Sony-Honda Mobility unveils autonomous EV under new Afeela brand

MANILA: At the recently opened to the public CES 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, Sony Honda Mobility Inc (SHM) showcased a prototype for a new kind of mobility — and launched its new brand Afeela that will make this vehicle.

Based on its corporate purpose of "Move people, through the pursuit of innovation with diverse inspirations," SHM aspires to become a Mobility Tech Company that will pursue innovation in mobility by fusing cutting-edge technology and passion with individuals who pioneer the future with their creativity.

According to Sony Honda Mobility, Afeela stands for Feel, which is at the heart of the mobility experience.

On the basis of this prototype, SHM will create the final product. Pre-orders are anticipated to start in the first half of 2025, sales to start by the end of 2025, and delivery to start in North America in the spring of 2026.

The Afeela Prototype's architecture aspires to establish new mobility value standards. Sony Honda reexamined the distinctiveness and form of vehicle design, and by further refining, sought to highlight the essential values and condense them into a strong and pure design. Today, the components of a car shift from power and performance to software, networks, and user experience, Sony Honda Mobility observed.

The exterior of the Afeela has a "Media Bar" that enables interactive contact between mobility and people by allowing intelligent mobility to communicate itself well to nearby people using light.

The Afeela car's interior is built on a soft, rounded tone that envelops the passengers like a cocoon. The environment has been designed to be as uncomplicated as possible, reducing distracting embellishments and colors, in addition to being comfortable. With capabilities that people want, Sony-Honda Mobility wants to create a people-centric experience.

The value-added concepts for Sony-Honda Mobility's car are based on 3A's (Autonomy, Augmentation, Affinity).

The Afeela aims to deliver a comfortable mobility area built on safe and secure technology in terms of Autonomy.

The goal of Sony Honda Mobility is to achieve Level 3 automated drive in constrained environments and to make Level 2+ driver assistance available in even more circumstances, including as commuting in cities. For hardware, the company intends to deploy Qualcomm Snapdragon Digital Chassis SoCs for 800 Terra Operations Per Second (TOPS) maximum computational performance.

There are 45 cameras and sensors in all on the Afeela Prototype, both inside and outside the car. To help prevent accidents, in-car cameras and Time-of-Flight (ToF) sensors monitor the driver and the vehicle.

In terms of augmentation, a new Human-Machine Interface (HMI) will be unveiled that realizes entertainment beyond driving and offers a tailored in-car experience through cloud-service connectivity.

The Afeela vehicle aims to transform the mobility environment into an emotive and entertainment arena by fusing the physical and digital worlds together seamlessly and exploring new entertainment opportunities via technological advancements like the metaverse.

In keeping with this, Sony Honda Mobility began developing new mobility values and concepts with Epic Games. Using its sensor technologies, the company also wants to offer simple navigation using augmented reality (AR).

For the Affinity aspect, Afeela seeks to create an inclusive community that welcomes not only users but also partners in the automotive industry, top companies from other sectors, and the creative community, all of whom are up for the challenge of helping the brand develop fresh mobility entertainment.

The new services from Sony Honda Mobility will develop and expand through regular software updates across the 5G network.

Photos from Afeela

Also read: Honda to start producing fuel cell electric vehicles in US in 2024