Honda and Sony To Build an EV That Entertains While It Takes the Wheel (techcrunch.com) 44
"Sony and Honda have officially launched their joint mobility venture that aims to start delivering premium electric vehicles with automated driving capabilities in the United States in the spring of 2026, followed by Japan in the second half of 2026," reports TechCrunch. Details are scarce but the partnership appears to produce what the companies promise to be a wildly smart vehicle that's heavily focused on keeping its passengers entertained. Slashdot reader SouthSeb shares the news with us, writing: Since cars are expected to fully drive themselves in a near future, how to maintain their occupants entertained seems to be the next big question. It makes one wonder if cars are going to radically change and become more and more like living rooms or office spaces on wheels. "The new EV, which will be initially manufactured at Honda's North America factory, will be developed with Level 3 automated driving capabilities under limited conditions, and with Level 2 advanced driver assistance systems that can handle situations as complex as urban driving," reports TechCrunch. "Sony will provide the sensors and tech for the autonomous capabilities, as well as all of the other software, from cloud-based services to entertainment, that drivers will hopefully be able to enjoy all the better for not having to actually drive the car all the time. The companies didn't share too much about what the infotainment system would look like, but they did say the metaverse would be involved."
"[Sony Honda Mobility] aims to evolve mobility space into entertainment and emotional space, by seamlessly integrating real and virtual worlds, and exploring new entertainment possibilities through digital innovations such as the metaverse," according to SHM.
"[Sony Honda Mobility] aims to evolve mobility space into entertainment and emotional space, by seamlessly integrating real and virtual worlds, and exploring new entertainment possibilities through digital innovations such as the metaverse," according to SHM.
Not good enough (Score:1)
I want one where I can play Mario Kart while the EV is driving me around. Why let a good steering wheel go to waste?
Good enough! (Score:2)
Are you not entertained? (Score:2, Insightful)
As a population, are we so starved for "entertainment" that cars have to have this in place? It might be understandable to have screens in the back to entertain the kids on a long trip, but do we have to have motion pictures everywhere we go? I'd think there are more important things to do while driving than being "entertained".
As for Metaverse... sorry, no thanks. At most, maybe a decent audio system. Level 3 is nice, perhaps on a highway, but in an urban area, if it fouls up, the person who is going t
One good reason is safety. (Score:2)
One good reason why you would like your car to be in control of the entertainment system is that, if there is a situation where the occupants - we should no longer call them drivers at this point - need to be aware of, the car can use that entertainment system to make them aware of it. After all, it already has their attention.
Those more important things that they could be doing would be in the form of reading or some kind of work - and, again, it would be best if the device they are reading or using for wo
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, if there is a situation where the occupants - we should no longer call them drivers at this point - need to be aware of, the car can use that entertainment system to make them aware of it. After all, it already has their attention.
When I die I want to go peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather. Not screaming like the rest of his passengers.
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Your grandfather would not have been his own passenger, so "the rest of" was incorrect to insert. "I want to die peacefully in my sleep like your grandfather, not screaming in pain like the joke you butchered."
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Pedantry is not a mental illness. Neither is lying to excuse your mistakes, but that is much more objectionable than pedantry.
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Now THAT'S entertainment.
Level 3 needs the driver to ready to take over (Score:2)
Level 3 needs the driver to be able to take over driving at a moment’s notice.
But after the next Elaine Herzberg honda and sony will get off and the person in the car may want to pick shows like locked up or OZ on the entertainment system.
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After reading the Wikipedia article about that crash, it sounds like it was completely her fault and unavoidable even by a human driver. It's not the car's fault some dumbass doesn't look before crossing traffic. I see people do it every day.
It's a sad day for Honda (Score:1)
This reeks of desperation, even before you get to the metaverse bit. Some execs must be shitting themselves over Tesla's lead in EV's and FSD. I hope it doesn't mean they've let their engineering rot.
Honda is the #3 car manufacturer (Score:2)
outperforming all US car manufacturers.
Honda thinks that the technologies for EVs haven't yet reached a level where they can create an affordable & reliable car yet.
Not every country is subsidizing $60K Teslas because they lack an exhaust pipe.
Most cars that Honda sells in Japan are in the $15K~$20K range.
Nobody buys a $60K model Tesla in Japan.
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Horseshit.
Japanese people buy $60k cars, if they can afford the $60k car, just the same as anywhere else. It's not the numbers of Toyota or Honda sales, but these brands don't have those numbers anywhere. From 2021:
Mercedes Benz 51,772 cars sold in Japan
Lexus 51,118 cars sold in Japan
BMW 35,905 cars sold in Japan
Audi 22,535 cars sold in Japan
These aren't stripped down models either. My wife's cousin works at a BMW dealer in Tokyo, and they have no shortage of peopl
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This reeks of desperation, even before you get to the metaverse bit. Some execs must be shitting themselves over Tesla's lead in EV's and FSD. I hope it doesn't mean they've let their engineering rot.
I came here to post WTF? So, I guess you are right along that line. Seriously, entertained while driving with a cell phone/mind control system like entertaining system to take care of your addiction? About looking at the environment around yourself?
I see already enough people walking on the streets looking at their cell phone and I could swear the cell phone is telling them where to put their foot for the next step they take since they seem like they are in their bubble, not paying attention to anything hap
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Link isn't descriptive enough, here is what happened, I saw the video from surveillance cameras:
She obviously walked in between subway cars thinking she was getting into the train, thinking the opening between the cars was a door, never taking her eyes off her cell phone.
- and advertisers will love it ! (Score:4, Insightful)
Unless your car has a bathroom or kitchen, there will be no escape from the commercials.
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Unless your car has a bathroom or kitchen, there will be no escape from the commercials.
What makes you think bathrooms and kitchens will offer an escape from ads? We already have IoT-connected fridges. Soon we may have 'connected' toilets, posting ads for hemorrhoid creams and laxatives on a display built in to the toilet-paper dispenser.
If this seems hyperbolic or far-fetched, look at today's world from the perspective of 30 years ago and then tell me that weirder, more perverse things haven't already become commonplace.
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Honda cars have had HDMI ports for a while. In the West they only work when the car is stationary, but in Japan you can watch TV and drive at the same time. They even have special lower quality digital TV broadcasts that are easier to receive in a car, called 1seg.
Anyway the point is that as long as there is an HDMI socket you can plug in whatever you like and watch that. It would be nice if Android Auto allowed streaming video in places where it's legal, but I can't see that happening.
Tell you what (Score:2)
I'm gonna let other people be the beta testers on this.
Entertainment (Score:2)
It's called "looking out the window to see what's around you".
Appropriate Science Fiction reference (Score:3)
Where this trend seems to be taking our society reminds me of a golden-age SF story called The Revolt of the Pedestrians [fadedpage.com] (PDF warning).
No, I don't imagine that we'll end up where the author speculated we might; but the story provides fuel for imagining some of the ways in which this could go horribly wrong.
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California is eliminating Jaywalking and leaving it up to the pedestrian to determine when it's safe to cross. Luckily we do now have a dashcam on each vehicle.
Sources suggest it is codenamed the Knight (Score:3)
Huh (Score:2)
You can tell they fired all their engineers, as they grew up reading scifi stories about this kind of thing and why you would want to avoid it.
Proper use of cycles? (Score:2)
Just look outside (Score:1)
Re: Just look outside (Score:2)
There is plenty of room for people to do both without being in a dystopia. Have the best entertainment and teachings from around the world while driving on some days, but on other days enjoy the real world raw. Just because I can drive a car does not mean I gave up on walking. Heck I can even ride a horse. I create documents online, but I also scribble notes on paper.
Dear Honda (Score:2)
Why not focus on just getting a decent EV built first before you promise unicorns and fairies that you have no chance in ever delivering.
How far away is true autonomous driving? (Score:2)
Waymo (i.e. Google) and others are running self-driving cars in limited circumstances and situations. Tesla has been promising "full self driving" for a fair while now.
How far away are we from it being possible for an average person to be able to purchase and own a vehicle that can be driven anywhere that a normal road car can go (including down highways/freeways/interstates/motorways/etc with no geographic restrictions on where it can go) and that is capable of operating in such a way that it doesn't requi
How did we avoid boring other passengers to death? (Score:2)
Because they also don't have much input in driving the car today, right?
Distract you so you don't panic right before dying (Score:2)
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Two unrelated concepts. (Score:1)
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What Honda generally has to offer besides design language stolen from the Transformers movie is reliability. These days all the cars are pretty nice and pretty reliable, with notable exceptions not really related to marque. They are also all designed to disintegrate not long after the warranty period if you don't spend a bunch of money and/or time keeping them up, because of all the shaped hoses and similar bullshit that has a known lifespan of not too much longer than that. But since all of the EVs have le
Will it also issue... (Score:2)
Bad Idea (Score:2)
Why didn't you hit the brakes? (Score:1)
Driving tips (Score:1)