Sony Honda Mobility held its press conference and presentation at the 2023 CES exhibition, and as expected, the two Japanese companies presented the fruit of their collaboration, the Vision-S02 concept car, or simply the first Afeela. The latter (AFEELA, sic!) is also the name of the new EV brand. According to the plans, interested parties in North America will be able to pre-order the first copies in 2025 and will be able to get into their cars in 2026.
The first Afeela will look like this. (source: Sony Honda Mobility) [+]
The vehicle presented as a prototype uses 45 cameras and sensors, including ultrasound, ToF, LiDAR, but the observant eye will hardly notice them, because everything is hidden in the body. The presented prototype is capable of self-driving (Lvl. 3 and Lvl. 2+) and recognizing objects on the road.
The arrangement of the sensors on the car. (source: Engadget) [+]
What Sony Honda revealed at the presentation held at CES is that they plan to price Afeela at the level of Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Volvo, and they hinted that customers will be able to use some of the software services with a monthly subscription system .
This is what the interior of the car will look like according to the plans. (source: Sony Honda Mobility) [+]
Sony Honda plans to solve the calculation side with Qualcomm Snapdragon Digital Chassis chips, which would also work under the “hands” of the internal infotainment system. In terms of computing capacity, the expected performance is 800 ToPS based on information provided by Sony Honda. The Japanese company and Qualcomm also announced a strategic collaboration to create a next-generation transportation experience.
(source: Sony Honda Mobility) [+]
For those who want to see more pictures of the car that are not published in the press release, I recommend the Verge article, or the CNET your video.
