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Part smartphone, part video game console. Afeela, the electric car according to Sony and Honda

1 year ago babelfish

Part smartphone, part video game console. Afeela, the electric car according to Sony and Honda

The curtain rises on Afeela, the electric mobility declined by two Japanese giants. It will be equipped with 45 different sensors, including cameras and Time-on-flight, so as to focus on autonomous driving. While on-board entertainment will be guaranteed by PlayStation

Afeela. Ok, probably the name is really ugly, even cacophonous, at least for a Westerner. Instead, it must sound auspicious to a Japanese ear, given that behind this brand are two Japanese giants: Sony and Honda.

The first, it is known, is active in entertainment in its entirety: those over 30 today will remember it for Walkmans and VHS video recorders, while for all the others Sony is above all synonymous with living room consoles, a sector that continues to preside with PlayStation 5.

Honda, for its part, brings to mind roaring motorcycles and cars that stand out for their classic Japanese solidity and reliability. With an annual production of over 14 million engines, Honda Motor Co., Ltd is among the first manufacturers globally and has also undertaken investments in the field of robotics in recent years.

WILL AFEELA WORRY MUSK?

Together, Sony and Honda will develop several electric vehicles capable of worrying Tesla as they will focus their raison d'être on the on-board entertainment system. The ice was broken at the CES in Las Vegas underway these days with Afeela, which the Japanese giant did not fail to advertise via Twitter, or a guest on the social network of Elon Musk, patron of the US rival.

Afeela is fully part of the Sony Honda Mobility program, but unfortunately it will be necessary to wait a long time to see it on the road since it will only go into production from next year, 2024, with pre-orders starting from mid-2025 while marketing will start from the spring of the following year.

In short, Musk has plenty of time to run for cover: for sure in the meantime he won't be able to churn out new models (perhaps Tesla will arrive at a budget price?), but in the meantime he will certainly try to saturate the market by accelerating the production of those already in trade, which is his real goal, which is why the South African tycoon has modernized the gigafactory in Shanghai and is pushing for the plants in Berlin and Austin to give their best as well (to tell the truth, to worry the former startupper, more than Sony, is undoubtedly the boldness of Chinese brands).

THE THREE A 'S OF SONY AND HONDA

Returning to the bizarre and cacophonous name of this new and futuristic electric car, the intent of the two Japanese brands to play with the English "feel" is clear. For the parties, it would in fact express an interactive relationship in which people "feel" mobility as an intelligent entity and mobility "feels" people and society using sensing and network information technologies.

Nor are these the only terms Sony and Honda have insisted on in presenting the car, repeating the three A's for Autonomy, Augmentation and Affinity several times. Autonomy obviously refers to the intelligent brain of the car, which will not be completely autonomous but will still have the aim of supporting the driver.

With Augmentation Sony and its entertainment systems come into play, to be declined as entertainment no longer in the living room but during travel. While with Affinity , reference is once again made to the ability to give life to a product that adapts perfectly to the driver and his passengers, therefore a car in close affinity with its occupants, already expressed by Afeela by containing the word "feel ”.

THE TECHNOLOGICAL HEART OF AFEELA

Leaving this 'commercial blabla' to the marketing strategists, what we are most keen to underline is that this Japanese electric car will be equipped with 45 different sensors, including cameras and Time-on-flight, naturally aimed at autonomous driving. And while the car assists the driver in driving, passengers can enjoy movies, music and video games: Sony's library on this is vast.

Three important collaborations to make Afeela's brain perform as much as the engine (of which the specifications are still unknown): Qualcomm, Unreal Engine and Epic Games: therefore everything will be based on the Snapdragon Digital Chassis while Epic and Unreal will take care of animate and give substance to augmented reality.

AND QUALCOMM "MERGES" THE CHIPS

Mobile chipmaker Qualcomm Technologies, Inc just unveiled an in-car processor called the Snapdragon Ride Flex SoC that handles both assisted driving and cabin functions, including entertainment. Previously these functions were handled by different microprocessors and merging them could help reduce costs, said Nakul Duggal , head of the automotive sector at Qualcomm, especially in a period in which the crisis leads to the reduction of the presence of semiconductors in cars. Afeela will almost certainly mount similar hi-tech solutions, so it could surprise you in terms of the price offered to the public…

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/un-po-smartphone-un-po-console-per-videogame-afeela-lauto-elettrica-secondo-sony-e-honda/ on Thu, 05 Jan 2023 12:16:33 +0000.