Sony shows off Vision-S electric car, driving Sony's idea of the future of connected cars

[Humza]

What just happened? Sony driving its electric car on-stage probably makes for the biggest surprise reveal of CES. Called the Vision-S Prototype, the concept car isn't meant to turn Sony into the next big EV maker, rather serve as a testbed for showcasing automotive technologies that leverage the company's expertise in imaging, sensors and entertainment products.

Sony doesn't plan on selling electric cars anytime soon, but the company's first effort with the Vision-S concept certainly looks promising. Focused on the evolution of safety, adaptability, and entertainment in cars of the future, Sony partnered with several heavyweights in the auto industry to come up with its connected car platform, demonstrating it in a car built by the same team that put together Sony's cutesy Aibo robot dog.

Codenamed 'Safety Cocoon,' the technology on-board the EV consists of over 30 sensors for making the car aware of its surroundings. These include CMOS image sensors, solid-state LiDAR and Time of Flight (ToF) sensors for detecting vehicles, objects and people, enabling day/night time vision and providing driving support with up to Level 2 autonomous capability.

The car's exterior has hints of Tesla and Lucid Motors around the sides and rear, while the front looks to be inspired by the Porsche Taycan. In terms of propulsion, the Vision-S is powered by a dual-motor setup making a combined 400kW (536hp) through an all-wheel-drive system, enabling it to reach 0-62mph in 4.8 seconds with a top speed of 149mph.

Range figures are likely out of the question since the car won't be going into production, though Sony says it did a full road test of the Vision-S to ensure that the car and its tech comply with safety regulations.

The EV platform underpinning the Vision-S is built by Magna, a Canadian manufacturer with notable clients like GM, Ford, and Tesla. Meanwhile, Sony also partnered with Bosch, Blackberry, Continental, Nvidia, and Qualcomm for other components of the car.

The cabin features Sony's 360 Reality Audio that puts a speaker in each of the four seats with object-based spatial audio for an immersive listening experience. There's also a panoramic widescreen across the entire dashboard and two touchscreens for rear passengers.

In terms of adaptability, Sony's "software-oriented design" is meant to provide over-the-air updates, a personalized user interface for each driver and a flexible automotive platform that can also be used with SUVs and vans.

"This prototype embodies our contribution to the future of mobility,” said Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida, adding that its evolution would also redefine cars as a new entertainment space.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/83431-vision-s-electric-sedan-drives-sony-idea-future.html

 

[Uncle Al]

What a shame .... it's a good looking car and if Sony got into the market it could inspire a whole new generation of car builders, which ultimately would be best for the consumer .....

 

[kira setsu]

Tesla model 3-sony spec

 

[ShagnWagn]

Connected car? Sure, I don't see any reason for concern on their terrible security. Especially how secure all their TVs are... Or any computer for that matter.

Keep your self-wrecking cars off the public streets so we have no more needless deaths.

Everything else looks pretty cool, but I have reserved thoughts on filling the driver's view with entertainment panels. :/ I'm sure replacing that [proprietary] screen when it fails will be cheap...

 

[BigRedPDX]

I really don't think I want OTA updates going to my car. I would personally like to turn that feature off and just run the update locally. Connecting my car to the outside world, except radio, is not something I am willing to do. You see those Jeeps and Suburus get hack a while back? Yeah, no thanks. The rest of the car is cool, though.

 

[Markoni35]

Beautiful car, but who want's to drive a car that can be as easily hacked as a phone? It's one thing to have your photos stolen, quite another if someone else can turn your steering wheel, or press the pedal to the metal. No thanks. I don't like my Windows Update being stubborn, let alone my car installing software on the fly. Who knows what it installed??

 

[netman]

The street of San Francisco and the suburban roads of Bay Area...

 

[Realistically]

Beautiful car, but who want's to drive a car that can be as easily hacked as a phone? It's one thing to have your photos stolen, quite another if someone else can turn your steering wheel, or press the pedal to the metal. No thanks. I don't like my Windows Update being stubborn, let alone my car installing software on the fly. Who knows what it installed??

This is pretty funny. The FBI cannot get into an iPhone. Pretty secure IMO. But if you really want to worry about nothing, worry about traffic control, hacking that system would be much more dangerous than a single car.

 

[Polycount]

I mistook this for a Model S at first.

 

[Markoni35]

This is pretty funny. The FBI cannot get into an iPhone. Pretty secure IMO. But if you really want to worry about nothing, worry about traffic control, hacking that system would be much more dangerous than a single car.

iPhone is made by Apple. They do care about privacy. This is Sony. They have been hacked many times, their software and SRE department isn't that strong. They have worse security than Android phones.

Regarding the traffic system..... nope, not worried about that. Because that would be a large-scale terrorist act. It would be financed by a serious organization, that wants to attack an entire city, and all the people in it, indiscriminately. That doesn't happen very often.

But hacking a car - that's child's play. It can be a personal attack. It can be just for fun. Or randomly. I bet lots of young hackers will be tested in a way: "prove you can hack a car". Just like phones, routers and laptops are hacked every day, cars will be too. So we have to restrict the consequences of the attack by at least giving the full control of the steering wheel to the driver. Unless the car is fully autonomous, then there's nothing we can do.

In other words, nuclear bombs are dangerous, but guns and knives kill more people every day. Despite lots of countries having thermonuclear monsters, you should be more afraid of that crazy junkie on the street carrying a knife.