Sony Honda Mobility (SHM), a joint venture between two Japanese technology giants, Sony and Honda, unveiled their electric vehicle brand Afeela at CES 2023. This year, at a media event, SHM drove the EV onto the stage using nothing but a PS5 controller.
Over the past few years, multiple vehicle manufacturers have turned from fossil fuel cars to electric ones. While the focus for these manufacturers has remained on delivering maximum power and range for these vehicles, Japanese companies Sony and Honda are looking at this transition as an opportunity to transform mobility.
Established in September 2022, their joint venture SHM aims to work with the two companies' strengths in the technology and mobility domains and establish itself as a 'Mobility Tech company'. Cars from the SHM stable are branded Afeela, and a prototype of the vehicle was operated using the controller at the ongoing CES 2024.
What do we know about Afeela?
The vehicle prototype unveiled in January last year is a four-door sedan that has evolved from Sony's Vision S, which was unveiled a few years prior. Much like other electric vehicles these days, the Afeela prototype also has scores of sensors and cameras to help the car gauge its surroundings and use this information to assist the driver.
SHM does not intend to make its EV fully autonomous anytime soon but believes that the mobility intelligence will accompany manual vehicle control. It calls the onboard AI Vision Transformer and claims it achieves Level 2/2+ driving assistance under various driving conditions.
The vehicle's interiors are designed to minimise distractions while driving and provide an environment where one can spend quality time entertained while inside the car. Passengers can watch content, play games, or listen to music inside the Afeela instead of waiting to arrive at the destination.
Updates at CES 2024
In addition to driving the EV onto the stage, SHM also elaborated on the other updates that have taken place in the past year. The company's collaboration with Epic Games has gone beyond the portfolio of games that will be made available in the car and now extends to making an augmented reality (AR) map with the data gathered from the car's many sensors.
SHM uses the powerful gaming engine Unreal Engine 5 to display stunning 3D maps of the car's surroundings to the car's occupants to improve safety. Eventually, this will broaden to include developing gaming and entertainment features.
The company is also collaborating with Polyphony Digital to blur the differences between real and virtual in the car, much like the latter does in its Gran Turismo games.
SHM has also agreed with Microsoft to use its Azure OpenAI Service to develop a conversational, personal agent for Afeela.
In addition to collaborating with industry bigwigs, SHM is also opening up the developer space for Afeela for creators and developers to build applications and services that can run inside the futuristic EV.
SHM plans to take preorders for the Afeela in 2025 and deliver its first EVs in the US in the spring of 2026.