The Consumer Electronics Shows or CES 2023 started this week and there have been a lot of important updates and stories coming from the avenue one of which is the partnership between Honda and Sony to pursue the development of electric vehicles.

Both big brands even released a prototype of the project called Afeela during the event. The vehicle is a four-door sedan which Sony CEO said to be a moving entertainment space.

Pre-orders for the Afeela are scheduled in the first half of the year 2025 while sales will also start that same year. However, the initial shipment won’t happen until a year later.

This isn’t the first time that both Japanese tech titans will be working together in the EV space. However, the Afeelas will be built at Honda’s North America factory and will feature Level 3 automated driving capacity under limited conditions.

For the record, Level 3 autonomy means they can drive in situations such as traffic jams even though there needs to be a human driver who needs to take over the steering as soon as the system demands it.

Part of the details of the vehicle was also revealed and that included the integration of external media along the front of the car which allows it to interact with other cars on the road while sharing necessary information.

“We plan on exploring the possibility of how media can create a fun and exciting mobility interaction,” said Yoshida.

Other navigation systems built into the car include 45 cameras and sensors both inside and outside in order to ensure safety and security. There are also some sensors inside the car’s cabin which monitors the driver’s status in order to keep them alert in case of emergency.

The vehicle will also feature a high-end entertainment system as well as the integration of Epic Games’ Unreal Engine which will help visualize safety, communications, and entertainment in the car.

“In addition to movies, games, and music, we envision a new in-cabin experience using our expertise in UX and UI technologies,” said Yoshida. 

On the other hand, is Epic Games’ CTO, Kim Libreri said that the most natural way to visualize important data within the car is through intuitive interactive photos which where the Unreal Engine system comes in.

“In the future, the automobile will become a next-generation destination for social connectivity. Not only for the occupants but also for their network of friends and colleagues. It will become a continuum of our digital lives,” said Libreri onstage at CES.

In order to handle all the computing needed for automated driving and advanced driver assistance system capabilities, 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.