia read off the teleprompter some “breaking news” that the van had “officially [secured] 10034 binding deposits for non-binding pre-orders for the Super One, spanning both B2B and B2C channels, signaling strong early momentum and widespread market enthusiasm for the FX Super One.”

Seriously? 10,000 pre-orders for a rebranded Chinese van with a screen on its face?

Then there was the end when YT talked about the pricing; he asked the public to log into some website and actually… “help shape the final MSRP.” Huh? Shouldn’t that be based on like a market analysis/company financial realities?

The whole show ended with a Thank You to various dealerships and real estate agents, and “MCN” agencies (I think communications?).

So yeah, that was weird. A minivan with a face and that can “perceive” and “empathize” and that has a “soul.” That plus a LeMans winner and Paul Walker’s brother — it was all just ridiculous, especially when you consider that all of this was for a van that essentially already exists in China.

It’s A Rebadged ‘Wey’ Van

Faraday X says the vans we were shown were early cars and are likely to change by the time they’re finalized. Still, what they showed is essentially just a Great Wall Motors ‘Wey’ van, and that became obvious especially when I got up close to the FX Super One.

Not only is the sheetmetal clearly the same, but the interior is, too:

And much of the hardware underneath is clearly the same as well. Here’s the Wey:

You can see the muffler and control arms here:

Here you can see the fuel tank that’s just ahead of the rear drive unit/rear axle:

Here’s the battery in the middle:

I couldn’t see the engine up front, just a standard MacPherson strut setup like in the Wey and in many other vehicles:

Though Faraday Future never mentioned the Wey, the company used graphics quite similar as what is on Wey’s website. Here’s FX’s presentation:

Here’s Wey’s website:

Here’s Cody Walker showing the body structure of the FX Super One:

That’s clearly just this photo of the Wey’s body, but flipped about the vertical axis:

Conclusion

So yeah, that event went about as expected. A van with a literal face and feelings.

Can’t wait to see what’s next from Faraday Future.

All Images: Author unless otherwise specified