VinFast has the right idea, but the VF8 is nowhere near ready for the customer deliveries that are already happening.
As it stands now, though, I'd be embarrassed to look a customer in the eye when handing over the keys to this vehicle. I've driven camouflaged prototypes that were far closer to production-ready than the in-production VF8.A lot of car reviewing is subjective and based on experience, preference, and understanding of the target customer, but a significant part of it is objective fact. I may not like the way a turn signal sounds, but I expect it to work every time I use it.
Once you're off and going, you find the long list of advanced driver aids to be a mixed bag at best. The adaptive cruise control and lane-centering steering assist work shockingly well, but also have no apparent safeguards. They can be activated on any road at any time and there appears to be no functional driver monitoring. The car never once warned me to put my hands back on the wheel and covering the driver-facing camera behind the steering wheel did nothing.
Best to leave it in Normal drive mode, regardless. Eco mode didn't appear to make any difference in our car, although colleagues reported a noticeable effect in theirs. They also had a usable Sport mode, but in our car, it was undriveable. Enabling Sport made the accelerator pedal so sensitive breathing on it might cause you to hit triple-digit speeds.
The seats don't help the handling situation, either. They're very firm and very flat, so you slide right out of them in anything more than gentle bend. The rear seat is almost a literal bench, the bottom and back completely devoid of contour and extremely thin. The rear headrests are fixed in place and impede your view out the already pinched rear window. I'd also be a remiss if I didn't mention the quality of the materials.
The displays are also impressive. The head-up unit is bright, crisp, and full of useful information presented via pleasing graphics. Same for the one big tablet display, even if it has a few too many hidden menus. You do have to press any on-screen button right in the middle for your input to register, but the screen responds immediately when you hit them right.
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