Car stuff (public number: chedongxi)
Author | Wooden rice
Edit | Juice
According to foreign media reports, at the 2022 CES conference, Sony launched a new concept electric SUV - Vision-S 02, and updated the more information about the Vision-S electric sedan disclosed at the previous year's CES conference.
▲Vision-S 02
At the conference, Sony released a number of videos, focusing on showing the latest research and development achievements of the Vision-S electric car to the outside world, including the vehicle's internal entertainment equipment and human-computer interaction system. At the same time, the newly released electric SUV Vision-S 02 will also be equipped with 5G vehicle networking technology and 40 sensors.
Sony also announced that it will set up a subsidiary called Sony Mobility Inc, which will focus on Sony's electric vehicle business in the later period.
At the previous two CES conferences, Sony did not respond positively to whether it would build a car itself, and with the appearance of another new car and the establishment of the electric vehicle department, foreign media also said that Sony should have made it clear that it should take the road of building a whole car.
In terms of cross-border car manufacturing of technology giants, Apple's car-making project is obviously hotter. But for many years, Apple has not officially disclosed its car-making progress to the outside world, and now Sony seems to have taken a step forward in cross-border car-making after coming up with two prototypes.
First, the establishment of electric vehicle subsidiaries Software design is the focus
At the press conference, Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida said that in the spring of 2022, Sony will officially establish Sony Mobility Inc. and commercialize Sony's electric vehicle business.
Judging from several videos given by Sony, "software-oriented design" is its focus on electric vehicles.
Many of the videos released at the conference also highlighted how Sony is using its expertise in entertainment devices to develop better software for cars.
The Sony Vision-S concept sedan follows this design philosophy. The entire dashboard in the car uses a large widescreen throughout, and the video shows that there is a Sony PlayStation control controller connected to the car's central control screen and shows the footage of the PlayStation "Little Planet" game.
▲Vision-S's in-car through instrument panel
At the launch, Sony CEO Yoshida said: "We want to provide a personalized cockpit for every user. With 5G technology, high-speed, high-capacity and low-latency connectivity can be achieved between in-vehicle systems and the cloud. Vision-S can also evolve in-car space into an entertainment space — including gaming experiences and audio. ”
▲Sony CEO Yoshida introduced the new car at the press conference
2. Accelerate 4.8 seconds from 100 km/h with 40 sensors
At the press conference, Sony also demonstrated its achievements in human-computer interaction systems.
According to the video, Sony's human-machine interaction includes facial, speech and gesture recognition. One of the footage shows thermal imaging of the cockpit as the driver gestures with one hand, and also shows the facial and speech recognition systems being trained.
▲Vision-S dashboard
Another road test video shows Vision-S taking a road test on a snowy public and private road in Austria.
Looking back at the information given by Sony last year on Vision-S, there have been some changes. First of all, the number of sensors has been increased from 33 when it was first disclosed to 40. The new electric SUV, the Vision-S 02, will also be equipped with 40 sensors to enable its autonomous driving function.
Previously, Sony emphasized its ability in sensors, but how it performs in the car still needs to see the follow-up performance of these two cars.
In addition, this Vision-S pure electric concept sedan is equipped with a 400kW (543 hp) dual-electric four-wheel drive system on the powertrain, which can complete 0-100km/h acceleration in only 4.8 seconds, and its top speed is 240km/h.
▲Vision-S in road testing
But for now, Sony has not announced some key information such as the time to market, price and battery capacity of this new car.
Although the newly launched concept electric SUV Vision-S 02 does not give detailed power parameters, foreign media speculate that it is also very likely to copy the configuration of the electric car Vision-S.
Conclusion: Sony enters the electric vehicle track
With the continuous development of the new four modernizations of automobiles, the electric vehicle market is also developing rapidly.
Not only have traditional car companies accelerated the pace of transformation to electrified roads, but various new car-making forces have also emerged in an endless stream. Many technology giants have also chosen to cross-border and join the track of smart electric vehicles.
After Sony released the Vision-S concept car last year, the outside world has actually been questioning whether Sony can really build a car, but only provide intelligent and entertainment software on electric vehicles.
But judging from this year's conference, it is clear that what Sony is pursuing is a road of self-made cars – and uses Sony's accumulation in the field of creative entertainment to find a way of its own.