Sony on Wednesday unveiled a prototype of the brand new “Afeela” electrical autos it’ll construct along with Honda, saying it might harness its huge leisure content material because it seems to be to develop into a participant in next-generation vehicles.
Sony gave a glimpse of the Afeela, which sports activities rounded corners and a glossy black roof, on the CES 2023 expertise commerce present in Las Vegas. The automobile will use expertise from {hardware} maker Qualcomm, together with its “Snapdragon” digital chassis.
Sony’s long-awaited push into electrical autos — it introduced the enterprise with Honda in March — reveals how producers are more and more targeted on the cockpit expertise in vehicles, which affords the potential to promote content material through subscription providers vehicles, particularly as autonomous driving capabilities enhance.
“With a view to realise clever mobility, steady software program updates and high-performance computing are required,” Yashuhide Mizuno, the chief government of Sony Honda Mobility, advised the commerce present. “To that finish, we are going to work carefully with Qualcomm.”
Qualcomm on Wednesday launched a brand new processor, the Snapdragon Trip Flex SoC, that handles each assisted driving and cockpit capabilities, together with leisure. Beforehand these capabilities had been dealt with on completely different chips, and bringing them collectively may also help deliver down prices, a Qualcomm government advised Reuters.
Sony can also be trying to harness its conventional strengths in sensors. The Afeela will likely be outfitted with greater than 40 sensors, Mizuno stated. The automobile will use the “Unreal Engine” 3-D creation device from Epic Video games, the maker of the “Fortnite” collection of video games.
For Honda, the enterprise with Sony might enable it to hurry up what has to date been a sluggish shift to electrical. It has additionally struggled through the years to make features within the luxurious car market with its Acura model. The brand new EV will likely be priced at a premium, the enterprise has stated.
The enterprise between Sony and Honda goals to ship its first electrical autos by early 2026 in North America.
Shares of Sony had been up 1.6 % in Tokyo commerce, whereas Honda shares had been flat. The benchmark Nikkei 225 was little modified.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
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