The Afeela EV, which Sony and Honda unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this year, has multiple screens mounted on top of what would be the dashboard in a conventional car. However, for this to be possible, the two industry titans behind it need Qualcomm’s technology, according to Automotive News.
Initial predictions indicated that the Afeela could hit the market in 2025. Although we are still unsure of the Afeela’s drivetrain’s specifics, we do know that it will have about 45 sensors, including lidar, eight cameras, and integrated artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities.
The all-electric vehicle of Sony and Honda’s joint venture should, in principle, be capable of Level 3 self-driving, but not without Qualcomm’s Digital Chassis platform, which will reportedly power everything technological.
According to the SAE levels of driving automation, Level 3 indicates that when the driving assistance systems are activated, a person is not operating the vehicle, but that the driver must take over when the feature specifies that they must.
Qualcomm, which is best known for producing processor chips for Android smartphones, has also been working on an automotive solution for upcoming vehicles that can gather data from all the sensors, feed images to all of the interior screens, receive over-the-air updates and real-time alerts via its 5G and Wi-Fi connectivity capabilities, and “learn” the preferences of the driver by gathering real-time data.
“Honda’s providing the platform on which to put all this stuff, and Sony’s got the ideas, but it’s really Qualcomm that’s powering all this stuff,” Ed Kim, chief analyst at AutoPacific, told Automotive News.
According to reports, the GMC Hummer EV’s interior displays are powered by the same Unreal Engine as the screen visuals in the Afeela EV.
The forthcoming electric vehicle (EV) will be built on Honda’s yet-to-be-released e:Architecture platform and go into production in Ohio in 2025. Sony will contribute many digital technologies and media material from its movie, music, and video gaming businesses.
Although the price hasn’t been disclosed, the US-built EV is anticipated to be a niche, low-volume product, so given the tech claims, we anticipate an MSRP of above $100,000. The Afeela EV is anticipated to begin deliveries in 2026.
As always, if you have any comments or questions about this, please post them in the space provided below.
