How did Sony build a car end? It is better to let the bullets fly a little longer

Today, to make a conclusion about the future of Sony cars, it is inevitable that it is arbitrary and unscientific. For the electronics industry, as well as the automotive industry, for Sony to build a car, it is better to "let the bullet fly a little longer."

Xun Yu || Writes

From 2020 to 2022, only 2 years apart, Sony's car plan "from scratch" quickly landed, quickly triggering a huge rebound from two types of people: one is the powder, naturally identifying and supporting, looking forward to Sony electric vehicles to bring new surprises; the other is the car circle people, singing empty and denying, naturally not optimistic about the future of Sony electric vehicles, and bluntly said "too late".

Although at the CES 2020 show, when Sony exhibited the prototype of the electric car, named Vision S, there was an uproar. However, the reason given by Sony at that time was to "show the application of Sony technology in the automotive industry." It is also widely believed that this is Sony's effort to sell more image sensors, in-vehicle electronics and other businesses.

But at CES 2022, Sony Chairman and CEO Kenichiro Yoshida unveiled the new Vision S concept car again, while announcing the creation of a new division, Sony Mobile, which will be responsible for the commercialization of electric vehicles. In other words, Sony officially went down to build a car.

Allowing Sony to quickly move from "the concept car to sell the semiconductor business" to "the full commercialization of electric vehicles" in just 2 years, Kenichiro Yoshida gave the reason that he did not expect so much positive feedback from the media and consumers on the first prototype car. Sony's new car unveiled in 2022 has already been tested on the European road and is based on the first mass production car on the 5G cloud platform, which is obviously only one step away from commercial mass production.

In fact, when analyzing whether Sony's car can be successful, it is also necessary to solve a problem: why does Sony build a car? Whether it is the same logic as Apple, Dyson, Xiaomi, Huawei, etc. trying to build cars. In the view of smart home appliances: the goals of each company are very similar, the traditional consumer electronics business is fiercely competitive, and the profit is low, the unit price is also falling, the entire industry is maturing, and the growth space is small. In this case, electric vehicles are in the ascendant, with large profits and strong room for growth.

On the other hand, electric vehicles now integrate the industry's most cutting-edge industrial technology, ICT technology, IT technology, AI technology, is a powerful technology and production of the "dual engine". At the same time, Sony's CMOS image sensor, accounting for almost 50% of the global share, has a deep accumulation of technology in terms of image sensing such as lidar and cameras, VR and AR as an extension of image technology, Sony also has the most first-mover advantage.

One detail is exactly that: Nvidia and Mobileye's driving chips both opt for compatible Sony's hardware devices and sensors. Obviously, this is Sony's strength and confidence in entering the car, but it lacks a successful precedent in new intelligent hardware in recent years, SLR, TV, game console or traditional products, and the smart phone Sony has no successful precedent. Therefore, electric vehicles with intelligent genes are obviously a big question mark for Sony.

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