Sony, which started with consumer electronics, is making a desperate bet on the road to building cars.
At the 2023 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January, Sony Honda Mobility (SHM), an electric vehicle joint venture formed by Honda and Sony, unveiled the Afeela brand and unveiled a prototype.
Unlike the familiar new car launch, Afeela avoided mentioning key information such as the cruising range of the prototype and the number of motors, and made the in-vehicle entertainment experience the biggest attraction of the entire conference.
It is reported that Afeela aims to merge the real world and the virtual world to transform the mobile space into an entertainment space.
Judging by the official video, the Afeela prototype is equipped with a large screen for all seats. Users can not only watch videos and listen to music, but also play console games such as Horizon and Marvel's Spider-Man.
No wonder some people joke that for Sony, known as "Japan's first new car-making force", putting PS5 on the car seems to be its biggest pursuit.
Trilon TV, Walkman, PlayStation, Discman D50, Sony occupies 4 seats in Time magazine's "50 Greatest Electronics of All Time".
It was once prominent because of the popularity of consumer electronics, and it also decayed because it missed the revolutionary opportunities of the digital and Internet age. And now, cars are becoming Sony's next key battleground.
Around this topic, this article is dedicated to answering three questions:
1. Why does Sony build cars?
2. What is the biggest advantage of Sony's car manufacturing?
3. Can in-vehicle entertainment experience impress consumers?
From robot AIBO to cars
Sony's idea for a car originated from the robot AIBO.
Based on the exploration of artificial intelligence technology, in 1999, Sony launched the physical dog-shaped robot AIBO, the first to enter the field of entertainment robots.
AIBO looks like a pet dog, able to learn and interact with its owner and environment with the help of artificial intelligence. In Japan, AIBO sold about 150,000 units, and for a time became the star product of the time.
At the beginning of the 21st century, Sony's situation took a sharp turn. Missing out on the Internet era, Sony's core consumer electronics business is also in trouble due to price wars with emerging rivals. Due to deteriorating business conditions, Sony had to stop the AIBO project in 2006.
However, Sony has not given up on the AIBO dream. Hirogaki Kitano, the creator of AIBO and president and CEO of Sony Computer Science Lab, has revealed that from the beginning, AIBO has been more than just intelligent robot hardware.
Sony wants to make AIBO a platform that offers more AI applications and software, and monetizes it through software updates and paid subscriptions.
As the situation improves for the enterprise, Sony believes that if it wants to return to the field of AI and robotics, the first thing it should do is to promote the "resurrection" of AIBO.
So, Sony's artificial intelligence robot project was relaunched in 2016. In 2017, Izumi Kawaishi, then Managing Director of Sony, began to lead the development of AIBO as the head of the AI robot business of the business development platform.
It was also in that year that the first discussion between Hiroki Totoi, vice president and chief financial officer, and Izumi Kawanishi about whether Sony should build a car.
At an internal Sony meeting, Hiroki asked Kawanishi Izumi: "What do you think is the essence of the once-in-a-century transformation of the automotive industry?" ”
Kawanishi Izumi, who is advancing the AIBO project, naturally thinks of more possibilities for software in the automotive field. He believes that the future of cars, like artificial intelligence robots, should be an innovative combination of mobility and software.
"The structure of the car is changed from mechanical to electrical, which requires software to control. And isn't this exactly Sony's advantage? Kawanishi said.
Kawanishi later recalled that the conversation with Totoki planted a seed for Sony to build a car.
Turn the value of the car from mobility to entertainment
Internally, car building is a highly controversial topic.
With years of accumulation in the fields of CMOS image sensors and audio, Sony entered the automotive parts market such as vehicle sensors in 2014, but for car manufacturing, Sony executives have been undecided.
At CES 2020, Sony exhibited the prototype of its electric vehicle, the Vision S. Sony announced that the launch of the Vision S was only to demonstrate the "application of Sony technology in the automotive industry", and publicly rumored the car manufacturing rumors.
Behind this simple "refuting rumors", there was a very fierce debate within Sony.
Sony executives believed that automotive safety requirements were extremely high and asset-heavy, so they did not make a decision. "The performance of the image sensor was well received by the market, but Sony lacked automotive knowledge." Kenichiro Yoshida, chairman, president and CEO of Sony Group Inc., said.
What makes Sony change the decision of "not building cars" is the tide of automotive intelligence and electrification that is rare in a century.
At present, the car has developed from a simple means of transportation to one of the most commercially valuable mobile terminals, and the car is becoming the "fourth screen" that soldiers must compete for after TVs, computers, and mobile phones.
Whether it is the front-loading market or the after-installation service market, whether it is car manufacturers, parts companies, Internet of Vehicles companies, or technology giants and new technology companies such as Google and Apple that are eager to enter the automotive industry, they are all planning for the interconnection and intelligence of automobiles.
This "fourth screen" is the next important carrier that can carry many of Sony's businesses.
Sony is one of the world's largest electronics manufacturers, one of the world's three giants in the video game industry, and one of the six largest Hollywood film companies in the United States. At Sony, which has multiple businesses, segmentation between divisions has been seen as an open question.
In this regard, Kenichiro Yoshida advocated "eating the same pot of rice" and promoting cooperation between different businesses. "Sony's music, games and movies were originally three independent entertainment businesses, and in the future, these three businesses will be combined to develop."
Deepen the linkage between games and concerts, adapt popular games into movies and put them on the big screen... In recent years, Sony has made a variety of fusion attempts in business integration.
The advent of the era of autonomous driving will turn the car from a cold machine that provides a mobile function from A to B to a "private space" for people to travel. Sony found that this would be a great opportunity to integrate multiple entertainment businesses, namely "applying the user experience provided by Sony to the car."
If you look at it from this point of view, the deep meaning behind Sony's car is obvious.
Sony is often said to be "a creative entertainment company built on solid technology." On the one hand, as an important fourth screen in people's lives in the future, smart cars can become an integrated display window for Sony entertainment content, expanding operation channels for Sony entertainment business.
On the other hand, like PlayStation or AIBO, through paid subscriptions, Sony can constantly reach users through updates to entertainment content and charge users for subscriptions. This not only enhances the user experience, but also brings stable benefits.
"The trend of the past 10 years has been smartphones, so there will be migration in the future, and we will change the value of cars from mobility to entertainment." Kenichiro Yoshida said.
Focus on the value of software
After that, the story of Sony's car building was known to more people.
In January 2022, at CES 2022 in Las Vegas, Kenichiro Yoshida announced that Sony Group would form Sony Mobility Inc to commercialize its electric vehicles.
It is worth mentioning that in this business plan, paid software subscriptions become a key part.
Sony plans to continue to generate revenue through services such as software and content updates in car sales, and realize a subscription charging model similar to AIBO robots.
"Sony envisions a long-term relationship with users in the mobility business, similar to PlayStation or AIBO," Kawanishi said. Electric vehicles themselves can reach users through a subscription model, and Sony will continue to charge users for subscriptions based on software updates that improve content and functionality. ”
Just five months later, Sony announced the formation of a joint venture with Honda, Sony Honda Mobility, in which both parties each hold a 50% stake. Honda will be responsible for the production and manufacturing of Sony cars, while Sony will be responsible for the development of a series of intelligence-related technologies such as intelligent driving and intelligent cockpits.
At the 2023 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) on January 6, Sony Honda Mobility unveiled the Afeela brand and unveiled a prototype. It is reported that the model is scheduled to open for pre-orders in the first half of 2025, and the first cars are expected to be delivered to North American customers in the spring of 2026.
In addition to the system-on-chip of Qualcomm Snapdragon digital chassis, the ECU with a maximum computing power of 800 TOPS, 45 cameras and sensors, the exploration of entertainment functions of the new model is more eye-catching.
On the in-vehicle operating system, Afeela has launched a new human-computer interaction system (HMI) to provide personalized in-car experience through cloud service connectivity, and explore new entertainment possibilities through digital innovations such as the metaverse, making the mobility space into an entertainment and moving space to realize entertainment experiences other than driving.
Can in-vehicle entertainment experience impress consumers?
In fact, in the field of in-car entertainment, Sony is not the first "crab eater". From the original cassette tape player to CD player to later streaming media player, car entertainment has always been the focus of car companies.
With the advent of the era of "data-determined experience, software-defined vehicles", the accelerated development of in-vehicle computing, artificial intelligence and intelligent network has brought new possibilities for vehicles to achieve higher levels of vehicle automation, safety, convenience and driving pleasure, and has brought in-vehicle entertainment experience into a period of accelerated change.
According to ICVTank, a cutting-edge technology consulting company, by 2025, China's intelligent cockpit market will reach 103 billion yuan, of which the in-vehicle infotainment system market will account for 46.4%.
As early as 2019, Tesla launched the on-board game platform Tesla Arcade, where users can access Atari's many games through the on-board central control and play the game through the virtual controls on the screen or the steering wheel and brakes.
In December 2022, Tesla further opened up its entertainment features, announcing support for the Steam gaming platform. By installing the client, car owners can get a huge number of games from it.
Recently, NVIDIA also announced that cloud gaming services will land on the automotive platform, and the first batch of supported car brands include BYD, Hyundai, Kia, Genesys and so on. It is understood that the service will provide more than 1,000 games.
Especially after fully autonomous driving became a reality, the mobility space nature of the car became more and more prominent. Smart cars will become mobile intelligent terminals, deriving immersive Internet entertainment experiences such as social, music, video, games, consumption, AR, and VR applications, and evolving into the second largest Internet ecosystem and service integration platform.
Just as the emergence and popularization of smart phones have exploded the mobile Internet economy and smart home market, the in-car service ecology is expected to burst into huge market potential.
It is undeniable that the upgrade of in-vehicle entertainment experience is the trend of the times, but there are still many challenges for Sony to build cars.
According to the "2022 Global Automotive Consumer Study" released by Deloitte, among the factors influencing consumers' choice of electric vehicles, factors such as electric vehicle price, cruising range, and energy replenishment system rank high. Although Sony has produced a wide variety of products in the past, building a car is still a challenging and systematic project.
At the same time, at present, L4 autonomous driving is facing difficulties in technology, regulatory standards, supply chain, etc., and the speed of commercial landing is very different from people's early optimistic expectations. If high-level autonomous driving cannot be implemented, it will challenge the underlying logic of Sony's car manufacturing.
Therefore, in this automotive intelligent transformation, who can better find a balance between technology, scale and cost, who is more likely to go further in this automotive intelligent transformation.
For Sony, winning over consumers with in-car entertainment experience alone will not happen overnight. While forging long plates, how Sony makes up for the shortcomings of building cars is the key factor that determines how far Sony can build cars.
[Full text reference]
[1] "In Conversation with the Father of Sony's Robot Dog: Why AIBO Is a Robot Dog and Not a Robot Cat?" , Geek Park, Jingyu
[2] No Game, No Road? "Grab the cake" with Tesla Car game function is popular at CES Exhibition, Cai Lian News
[3] "The in-vehicle entertainment market is full of potential, it is recommended to pay attention to high-quality content developers and content platforms", Huatai Securities
[4] "Can Building a Car Bring Sony Back to the Top?" , C Dimension, North Shore