The Sony and Honda’s EV three way partnership got here into higher focus this week at CES, the place the 2 firms unveiled a brand new prototype and confirmed Afeela because the model title for the enterprise.
Looking a bit completely different from the Sony Vision-S idea first proven in 2020, the smooth prototype previews a manufacturing mannequin scheduled to start pre-orders in 2025, with full gross sales following later within the yr, and the primary North American deliveries in spring 2026.
Defined by clean edges, the sedan prototype options cameras for aspect mirrors and lightweight bars entrance and rear that talk with the surface world by way of shifting mild patterns, and likewise serve to welcome the driving force when approaching the car.
Afeela electrical sedan prototype
Inside, the automotive has screens galore. Screens cowl your complete dashboard, together with the bottom of the ahead pillars, the place they function screens for the digital camera mirrors, and supply leisure choices for rear-seat passengers. Some bodily controls are included, nonetheless, together with a yoke-like steering wheel.
Afeela goals to supply Level 3 automation, permitting drivers to take their eyes off the street in some conditions. That might be enabled by a complete of 45 cameras and sensors, feeding data to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chip, offering a most 800 TOPS (tera operations per second) of computing energy.
Afeela can be working with Epic Games on in-car content material, probably together with cloud-based options and augmented actuality parts like navigation, as a part of an ecosystem of software program add-ons, a few of which is able to seemingly be provided by way of subscriptions. That tracks Sony’s plans to maybe make the automotive a money-maker for content material and leisure.
Afeela electrical sedan prototype
No data on the powertrain or vary was offered, nonetheless. We do know that the manufacturing automotive might be American constructed. Honda, maybe in preparation, final yr introduced plans to make its Ohio vegetation a hub for EV manufacturing.
The Sony-Honda mission has moved quickly since final March, when it was introduced that the 2 firms would ally for a manufacturing mannequin and new model. A crossover SUV is probably going additionally deliberate, as Sony confirmed the Vision-S 02 SUV idea at CES in 2022.
Source: www.greencarreports.com
