Sony and Honda's First EV Goes All in on Augmented Reality, Planned for 2026 - The Drive

Sony officially revealed its associated marque with Honda to the satellite connected Wednesday astatine the Consumer Electronics Show successful Las Vegas. Coined "Afeela," Sony says it's named to bring attraction to however radical "feel" astatine the halfway of the mobility experience, and however mobility "feels" radical done sensing and tech. But sanction and buzzwords aside, the astir important tidbit to cognize is that the task volition absorption connected gathering the archetypal luxury EV nether Sony's cautious tech-focused watch.

A prototype of the archetypal Afeela conveyance made an quality connected signifier during Sony's presumption astatine CES. While a batch of method details were near out, the satellite did get a look astatine what appears to beryllium a earthy progression from the original Sony Vision-S conception that debuted years ago. Its exterior has been refined and smoothed out, removing definite notable features similar the broadside crease and crisp beforehand bumper. Proportionally, the prototype is astir the aforesaid length, width, and tallness arsenic a BMW 5 Series oregon Tesla Model S.

Perhaps the astir absorbing diagnostic splayed connected the prototype's exterior is the "Media Bar" crossed the beforehand fascia. The display—which appears to beryllium a full-color integer portion affixed to wherever a grille would be, akin to a bladed television—is designed to usage airy and images to pass with the extracurricular world, arsenic good arsenic amusement disconnected utile stats similar charging portion the conveyance is stationary.

Sony besides shared immoderate photos of the vehicle's futuristic cabin. It takes a minimalist approach, featuring mostly creaseless existent property taken up by displays—four, successful total. The conception besides features 2 displays reserved for the camera-based broadside presumption mirrors, thing which whitethorn oregon whitethorn not scope the last accumulation mentation depending connected national regulations. The compartment features a azygous knob connected the driver's armrest and a yoke-style steering wheel.

Sony says Afeela is focused connected 3 cardinal points: autonomy, augmentation, and affinity. For autonomy, the conveyance volition utilize 45 cameras and sensors astir the conveyance to alteration conditional Level 3 automated driving. The program is to usage Sony's sensors on with Honda's information tech, which is promising considering that Honda launched the archetypal accumulation conveyance with Level 3 automation past year. Much similar Honda's implementation, Afeela is aiming to let its Level 3 strategy to run nether "specific conditions" on with Level 2+ features for municipality driving.

As for augmentation, Afeela is focused connected utilizing its human-machine interface to meld the operator with some driving and amusement experiences. Sony says that it plans to "evolve" the mobility abstraction utilizing augmented reality on with its sensing suite, arsenic good arsenic research "digital innovations specified arsenic the metaverse" successful the vehicle. Details connected however precisely Afeela plans connected utilizing augmented world are slim, but it has partnered with Epic Games to utilize the 3D capabilities of Unreal Engine to assistance successful the implementation of AR.

Lastly, the marque says that it volition besides absorption connected the affinity betwixt the conveyance and the world. The "world" could beryllium Afeela's manufacture partners, cardinal players successful different industries, and creatives.

Afeela plans to statesman taking preorders for its electrical sedan successful the archetypal fractional of 2025 with income hopefully kicking disconnected by the extremity of the year. First deliveries successful North America are expected to instrumentality spot successful 2026.

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