SONY HONDA NEW MOBILITY BRAND AFEELA LAUNCHED AT CES 2023

NEW MOBILITY BRAND AFEELA – At CES® 2023, Sony Honda Mobility Inc. (SHM) announced its new brand “AFEELA” and unveiled a prototype for a new type of mobility. In keeping with their corporate purpose of “Moving people through the pursuit of innovation with diverse inspirations,” we aim to create a new mobility lifestyle by guiding people’s hearts and minds toward an open, pleasant, and exciting experience. SHM has unveiled its new brand “AFEELA,” which stands for “FEEL,” which is at the heart of the mobility experience. AFEELA describes an interactive relationship in which people “FEEL” mobility as an intelligent entity and mobility “FEELS” people and society through sensing and network IT technologies.

Prototype

SHM unveiled a prototype that embodies its vision of redefining people’s relationships with mobility. This prototype’s design aims to establish new mobility value standards. We re-examined the individuality and form of vehicle design up to now, and by further refining, we aimed to highlight the essential values and sublimate them into a pure and strong design as we approach an inflection point where the element of a car is shifting from power and performance to software, networks, and user experiences.

Exterior

The exterior of AFEELA includes a “Media Bar,” which allows intelligent mobility to express itself to surrounding people through light, allowing for interactive communication between mobility and people.

Interior

The interior features a gently rounded tone that wraps the occupants in a soft cocoon. The atmosphere is not only comfortable but it has been designed to be as simple as possible, with little distracting ornamentation or colour. They want to create a people-centric experience that provides people with the functionality they need.

A Glimpse of 3A’s

Autonomy

It will create a pleasant mobility environment based on safe and secure technologies. They intend to develop Level 3 automated driving under limited conditions, as well as Level 2+ driver assistance in a wider range of situations, such as urban driving. As hardware, they intend to use Qualcomm Snapdragon Digital Chassis SoCs*1 for maximum computing performance of 800 TOPS*2. The prototype is outfitted with 45 cameras and sensors both inside and outside the vehicle. To help avoid accidents, in-car cameras and Time-of-Flight (ToF) sensors*3 detect the driver and the vehicle’s situation.

Augmentation

A new HMI*4 will be introduced, which will provide a personalised in-car experience via cloud-service connectivity, enabling entertainment to extend beyond driving. By seamlessly integrating real and virtual worlds and exploring new entertainment possibilities through digital innovations such as the metaverse, we hope to evolve mobility space into entertainment and emotional space. With Epic Games, they’ve begun to develop new mobility values and concepts. Using their sensing technology, they hope to provide intuitive navigation via augmented reality (AR).

Affinity

It will create an open community for not only the customers, but also the automotive industry partners, leading players in other industries, and the creative community that will join them in tackling the challenge of creating new mobility entertainment.

Collaborations

Qualcomm Technologies Inc.

SoCs from Qualcomm Technologies’ Snapdragon Digital Chassis will be used in key features such as AD/ADAS*5, HMI/IVI*6, and telematics to advance mobility intelligence. SHM is forming a strategic technology partnership with Qualcomm in order to deliver next-generation mobility experiences.

Epic Games Inc.

They have begun working with Epic Games to create new value in mobility services and entertainment.