© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Sony Corp’s and Honda Motor’s logos are pictured at their joint information convention venue in Tokyo, Japan, March 4, 2022. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
(This Jan. 4 story has been corrected to repair spelling of CEO’s first title within the fourth paragraph)
By Kiyoshi Takenaka
(Reuters) – Japan’s Sony (NYSE:) on Wednesday unveiled a prototype of the brand new “Afeela” electrical autos it is going to construct along with Honda, saying it will harness its huge leisure content material because it appears to change into a participant in next-generation vehicles.
Sony gave a glimpse of the Afeela, which sports activities rounded corners and a modern black roof, on the CES 2023 expertise commerce present in Las Vegas. The automobile will use expertise from {hardware} maker Qualcomm (NASDAQ:) Inc, together with its “Snapdragon” digital chassis.
Sony’s long-awaited push into electrical autos – it introduced the enterprise with Honda in March – exhibits how producers are more and more targeted on the cockpit expertise in vehicles, which presents the potential to promote content material by way of subscription companies vehicles, particularly as autonomous driving capabilities enhance.
“As a way to realise clever mobility, steady software program updates and high-performance computing are required,” Yasuhide Mizuno, the chief govt of Sony Honda Mobility, instructed the commerce present. “To that finish, we are going to work carefully with Qualcomm.”
Qualcomm on Wednesday launched a brand new processor, the Snapdragon Experience Flex (NASDAQ:) SoC, that handles each assisted driving and cockpit features, together with leisure. Beforehand these features had been dealt with on totally different chips, and bringing them collectively may help convey down prices, a Qualcomm govt instructed Reuters.
Sony can be seeking to harness its conventional strengths in sensors. The Afeela will probably be geared up with greater than 40 sensors, Mizuno stated. The automobile will use the “Unreal Engine” 3-D creation instrument from Epic Video games, the maker of the “Fortnite” sequence of video games.
For Honda, the enterprise with Sony could enable it to hurry up what has to date been a sluggish shift to electrical. It has additionally struggled through the years to make good points within the luxurious automobile market with its Acura model. The brand new EV will probably be priced at a premium, the enterprise has stated.
The enterprise between Sony Group Corp and Honda Motor Co Ltd 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 was little modified.
(This Jan. 4 story has been corrected to repair spelling of CEO’s first title within the fourth paragraph)
