The electric vehicle game isn't relegated to mass market manufactures. While Toyota, Ford and Volkswagen, stalwarts in the industry, have already jumped on board, newcomers like Rivian, Apple and Sony are looking to make big moves in the space.
This week at the CES trade show, Sony, under the Sony Honda Mobility (SMH) brand, unveiled its electric vehicle, Afeela, and showed off a prototype of the car it intends to build with Honda's cooperation.
The name Afeela, the company says, "represents 'feel' which is at the center of the mobility experience" in a press release. It goes on to say that the brand name "expresses an interactive relationship where people 'feel' mobility as an intelligent entity, and mobility 'feels' people and society using sensing and network IT technologies".
Here's five things you need to know about Sony Honda Moblity's Afeela car.
The company has made a prototype of their new Afeela car, but it's not ready for sale yet.
SMH will develop and build a production model of the prototype that was shown at CES 2023. The company intends to start taking pre-orders in the first half of 2025 and put the car on sale by the end of 2025. Deliveries are slated to commence in the spring of 2026 in North America.
The car will come loaded with technology.
While the final design is not complete, there is one thing that is guaranteed - the model will come loaded with high-tech features. In addition to traditional "car things" the electric vehicle will come with a cloud-connected human machine interface that will work to provide entertainment and more to a driver and passengers.
The company says that it's going to use augmented reality (AR) to aid in navigation. BMW and Mercedes already offer this in their newest models.
The car will not be autonomous.
SMH plans to develop a Level 3 automated drive system where the driver's hands can safely come off the steering wheel and eyes can divert from the roadway ahead. The Level 3 system would only be available in certain circumstances.
Level 2+ driver assistance technology allows for hands-on, eyes-on lane centering driving in certain scenarios. SMH wants to roll this out to urban areas as well as highways.
SMH will equip the car with a total of 45 cameras and sensors inside and outside the vehicle to aid with driver assist technologies.
The 2023 CES gathering marks the second year that Sony has revealed more news and a prototype of its Afeela car. Industry watchers expect a model further along in the development process to be shown at the 2024 CES trade show.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Eileen Falkenberg-Hull leads the Autos team at Newsweek. She has written extensively about the auto industry for U.S. News & ... Read more
