Sony-Honda JV plans to leverage its EV’s entertainment prowess

Sony and Honda plan to take on music, movies and the PlayStation 5 to take on Tesla and the rest of the auto industry by developing an electric car built around a premium entertainment experience.

The head of Sony Honda Mobility, which was formed in September and has yet to choose a brand name, told the Financial Times that the company plans to use Sony’s strong position in the global entertainment industry to gain an edge over rivals.

“Sony has impressive content, services and entertainment technologies. We are adapting these assets to mobility, which is our advantage against Tesla,” said Izumi Kawanishi, president of Sony’s artificial intelligence robotics business.

“Tesla does not provide any content services,” he said, adding that it was “technically possible” to integrate the PlayStation 5 platform into their cars.

Yasuhide Mizuno, Chairman and Head of Joint Venture HondaThe auto division said the company is even tweaking its car production process to put content first.

“Instead of inserting software after the car is produced, we develop the car as hardware for the entertainment and networking we want to provide,” Mizuno said. The company plans to launch its first electric vehicle model in North America by 2025, he said.

comments by Joint venture The chief showed how the company is trying to adapt to changing consumer preferences for cars.

In addition to trying to mount an entertainment-based challenge to Tesla, Sony-Honda will also aim to compete with similar software-focused cars made by Google and Apple.

But Kawanishi said the venture will also focus on perfecting fully self-driving cars — a goal that some mobility companies, including Uber and Google, have abandoned or largely delayed because challenges and costs have mounted.

Argo AI, the self-driving car group backed by Ford and Volkswagen, announced last month that it would close operationsaying profitability “is still a long way off.”

“To enjoy the space in a car, you have to make it a space where you don’t need to drive. The solution to this problem is self-driving,” said Kawanishi, an engineer who developed the PlayStation 3 and Aibo, a robot dog at Sony.

“Autonomous driving has to evolve significantly from where it is today to get to this point, and it will take time to get there,” he added, adding that the company’s eventual goal is to be fully autonomous.

Some analysts believe the Sony-Honda joint venture’s ambitions mask a simpler set of business goals: using the car as a showcase for technology and software platforms that other global automakers might want to install in their vehicles.

for sony“Part of the goal is to sell more components, including sensors, to establish a foothold in the automotive industry for the consumer electronics industry,” said CLSA analyst Christopher Richter.

“Tesla hasn’t been able to quite do it yet, the joint venture is much faster than Apple [EV] Project Titan, it’s still languishing somewhere. ”

Richter added that the electronics group wanted to demonstrate its capabilities by developing a small premium brand with Honda.