The company unveiled the Vision-S Concept at CES, showcasing a boatload of car gadgetry / SONY. In the hotly contested self-driving car...
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| The company unveiled the Vision-S Concept at CES, showcasing a boatload of car gadgetry / SONY. |
In the hotly contested self-driving car technology race, a new player has just logged on: Sony. The Japanese electronics, entertainment, and financial services firm surprised attendees of the Consumer Electronics Show by debuting the Vision-S Concept. Built in conjunction with automotive suppliers like Bosch, Magna Steyr, and Continental, the concept vehicle signals Sony's intent to start developing car technology.
The concept has two 200-kW electric motors that allow for a claimed a top speed of 149 mph and a 0-to-60 time of 4.8 seconds. It's got air suspension and a 5180-pound curb weight, but don't expect any pricing information or an on-sale date. As a spokesman for Sony told The New York Times, the company has no intention of actually building its own car.
Instead, the Vision-S is a platform for the company to develop its suite of mobility technologies. That includes the concept's Level 2 driver-assistance features like adaptive cruise control, automated lane changes, and automated parking, which are enabled by 33 sensors installed inside and out. Most notable is the network of cameras, which represent Sony leveraging its massive consumer camera business to build out its automotive-grade offerings.
The Vision-S also packs in radar, ultrasonic, and solid-state LiDAR. That last one is the most interesting, as solid-state LiDAR is a cheaper, more reliable, and more compact than traditional electromechanical LiDAR. Traditional LiDAR which is like radar for light, providing detailed laser-scanned 3D maps of driving environments, has bulky moving parts, driving up prices and complexity. If Sony can produce solid-state LiDAR at scale, it'll be a major boon for the tech firm. But getting into this market will be expensive.
So that's why it's surprising to see Sony jumping in. The company's tech business in general is far from the company's main profit center—despite tech getting the attention, Sony's insurance offerings, movie studio, and music business are its major profit centers. But, based on the announcement, Sony sees too much opportunity to sit on the sidelines.
That's why in addition to automated driving tech, Sony is using the Vision-S to show off other technology built for the automotive sector. Inside, the Vision-S is littered with Time-of-flight cameras that can detect gestures and positions of passengers. That could be used to control the massive dashboard screen and 360 Reality Audio system, both of which borrow from other Sony electronics segments.
Plus, the Vision-S gets always-on connectivity and more screens in the back seat. All of this points to the core idea of the concept car: with its expertise in consumer electronics and connectivity, Sony thinks it has a real place in the automotive world.