BYD equips its vehicles with drone launch pads because they can

Capture aerial footage of your drives without stopping

BYD’s CEO Wang Chuanfu seems to be really inspired by Bond movies in making BYD models stand out. There’s the Yangwang U8 that could do things such as a crab walk and float on water while the U9 can literally jump over road spikes.

Those things used to be far from achievable in reality, and now BYD’s got another trick up its sleeve. The Chinese brand has installed roof-mounted drone docking stations for you to capture aerial footage of your journeys. Yup, that’s Mission Impossible stuff right there.

BYD calls it the Ling Yuan system, and it was developed in collaboration with DJI. The package includes a 4K drone and an aerodynamic hangar that stores and charges the drone after its flight.

Here’s where it gets really cool – it only takes one press of a button to open the hangar’s roof and lift the drone’s platform to launch the drone to the skies and can be controlled directly from the infotainment display or the dedicated Ling Yuan app for smartphones. But wait, there’s more. That can be done at speeds up to 25 km/h.

The drone is capable of following the vehicle at speeds up to 54 km/h, so you can capture more dramatic aerial footage at fairly moderate speeds. When filming is done, the drone returns to the roof-mounted hangar to charge its batteries. According to BYD, it only takes 30 minutes to charge the drone from 20 to 80%.

The package costs USD 2,200 (PHP 127,000). But what’s great is that BYD plans to make the drone docking station available in a wide range of models. Apart from the Yangwang U8 and Fang Cheng Bao Bao 8, other models already shown with the system on their roofs include the Fang Cheng Bao Bao 5, Titanium 3, Denza N9, BYD Tang L, and BYD Sealion 7.

For now, though, we’re yet to confirm if the system will be offered outside China. But considering how aggressive BYD is nowadays, we won’t be surprised if they do offer it in other markets.