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In media, literature, and video games, “breaking the fourth wall” is when a character becomes self-aware and is (sometimes) able to speak directly to an audience.

Ones I can name off the to of my head are Fleabag, The Office, Deadpool, House of Cards, She-Hulk, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Conker’s Bad Fur Day (which blew my mind as a young gamer)…

There are numerous examples…now, a new car company from China is trying it.

When a brand is writing about its products, most often it writes from a 3rd person perspective. Sometimes, brands speak directly to an audience; Volvo is running lines like, “Hej there ;)” and “Let’s grow old and wise together / With over the air updates to keep making things better” in promotion for its upcoming EX90.

It’s a fourth wall break, sure, but future automaker BeyonCa is taking it a step further. (Beyond Car, by the way—which shortened is too similar to Beyoncé to be a coincidence—why are they disrespecting Queen B like that?)

Founded by longtime industry player and current Renault China CEO Weiming Soh, as well as Christian Klinger, formerly an executive within Volkswagen. No offense, but a white guy being named as a “top executive” who spent most of his career in Germany does little to coax me onboard the brand behind the GT Opus 1 concept car.

Online, BeyonCa (the brand) speaks as it it is a somewhat self-aware component within the larger industry—here’s how its homepage opens, emphasis mine:

“Prioritizing either premium or smart is a choice traditional OEMs and new car makers have always left to their consumers. They have never been well-balanced in a car.

“BeyonCa will redefine these conventions, and will make super premium and smart less of an either-or choice. We will draw from the knowhow accumulated by the auto industry in the last century and fuse it with cutting-edge technological innovations to demonstrate BeyonCa’s uncompromising attitude toward its products and technologies.”

Translation: more investors, please, because developing a vehicle with health monitoring properties is something even Elizabeth Holmes would likely have avoided.

According to Car News China:

“Worth mentioning that the GT Opus 1 will have an interesting system on board. Its name is ‘New Bian Que Diagnosis’. This system will collect data about the mood, heart rate, pulse, and breathing of people inside the car. It will enhance the self-driving system of the GT Opus 1. Bian Que is a most important figure in the history and development of Chinese Medicine.”

Want one? It will be manufactured by Dongfeng and arrive on the street for the 2024 model year.

Renault-backed Beyonca EV venture touts health monitoring, targets Audi in China • Reuters

see also :: BeyonCa Is New Chinese High-End EV Brand From Former Vice President of Volkswagen • Car News China :: BeyonCa (website)