Nearly a year after Sony and Honda shared plans to jointly make and sell electric vehicles, the two companies unveiled a prototype under the Afeela brand.
The four-door sedan was wheeled onto the podium at CES on Wednesday as Kenichiro Yoshida, Sony’s CEO, spoke about the company’s mobility philosophy, which prioritizes building vehicles with autonomous capabilities that transform into “moving entertainment space.”[s].”
Initial pre-orders of the Afeelas are scheduled for the first half of 2025, with sales starting the same year, Yoshida said. The first shipments will be delivered to customers in North America in spring 2026.
Sony and Honda have previously said the new electric car will initially be produced at Honda’s plant in North America and will feature Level 3 automatic driving capabilities under limited circumstances. Level 3 autonomy means the car can drive in situations such as traffic jams , but that the human driver should take over when the system requests it.
Sony today revealed new details about the vehicle’s design, including the integration of external media along the front of the car that allows it to communicate with other road users and share necessary information.
“We intend to explore the possibility of how media can create a fun and exciting mobility interaction,” said Yoshida.
The prototype is also equipped with 45 cameras and sensors inside and outside the vehicle to ensure safety and security, Yoshida said. The sensors in the cab monitor the driver’s status to prevent accidents.
Afeela will also provide best-in-class entertainment for customers, Yoshida said. The Sony-Honda JV will integrate Epics Games’ Unreal Engine, a 3D computer graphics game engine, into their vehicles to help visualize not only in-car entertainment, but also communications and safety.
“In addition until movies, spell, and music, we imagine a new ones in the cabin experience using U.S expertise from UX and the user interface technologies,” said Yoshida.
Epic Games chief technology officer Kim Libreri said the most natural way to visualize important data in the car is through intuitive interactive photoreal augmentation, which is what Unreal Engine does best.
“In the future, the car will become a next-generation destination for social connectivity. Not only for the residents, but also for their network of friends and colleagues. It will be a continuum of our digital lives,” Libreri said on stage at CES.
To handle all the computing power needed for automated driving and advanced driver assistance systems, car telematics and what we expect to be a tricked-out infotainment system, Afeela cars will be built around Qualcomm’s system-on-a-chip technology, including their Snapdragon digital chassis.
