Upcoming Sony-Honda EV Takes Another Step at CES 2024
Afeela, the future electric car being developed by Sony and Honda, made another appearance at CES this week. While still a concept and looking unchanged from last year, it now boasts updated hardware and software hinting at a diverse range of driving experiences.
Sony Honda Mobility (SHM) boss Izumi Kawanishi put on a show for the crowd by using a PS5 DualSense controller to drive the car remotely all the way onto the stage.
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Sony today controlled their EV at CES with a PlayStation controller. pic.twitter.com/ZnTeeGKkiw
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) January 9, 2024
It was nothing more than a cool demo, mind you. No such thing will be possible when the first production units hit the road sometime in 2026. That being said, a suite of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) will enable hands-free driving in various conditions.
In Las Vegas, SHM announced a collaboration with Epic Games to provide a visually stunning 3D map from which extensive metadata from the internet is overlaid, using the latest version of the powerful gaming engine Unreal Engine 5 (5.3). The latter will also help make the ADAS suite more reliable.
Also announced at CES, SHM has entered into an agreement with Microsoft to develop a ChatGPT-like conversational personal agent using Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service. What’s more, users can expect numerous forms of entertainment including movies and video games, similar to what other automakers such as Tesla are offering.
Speaking of gaming, before the Afeela launches into the real world, fans will be able to drive the car virtually in Gran Turismo 7 later in 2024 thanks to a newly created partnership between SHM and Polyphony Digital.
As a reminder, most specs including power, battery capacity, range and charging speeds have yet to be disclosed. We know that the Afeela stands 4,895 mm long, 1,900 mm wide and 1,460 mm tall, making it roughly the same size as the Honda Accord but with a significantly longer wheelbase. It’s also equipped with a total of 45 cameras and sensors inside and out, together with 800 TOPS of maximum computing power for ECU.
Availability in Canada has yet to be confirmed, just to be clear. In case you prefer SUVs, Honda’s all-new and all-electric Prologue—admittedly not as fancy or technologically advanced as the Afeela—will go on sale in B.C., Ontario and Quebec this spring with a base price of around $65,000.