Lianne Dhalla | 5 Jan 2023 04:47 PM
Back in the day, Sony had teased its Vision S concept car but back then it seemed like a bit of a utopian concept with no real outcome. Well, three years since they posed the question in the form of the Vision S, the Japanese company has found a partner in Honda to help transform their vision into a reality. This dream will take the form of Afeela, an EV produced and fated to hit the roads by 2026.
While the initial details are too expensive, the sedan will closely resemble the sleek Vision-S concept Sony showed off three years ago. And as you’d expect from a tech brand partnering with a master of Japanese precision, the EV, like that prototype, is all about the sensors. Sony has claimed it will contain a total of 45 sensors, including everything from lidar to radar and in-car cameras. The car has been given the freedom to "express itself" thanks to a stripe-like feature in the grille that glows in various colours, which seemed to be a recurrent theme in Sony's CES 2023 presentation.
On the inside, a massive screen dominates the front dash. This a smart move from Sony which promises to make extensive use of its partnerships in movies, music, and gaming, creating an entertainment space on the move. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon has lent its Digital Chassis system to provide the car with the computing power to make it all work.
The EV will be initially manufactured at Honda’s North America factory with pre-orders beginning in early 2025. Most interestingly, the car sets out to feature Level 3 automated driving capabilities under limited conditions. This Level 3 autonomy means the car will be able to drive and manoeuvre itself in situations like traffic jams, with the condition that a human driver must take over when the system requests it. So the future seems to be rapidly inching towards us these days. Stay tuned for more information about this concept car as they reveal more details on its progress.