Sony Honda Mobility joint venture leaders want to surpass Tesla’s electric vehicles, at least on the entertainment side. So much so that there is a possibility of having a PlayStation 5 in their electric cars that they plan to launch soon.
Speaking to the Financial Times, the head of the joint venture, Izumi Kawanishi, said it was “technologically possible” for Sony to integrate the PlayStation 5 platform into the vehicle it plans to build with Honda.
Tesla started rolling out its latest Model S and X vehicles with wider horizontal screens last year, using an AMD RDNA 2 graphics processor that Tesla CEO Elon Musk called “literally at PlayStation 5 level” during a demo. A year has passed, and Musk’s promises for big games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Steam support have not been fulfilled yet. The most notable game to play on Teslas is the original 2D Sonic the Hedgehog.
Sony’s Vision-S 01 car concept has loads of screens and lots of Sony content.
But Sony doesn’t want to just add games to a car like Tesla. “Our plan is to develop a car that will equip the entertainment we want to deliver,” says Yasuhide Mizuno, president of Sony Honda Mobility and senior manager of Honda Motor Co. It is aimed that the electric vehicle they will produce will be a wheeled content consumption center.
The main puzzle piece Sony and Honda Mobility need to solve is the mobility part. The company plans to make the car autonomous. “To be able to enjoy in-car entertainment, it is necessary not to drive,” says Kawanishi. “But it takes some time for that to happen.”
This is a key part of Sony and Honda joining forces earlier this year. Sony is tasked with bringing not only entertainment and software, but also the sensors and technology needed for autonomous driving. Honda undertakes the construction of the car.
11307
