Sony's 'Vision-S' concept EV will hit public roads this year

[Polycount]

In context: When you think of electric carmakers, Sony probably doesn't come to mind. Regardless, the tech giant became just that during CES 2020, when it unveiled the "Vision-S," an all-electric sedan concept intended to showcase Sony's auto technology.

Like many projects revealed at CES, the Vision-S was, as the name suggests, just a vision for the future, and not necessarily an actual product that Sony intended to bring to market. However, it seems that things have changed somewhat in the months since CES drew to a close.

Now, Sony says it plans to do a lot more with the Vision-S -- the vehicle has arrived in Tokyo, so that the company can advance its "sensing and audio technologies." To accomplish that task more efficiently, the car will be hitting public roads in the city as soon as this fiscal year.

While out and about, Sony will probably be attempting to improve the Vision-S autonomous driving capabilities. As of CES 2020, the vehicle possessed Level 2 automation, courtesy of 33 individual sensors. Since many other self-driving car companies are already approaching Level 5 autonomy, Sony certainly has some catching up to do in this regard.

The Vision-S, for the unaware, has two 200kW engines, a top speed of 149MPH, and a 0-60 speed of roughly five seconds. It also has "AI, 5G, and cloud technologies," as well as "360 Reality Audio," which references the car's built-in seat speakers.

We don't know what Sony's long-term plans for the Vision-S are, but we'll likely find out in the coming months.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/86183-sony-vision-s-concept-ev-hit-public-roads.html

 

[QuantumPhysics]

Anyone can make an EV.

I doubt Apple ever will beyond concepts, but pretty soon, many other countries will take on Tesla for dominance.

It's inevitable considering the price of Tesla's are too high and the plan by EU and many other countries is to eliminate ICE vehicles.

What they need to do is focus on building production cars instead of wild concepts. The Tesla model Y is basically what the market wants. A spacious crossover that doesn't cost over $50,000. Then follow up with a truck and a car.

 

[toooooot]

Anyone can make an EV.

I doubt Apple ever will beyond concepts, but pretty soon, many other countries will take on Tesla for dominance.

It's inevitable considering the price of Tesla's are too high and the plan by EU and many other countries is to eliminate ICE vehicles.

What they need to do is focus on building production cars instead of wild concepts. The Tesla model Y is basically what the market wants. A spacious crossover that doesn't cost over $50,000. Then follow up with a truck and a car.

Batteries are still expensive, yo. If we could make long lasting spacious batteries long ago, we would all be driving electric cars long ago. Gasoline was a comparably easy way to evolve what we drive in the last 100 years, batteries were a much harder and longer road...

 

[sorten]

Anyone can make an EV.

Making an EV is easy. Batteries, motor, controller and a few other bits. Shade tree mechanics have been converting ICE cars for decades.

Bringing a new EV to market is another matter. That takes billions of dollars and the right team of people. Dyson, which probably has a lot of money, gave up this year. And there seems to be maybe 10 companies that have been showing EV prototypes for the past few years.

I expect Rivian to be the next legit player in the market, thanks to their recent $5B+ in funding, the huge Amazon truck order, and a good collection of backers and partnerships.

EDIT: The Sony car looks awesome, but I think it will remain a rolling test bed for Sony electronics.

 

[Uncle Al]

I'm waiting for a "reliable EV kit" that allows you to transform your gas burner to an electric. Been watching it for awhile and it's certainly not a weekend project but getting all the elements assembled and adaptable for most midsize to compact cars would seem to be the target market. Man, we need another "old style" JC Whitney to pull this off! LOL

 

[Puiu]

Batteries are still expensive, yo. If we could make long lasting spacious batteries long ago, we would all be driving electric cars long ago. Gasoline was a comparably easy way to evolve what we drive in the last 100 years, batteries were a much harder and longer road...

The problem is the invested money. Only recently have investments gone up for making really advanced batteries for cars. The same with the infrastructure.

There's also the issue of oli companies throwing huge amounts of money around to slow down adoption of electric cars (like lobbying against plans for charging stations being installed in cities). They've done a lot of "bad" things over the decades to make sure that oil remains the top dog.

Now that they can't stop the train anymore, they are trying to slow it down while making huge investments in anything EV related (like buying up EV charging startups and building their own infrastructures). They know the oil industry is going to die in a decade or two so you can see a lot of money being moved around (image the sums being moved around behind closed doors ).

 

[mbrowne5061]

"Since many other self-driving car companies are already approaching Level 5 autonomy"

No, they are not. Lv5 is still very much relegated to university laboratories. Lv5 is 'all roads, all conditions'. We are nowhere near that, not even in sunny California with their nice and well-maintained highways.

Some companies are just starting to flirt with lv4, but even those are limited, and so will likely be targeted at motor pools. Even then, these cars are not ready for prime time (if they were, they would be for sale right now).

Instead, there is only one single lv3 car available (from Audi), and it isn't even approved to operate as lv3 vehicle, and instead needs to operate as lv2, because Audi couldn't actually prove they built a car that could safely manage multiple self-driving functions simultaneously.

 

[sorten]

I'm waiting for a "reliable EV kit" that allows you to transform your gas burner to an electric. Been watching it for awhile and it's certainly not a weekend project but getting all the elements assembled and adaptable for most midsize to compact cars would seem to be the target market. Man, we need another "old style" JC Whitney to pull this off! LOL

Yeah, I think that's a great idea.

EV West has been selling conversion kits for a while, though primarily for older air cooled Porsche and VW cars. Finding an affordable, rust free donor car for that type of project is quite difficult these days.