Sony, Honda tease EV that aims to be a lounge on wheels
- Reference: 1697607911
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/10/18/sony_honda_ev_afeela/
- Source link:
"We will nurture Afeela as mobility with intelligence. In addition, we will pursue new possibilities on top of conventional car values, so that mobility can become a unique and endearing presence for users," [1]stated Sony Honda Mobility (SHM), the entity created by the two companies to produce the vehicle.
Honda brings automotive skills and aftersales service. Sony handled the imaging, sensing, telecommunications, network, and entertainment kit.
[2]
SHM said that Afeela will continually evolve as the company will allow creators and developers to develop applications and services that run on Afeela and provide a digital platform for "co-creation."
[3]
[4]
More details on the platform are promised in the coming days. For now, items that can be created are content for the "media bar," panoramic screen themes, eMotor sounds, and navigation services. Cloud APIs facilitate server-to-server connection.
Nothing should be overly hard for developers because Afeela runs Android.
[5]
Here's a Japanese television report that shows a little of Afeela's innards.
[6]Youtube Video
[7]Electric two-wheelers are set to scoot past EVs in road race
[8]Oh, no: The electric cars at CES are getting all emotional
[9]Electric two-wheelers are set to scoot past EVs in road race
[10]Meet Honda's latest electric vehicle: A rideable suitcase
Some [11]reports have noted that the futuristic design eschews door handles in favor of facial recognition.
But forget driving – once the user makes it inside, they will see large horizontal touchscreen displays in which they can enjoy video or audio content, advancing the notion that cars these days are a " [12]living room on wheels ."
The name Afeela is intended to bring consumers into a sensory-focused space because, according to [13]its makers , "feel" is at the "center of the mobility experience."
[14]
The Reg would have preferred a riff on classic Sony product names like "Walkman" or "PlayStation" if only because "DriveMan" or "Carstation" would avoid the need for the previous paragraph.
Such stuff appears, however, to be unavoidable as SHM is also big on "3A": autonomy, augmentation, and affinity.
The project was initially [15]announced in October 2022, along with details that SHM intended to build Afeela in the USA (hello, [16]tax incentives! ). Delivery was slated for 2026 – first in North America, followed by Japan.
At the time, SHM planned for Afeela to have level 3 automated driving in limited situations and level 2 in other environments, similar to systems built by Tesla, Ford, and others. Entertainment was promised from Epic Games.
The EV is outfitted with 45 cameras and sensors, and computing power of 800 trillion operations per second from Qualcomm's automotive SoCs. ®
Get our [17]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.shm-afeela.com/en/news/2023-10-17/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZS@sx5MpJ@zuOGKjLALiDQAAAwY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZS@sx5MpJ@zuOGKjLALiDQAAAwY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZS@sx5MpJ@zuOGKjLALiDQAAAwY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZS@sx5MpJ@zuOGKjLALiDQAAAwY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnAllqMAxwQ
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/18/electric_scooters_vehicles_asia/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/06/ces_ev_concept_cars/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/18/electric_scooters_vehicles_asia/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/15/meet_hondas_newest_electric_vehicle/
[11] https://newsdig.tbs.co.jp/articles/-/783423?display=1
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/18/electric_scooters_vehicles_asia/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/06/ces_ev_concept_cars/
[14] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZS@sx5MpJ@zuOGKjLALiDQAAAwY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/13/sony_honda_to_collaborate_on/
[16] https://afdc.energy.gov/laws/electric-vehicles-for-tax-credit
[17] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Except...
True but... captive audience!
How many smart TVs, hi-fis etc are littered with poor, unwanted, unloved and non-removable crapware and, in many cases, abandonware?
Runs Android
Security updates for how long?
“mobility with intelligence" for those without it.
"a unique and endearing presence for users,” sounds like something out of a spam email.
mobility can become a unique and endearing presence for users
Bingo!
I know finding new brand names is difficult but..
.. isn't this some sort of sexual predator??
Missing a trick!
Strap a mattress to the roof and bolt a barbecue to the rear and they've solved - at a stroke - the housing shortage too!
Or maybe it's just that Honda know something about future traffic jams that we can only guess: they're betting we'll need a /lot/ more to entertain us while we queue-up in our cars...
And it'll be packed with crapware that is of no use but which the Sony/Honda marketing droids say is utterly necessary 'cos their focus groups say so. Said crapware will reflect the undying contempt so many smart equipment suppliers have of their customers beta testers , in that it will be in removable
It's just another bloody saloon!
I've just had a butchers at the product website. - [1]https://www.shm-afeela.com/en/ (which is just as awful as most automotive company efforts, but don't get me started on that).
At the very least, I was expecting something along the lines of my old Espace - a veritable lounge on wheels, complete with armchair comfort. God I miss that car's comfort and sheer practicality. The EV equivalent at the moment is, I suppose the VW ID Buzz, another comfortable looking lounge on wheels but sadly that's way out of my price range.
So, all in all, a bit meh.
[1] https://www.shm-afeela.com/en/
Lounge on wheels???
I was expecting something like a VW bus with, for example, sofas arranged around 3 sides with a big TV on the other, maybe a couple of Playstations in the corner.
It's just a normal car - entertainment screens for the rear passengers are about a decade old, the only first (at least for me) seems to be the entertainment screen for the front passenger. Since it's Level 3 autonomous the driver screens should still be for driving-related stuff, not entertainment.
Couple of interesting things.... If it's really Level 3, Honda could follow Mercedes in being Level 3 certified in California, while Tesla and it's 'Autopilot' and 'Full Self Drive' marketing BS is still stuck at Level 2
... and either the newscaster on the clip was AI-generated or she has a REALLY weird mouth!!
> the company will allow creators and developers to develop applications and services that run on Afeela and provide a digital platform for “co-creation”.
Good luck with that. I'd be surprised if even one third party actually bothers. A target market that's in the tens of thousands, maybe low hundreds of thousands if they're very lucky? Not even worth the effort of installing the dev kit. Android Auto runs on, what, two hundred millions vehicles? And it still only has a handful of useful third-party apps.