Driverless Tesla Rival Takes to the Air to Avoid PotholesDriverless Tesla Rival Takes to the Air to Avoid Potholes

We know that potholes are a major problem in some parts of the world – to the extent that in the United Kingdom autonomous vehicles are being developed to fill them in.

But what if you could simply eliminate the threat of pothole damage by owning a driverless car that leaps over them?

If an amazing new promo video is to be believed, that appears to be the extraordinary solution offered by the U9, an electric supercar that costs around $230,000 in China and is sold by BYD under the Yangwang brand, which is being pitched as a high-end alternative to Tesla.

Under normal circumstances, the U9’s credentials are impressive enough. With around 1,287 hp at its disposal via four electric motors, it is predictably fast, dispatching 0-62 mph in around two seconds and reaching a top speed of 243 mph.

But as the video – labeled by BYD as a Driverless Consecutive Leaping Test – shows, the U9 clearly has more to its armory than merely devastating pace, putting a new spin on the concept of a “flying car.”

On a runway at Datong in the northern province of Shanxi, its first challenge is to negotiate a daunting looking water-filled pothole (measuring 19 feet wide and 8 feet long).

After that follows an equally alarming obstacle – a 13-foot-long collection of metal spikes, all 1.3 inches high, which promise to shred the U9’s tires. Finally, there’s a similarly sized area of dust strips to avoid.

Related:Robot Self-Driving Vehicle Aims to Solve UK’s Pothole Crisis

Sounds impossible? Not for the Yangwang. As you’d expect, it accelerates dramatically from a standstill, and with the digital speedo showing just under 75 mph, it remarkably takes to the air as it approaches the pothole, with the front wheels lifting first, then the rears, before safely landing back on the runway well clear of any possible damage.

A caption on screen explains that it has leapt in excess of 19 feet, avoiding the pothole with ease. The threat of the spikes and then the dust strips is dispatched with similar ease. And even more astonishingly, it has done so in autonomous mode, with no human in the car.

Now, you may wonder what the point of all this is, beyond attracting a lot of views online. However, there does appear to be some method to Yangwang’s madness, as the intention is to showcase the potential of the car’s Disus X active suspension set-up, with Intelligent Damping Body Control and Intelligent Hydraulic Body Control providing such precision that a human driver isn’t even required at the wheel.

BYD certainly doesn’t appear to be shy in using wacky measures to highlight Yangwang’s tech, having previously published a video of the U9 “dancing.”

It’s not entirely clear whether production versions of the U9 will have the same level of capability as the car in the Driverless Consecutive Leaping Test, but if you ever find yourself in China with access to a Yangwang, it’s probably best not to try to find out.