Sony and Honda unveiled their joint venture last year to develop and build electric cars and their new car is called Afeela. At a presentation during the Consumer Electronics Show, Sony Honda Mobility Chief Executive Yasuhide Mizuno revealed a prototype of the car.
According to a CNN report the car is a mid-sized sedan, and will be available to order and purchase in 2025. First deliveries of the car will not take place in North America until 2026 and the car will be built at one of Honda’s factories.
Mizuno said, “At the heart of this mobility experience is the word ‘feel’, with a focus on sensing and interacting with people.
Safety and driver assistance features
The car will have safety and driver assistance systems from Honda along with entertainment and interactive features from Sony. When developing the car, the emphasis has been on software and user interface technology as much as on driving dynamics and performance.
The car will feature Level 3 automated driving capabilities under limited conditions. Level 3 autonomy means the car can drive in situations like traffic jams, but the human driver must take over when requested.
Entertainment features
The car also boasts 45 cameras and sensors inside and outside the vehicle, some of which are used to detect the condition of the driver. The company is working with Unreal Engine graphics technology from Epic Games, the same company that produces Fortnite, to design interfaces for the vehicle. Another brand that uses the same technology includes General Motors.
The CEO of Sony, Kenichiro Yoshida said that the aim is to be a “moving entertainment space”.
Sony also unveiled how the integration of external media along the front of the car will allow it to interact with other road users and share information.
“We plan on exploring the possibility of how media can create a fun and exciting mobility interaction,” said Yoshida.
He also said that Afeela will feature best-in-class entertainment for customers.
“In addition to movies, games and music, we envision a new in-cabin experience using our expertise of UX and UI technologies,” said Yoshida.
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