I played Horizon Forbidden West inside Sony and Honda’s Afeela concept electric car at CES 2024

A year since Sony Honda Mobility (SHM) announced its first electric concept car, the Afeela, the company is back at CES 2024 with more details, more collaborations, and a driving simulator.

The concept’s name hasn’t changed since we last saw it. What’s new, however, is the ability to drive the car using a PlayStation controller.I wasn’t able to do that – it was a stunt by one of the company’s employees – but there was used to be My demo involves the DualSense controller.

So let’s start where SHM left off. At last year’s CES 2023, the company launched the Afeela concept electric car, which is equipped with 45 cameras and a large “media bar” spread across the vehicle dashboard, displaying car information, navigation, music players, etc. The steering wheel was redesigned as a yoke so that the driver could better see the gorgeous instrument panel. The company also teamed up with Epic Games to further demonstrate some mixed reality tricks.

The Afeela EV itself looks essentially the same as last year’s prototype, although it now has a giant lidar strip above the windshield that looks like a giant smartphone notch. The company said the car will be available for pre-order in 2025 and go on sale in the United States the following year.

I stepped inside the Afeela at CES 2024, and an SHM representative took me on a tour of everything the concept car has to offer so far.

Combining Sony and Honda’s expertise, Afeela will create its own noise-canceling bubbles, apparently using Sony’s spatial audio technology to “tailor-make the cabin for entertainment.” Based on SHM’s renderings, there appear to be around 30 speakers, although that’s likely to change as the concept develops further. A spokesman added that Afeela’s initial spec sheet had more than 42 sensors.

Photography: Mat Smith/Engadget

This was one of the most surreal experiences I’ve had at CES and I got to play Horizon Forbidden West Afeela on the wide dashboard display. No, this concept electric car isn’t integrated into the PS5 – why not? — but involves a demonstration of PlayStation’s long-running remote gaming capabilities. Sure, the Bluetooth connection to the controller is spotty (CES is just hundreds of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi signals conflicting), but conceptually, you know it’s possible. The two screens for rear-seat passengers can also display games, movies, and more; however, they are just virtual screens in this demo car.

SHM also announced during the Sony CES show that it has partnered with Microsoft to use its Azure OpenAI technology to create “mobile personal agents” – conversational in-car virtual assistants for drivers and passengers.

It has also teamed up with Polyphony Digital, the company behind Gran Turismo, to develop vehicles that “blend virtuality and reality, primarily in the realm of human senses.” This collaboration has now resulted in an Afeela that can be driven in Gran Turismo.

But what interests me the most is the new dashboard, which combines an AR graphics overlay and a LiDAR notch. The electric vehicle will take information and images from its sensors and create a 3D model of the outside world. This can be used for trivial things like Godzilla-style monsters on dashcams and augmented reality games. Or more simply, rich, detailed overlays for navigating to nearby businesses and destinations.

While we didn’t drive the Aveela EV in Las Vegas, SHM is trying to deliver the next best thing: a car simulator made in partnership with Epic Games (and what looks like a demo of Unreal Engine 5 Matrix). Driving the Aveela cockpit in the virtual world (in a moody black color scheme, unlike the light gray showroom car I was in before), the same highly realistic 3D world was displayed in the digital rearview mirror. The dashboard display then provides an AR overlay, showing vehicles, objects and pedestrians, and marking nearby hazards in red.

SHM remains focused on developing autonomous driving technology and advanced driver assistance systems, which are non-autonomous assistance features similar to Tesla’s Autopilot. With Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Ride SoC powering the concept car’s advanced driving features, Aveela can achieve limited Level 3 autonomous driving capabilities. At that point (and we’re not there yet) the vehicle can manage most aspects of driving without any human intervention. A spokesperson added that it will be capable of Level 2 Plus autonomous driving in urban environments. SHM also revealed traffic monitoring via sensors, detecting objects such as traffic cones, and apparently using a so-called Vision Transformer to detect environmental features “from a wider perspective” – ​​which could translate into predicting future traffic before you do. Congestion. Meet them or choose an alternative driving route.

Cars will also make it easier to use all these sensors to detect the approach of a driver and open the door for them. The same sensors, including lidar and cameras, will guide Afeela as it parks itself.

Many of us are still wondering whether SHM’s EV will survive as a consumer vehicle. The promise of having cars on the road by 2026 remains, and while CES may be the perfect audience for the hype, will car buyers think the same?

We will provide live coverage of CES 2024, which will be held in Las Vegas from January 6th to 12th.Get all the latest news from the show here.

This article was originally published on Engadget: https://www.engadget.com/i-played-horizon​​n-zero-dawn-inside-sony-and-hondas-afeela-concept-ev-at-ces-2024- 205902922.html ?src=rss

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