LiDAR is a technology that helps cars see their surroundings using lasers. It creates a 3D map of the area, which is important for self-driving cars to know where they are and avoid obstacles.
A smart key is a special device that lets you unlock and start your car without using a regular key. You just need to be close to the car with the smart key, and it will open for you automatically.
A kilowatt hour is a way to measure how much energy a battery can hold. The more kilowatt hours, the longer the car can drive before needing to recharge.
AC level 2 charging is a way to charge electric cars faster than plugging them into a regular wall outlet. It's often used at home or at charging stations.
DC fast charging is a way to quickly charge electric cars. It uses a special type of electricity that can fill up the battery much faster than regular charging methods.
Digital side mirrors are like regular mirrors but use cameras to show what's next to and behind the car on a screen. They can help you see better and avoid blind spots.
A yoke steering wheel looks like the steering wheel in an airplane. It's not round like most car steering wheels, and it can help you see the dashboard better while driving.
ADAS means Advanced Driver Assistance Systems. These are special features in cars that help keep you safe while driving, like helping you stay in your lane or stopping the car if there's an obstacle.
Level 3 autonomy means the car can drive itself in many situations, but you still need to be ready to take over if something goes wrong. It's more advanced than just basic self-driving features.
Level 2 plus means the car can help with steering and speed, but you still have to pay attention and be ready to take over driving at any moment. It's not fully self-driving yet.
Cameras and sensors are devices in the car that help it see and understand what's around it. They are important for safety and for features that help the car drive itself.
Gran Turismo is a popular racing video game that lets you drive many different cars in realistic settings. It's loved by people who enjoy cars and racing.
Car
Honda That Honda
The Honda That's is a small car designed for city driving, known for being easy to park and use in tight spaces. It's like a little box on wheels that can fit a lot of stuff inside, making it great for families or people who need to carry things around. People might talk about it to highlight how Honda tries to make cars that fit modern lifestyles.
Car
Afila
The Afila is a new electric car from a partnership between Sony and Honda. You can reserve it in 2025, and it will start being delivered in 2026.
LIVE
In the shadow of the Amazon's fears, yes, this is what your prime membership money is
paying for, the good people of Seattle gather to catch a glimpse of the future.
And grab a free banana.
This is the all-electric of Fila, a Sony-Honda joint venture that's tech-forward with
a bump from Amazon's cloud service.
Want more than simple transportation?
Considering Sony's entertainment hardware expertise, plus catalog of programming in
video games, Fila passengers will never be bored.
This is a preview, not a review, and the Fila rep had a very prepared speech, but this
should give you a good idea of what to expect when this goes on sale.
The Fila folks on hand say this pre-production prototype is pretty much what to expect from
the real thing arriving in 2026.
Safe to say, some things will change.
I'm going to just let the presentation roll, so you know my experience.
Think of this as an interactive prototype that goes on pre-sale next year, hits roles
for delivery in North America in 2026.
Now it is integrated with AWS cloud technology and with our AI and sensing technologies.
We want to create a two-way intersection between the vehicle and the user in which
the vehicle proactively gives you information as you drive on the go.
Now there are cameras and sensors throughout the interior and exterior of the vehicle.
Some you can see, some you can't see.
Now what you're seeing here is called the media bar.
Now an interesting thing about the media bar is it reacts to the user in a variety
of different ways.
What you're seeing there is a branded reaction.
It reflects information from inside the vehicle and can show it to you from the outside
of the vehicle as well and it is highly customizable.
We're circling back to that at the very end.
Now if you want to take a look at this thing in the middle, that is our LiDAR for our
autonomous features.
We're going to jump into autonomy once we get inside the vehicle.
Now notice how there are no door handles on the vehicle.
You might be thinking, how do you get in?
Where there are two different ways actually.
We utilize the buttons that are on the side here, see the side buttons.
You can utilize those side buttons that are there.
So by utilizing the smart key feature with your phone, we have a Fila app.
As you approach the door, it opens for you automatically.
So that is another way that you can get inside the vehicle.
For now, the powertrain is described as dual 180 kilowatt motors.
That's 241 horsepower each with a 91 kilowatt hour battery.
Max DC fast charging is 150 kilowatts, AC level 2 is 11 kilowatts.
All right.
No confirmation on the plug, but the industry is moving to Max.
We have a customizable welcome message here on our panoramic screen and the future, it
will be more than just images.
There will be sounds and lighting as well to give you an enhanced departure feeling
and what I mean by that is, say for instance you love the sounds of songbirds and
you love roses.
When you get into the car, it'll be songbirds and roses that go across the screen.
Okay.
All right.
Now behind us, we have rear seat entertainment where you can watch TV, movies, play games,
listen to music.
We also are currently working on a three passenger playback option.
For all three passengers, watch the same thing at the same time if they want to.
Okay.
Want to watch something separate?
They can.
How would you put entertainment here and not distract the driver?
Don't worry.
We'll get to that.
We have the digital side mirrors that are here, the black screens.
Those are our digital side mirrors that eliminate the blind spot.
So you have the regular mirrors, the digital side mirrors.
You also have the regular review mirror and the digital review mirror as well.
Okay.
All right.
Now we have the yoke steering wheel here with media functions on the left, ADAS functions
on the right.
ADAS stands for Advanced Driving Assistance System.
Now I want to tell you about the three pillars of a FILA, which are augmentation,
autonomy, and affinity, but before we get to that, I have a quick question for
you actually.
Yep.
Do you know what a FILA means?
I was going to ask you that.
I don't, because you know what?
I think everybody wants to know what a FILA means because it is a little bit of an unusual
name.
It's different, right?
Yes, it is.
All right.
Well, the good news is you're in the right place.
All right.
So we believe that the center of the mobility experience is to create a feeling.
If you take that idea of creating a feeling, sandwich in augmentation, autonomy, and
affinity, you get a feel up.
That's where a FILA comes from.
Okay.
All right.
So first we'll dive into augmentation, customizing a vehicle, making it unique.
Say for instance, if you had a favorite cafe, you could have that cafe listed right
here.
You have your favorite spot listed here.
You can do a full screen of the maps.
Nice.
Zoom all the way out like that, or zoom in and do a 360 rendering of the area.
You can do that.
You can also change the theme.
By changing the theme, you change the ambient lighting and the e-motor sound.
That's the e-motor sound for the regular FILA theme.
You can do something like Gran Turismo.
You can even do something like Toon Goggles.
So we'll go with Spider-Man.
I was going to say I want to do Spider-Man.
Why not?
Notice how the ambient lighting has changed inside the vehicle up top as well.
We now have the Spider-Man across the Spider-Verse theme.
Can this climb up walls?
Not yet.
It can't climb up walls yet, but stay tuned in the future.
Let's go.
Let's go.
Let's go.
All right.
Now if you wanted to watch a movie inside this vehicle, of course you have that option
as well.
We'll play a little bit of Gran Turismo.
All right.
So we'll watch this for a few hours and then I'm just joking.
Now while that movie is playing, if you wanted to start driving, you could do an
R-Swipe where you have the maps.
We have the movie.
If you want to park and start watching again, you could do an inverse R-Swipe where you have
the movie again considering this is a prototype.
You can see everything from the driver seat.
However, in the production model, there will be safety features in place that won't
allow you to see what the passenger is watching or playing while the vehicle is in motion.
Look when essentially you'll have your maps.
This will maybe be polarized or have something that will block that screen.
So even if you try to watch it, you won't be able to because of course we want to keep
it safe for everyone.
Sure.
And they'll be able to pair, say, Bluetooth earbuds.
Yes.
Okay.
They'll be able to pair accessories as well.
Okay.
Mm-hmm.
All right.
Now for the anime fans, we have Crunchyroll.
You can watch all types of anime via the Crunchyroll app.
We also have a variety of ulterior content, which is lots of streaming, kitschos, things
of that nature.
But now allow me to tell you about the sound system, which is 360 spatial audio, which
gives you a 360 surround sound feel.
I mean, it is Sony, right?
Plus also Sony media, Sony music, Sony movies.
Now on the subject of music, if we were to roll up the windows all the way, blast
the stereo, you can almost not hear it at all from outside of the vehicle.
How's that?
Soundproof.
Mm-hmm.
Wow.
Okay.
That's impressive because even cars that are very quiet that have a lot of soundproofing,
you still hear that, no, you can, you can almost not hear it at all from outside.
And I've seen it for myself, like the stereo blasting.
And you can almost not hear it, but the windows are up completely.
Okay.
But that means the neighborhood won't hear you unless you want them to.
You roll the windows down.
You want them to hear you.
Okay.
Yep.
All right.
Now, you also have the Stingray Karaoke app, which allows you to karaoke live right here inside
the vehicle.
Right.
We are talking about potentially having an option for you to karaoke with someone who's
not in the vehicle, whether that's a friend, family member, or even potentially a stranger.
Huh.
So stay tuned for that.
If here's the thing though, if you're the driver, you have to know the lyrics
because you don't get a chance to look at the lyrics while driving.
Yeah.
We're going to keep everybody safe.
Huh.
Well, that'll keep road trips interesting.
Definitely.
Definitely.
Now, last but not least, we have PlayStation Remote Play, which allows you to connect remotely
to your PlayStation 4 or 5 and play it live inside the vehicle.
Leave the PlayStation at home.
Take the controller with you.
Pick up where you left off on the go.
This game that we have here is Gran Turismo 7.
You may notice the vehicle that we're racing.
It is for the field.
And this is all PlayStation Remote Play.
PlayStation sold separately.
I am terrible at this game.
And it's a very safe car.
I am terrible at this game.
But that was all augmentation.
Well now let's move on to autonomy.
Because of course, safety is very important.
We aim to achieve level 3 autonomy as well as level 2 plus in a variety of situations.
There is a large number of cameras and sensors inside the vehicle.
There's also a state-of-the-art system on chip with 800 tops of power.
We also have a machine learning AI that gives you enhanced and improved safety as well as
enhanced and improved recognitions features, recognizing both people and vehicles in a
variety of situations, such as nighttime driving and bad weather situations.
You're also getting regular over-the-air updates.
And as I briefly mentioned before, it is integrated with AWS Cloud Technology,
giving you an enhanced AI experience.
So say for instance, if every Thursday you had a meeting downtown near Starbucks, that
Thursday morning it could say, hey, because of the storm last night, there's a tree that's
down on your normal route.
You may want to reroute to this area.
Or it could say the streets are cluttered near the place that you normally go.
Maybe take this area.
And one thing that I like to say is, if this car was my car, it knows I love
Curry.
Every Curry place in the neighborhood.
I can tell you a good Curry place.
It's about a mile that way.
What you like to go is like, of course I want to go.
You know.
So the idea is it gives you comprehensive information based off of the things that
you've told it that you like, based off of your habits and things that you
normally do.
If you want those things, it can give you those things just to make life
easier inside the vehicle.
And just for you to have a fun time getting from point A to point B.
And those are all options for you to have.
It's not doing what you wanted to do it.
But those are options just to make life a little bit easier.
Oh, OK.
Very cool.
Obviously, you're going to need a subscription service because you do
need to connect to the cloud.
So they haven't officially announced that yet, but they will be announcing
more information in terms of if there will be subscriptions, how much of
subscriptions will be, what those fees will look like.
They'll most likely be releasing information like that around the
beginning of next year.
OK.
And it makes sense that you're having this at Amazon headquarters.
We've taken it to quite a few places so far.
OK.
All right.
Well, last but not least is affinity.
The idea is to work with creators and developers from all around the
world giving you a platform where you can create your own content and
run it freely on a field.
And all of this is an example of what that future could look like.
Having a thing that reflects the stuff that you like.
Maybe even you created it.
Having a dash that has just the apps, just the artwork, just the music
that you love.
That's the idea behind a few of them.
Press that button one time.
There you go.
Don't have to worry about closing the doors.
We'll close them for you.
And you can just follow me to the front.
Rolls-Royce technology in a Sony.
The trunk was off limits, so no idea how big the boot is.
I was able to climb into the back seat, which is spacious enough for
three average-sized adults.
Afila is about the size of an accord.
The carpool gang will want to take this car.
Check out the media bar.
It looks like it has a question for you.
It wants to know, what did you think?
Check this out right here.
Utilizing the smartphone app for Afila, you can change the theme.
See, we changed it to Gran Turismo.
Spider-Man is what we change it to from the inside.
You can change it to Fortnite.
You also can see what your current battery percentage is.
See how much time you have to do what you're doing.
You can even do a customized happy birthday message.
Put anybody's name there you like.
You know, Semity Sam is Warner Brothers, right?
And guessing there's no back-off message with him.
Probing the PR staff about which company is responsible for what
returns polite deflections.
Well, it is a joint venture between Sony and Honda.
So both Sony and Honda formed the company's Sony Honda Mobility,
and they worked hand-in-hand on the full vehicle.
So we don't want people to think that, you know,
what did Sony do or what did Honda do?
Because we don't want people to think that Honda showed it
with a car and Sony said, we're taking it from here.
Like, that's not what happened.
They worked hand-in-hand on the whole vehicle.
So they both worked for everything together.
OK.
All right.
Sony's electronics expertise, including its excellent sensor
and camera tech speaks for itself.
Maybe Afila's technology will find its way into Honda products
across the board down the road.
That makes sense.
The automotive world is filled with failed EV startups
and half-hearted collaborations.
A Sony Honda joint feels promising.
Styling is pleasant enough.
It's sleek, most likely extremely aerodynamic.
My spidey sense feels the shape went straight
to physical form off of a cat screen.
It lacks the organic quality that design gets
when sculpting clay models.
But this is a pre-production prototype.
Anything and everything about this can change.
It'll be interesting to see the final car
and how and where it's sold.
If you're thinking about buying one of these,
you'll be able to reserve one in 2025.
When in 2025 remains to be seen,
delivery starts in 2026.
Hope you got something out of my look at the Afila
by Sony Honda Mobility.
This is not the usual video that I do.
Check out my car reviews.
They're much higher production.
And if you have a question, leave it in the comments.
Follow me on social media.
Thanks for watching.
That's Driven.
I'm Tom Volk.
About this episode
The episode dives into the innovative features of the AFEELA, an all-electric vehicle from the Sony-Honda partnership, enhanced by Amazon's cloud technology. Listeners get a sneak peek at its tech-forward design, including a customizable media bar, advanced AI capabilities, and a focus on in-car entertainment like gaming and streaming. The discussion covers the vehicle's autonomy features, safety measures, and the unique experience it aims to provide, making it a significant player in the future of electric mobility. Insights into the pre-production model and its expected release timeline add to the intrigue.
Apple may have abandoned plans for an electric vehicle but Sony is forging ahead. Reservations for the Sony Honda Mobility AFEELA should begin in 2025 with deliveries expected in 2026. Powered by Amazon AWS cloud technology, AFEELA is stuffed with tech, both ADAS and entertainment. Options include music and movie streaming plus remote PlayStation gaming from your home PS5 (hey, it's a Sony). Tom Voelk gets a preview as it rolls through Seattle on a west coast tour. And learn where the AFEELA name comes from! This is a pre-production prototype, many things may change on production vehicle.
