CES 2023: Sony, Honda debut ‘Afeela’ EV

Yahoo Finance tech editor Dan Howley breaks down the latest auto announcements at the annual CES technology conference.

Video transcript

AKIKO FUJITA: We are back for day two over at the Consumer Electronics Show. The Las Vegas show/yearly convention is underway. But with major tech companies holding their own events like WWDC and Google I/O, the convention is increasingly serving up new tech-focused cars.

Joining us with the latest, we've got Yahoo Finance's Dan Howley. Dan, this is one of those transitions that we've seen evolve over the last few years in terms of the focus of CES. Increasingly a lot of focus on mobility. What are you seeing on the ground there?

DAN HOWLEY: That's right, Akiko. We've seen this turn into basically a car show. There's an entire west hall, which is where we are. It's covered with cars, car companies as far as the eye can see.

I think one of the most interesting announcements, though, came last night from Sony-Honda Mobility. That's the new company that is Sony and Honda's team-up to make an electric car. Sony's kind of leading the way here with Honda doing the manufacturing.

And let me just give you a rundown of what this car has to offer. They're going with kind of a minimalist design, they say, to really focus on the driver. But as you walk up to the car, the front has kind of a media bar that can tell you things like the car's charging status as well as the weather because sure, why not? You are walking outside to a car. You know what the weather's like, really, but maybe also reading it helps.

On the inside, there's a panoramic infotainment center that runs the entire width of the windshield. So it's going to be from the driver's side to the passenger's side, all one infotainment system.

It has 45 different cameras and sensors. This is really supposed to be a level 3 autonomous car. So that means that it'll be able to drive in some urban settings, which is pretty difficult for autonomous vehicles, but it doesn't mean that it can drive on its own. This is something that you're still going to need to grab the wheel on if the car tells you.

The full autonomous is considered level 5. That's still years and years away. It doesn't matter what anyone else is saying. It's still very far off in the distant future.

But this is meant to be a platform for Sony's entertainment options, whether that's video, whether that's video games, whether that's music. And that's the deal here is that they want to kind of push that forward in the vehicle and produce their own kind of car.

Now, when does this go on sale? Preorders start in 2025, the early half of 2025. It actually goes on sale in the end of 2025, and then it'll start hitting the road in 2026. So we still have some time ahead before the actual-- Feela is what they're calling it, the Afeela, feel, because feeling things is what Sony wants you to do with the car. But yes, it'll take about three years now for it to officially be on the road.

RACHELLE AKUFFO: And it's interesting because when you think of traditional car shows-- and then you saw this push more for CES as you saw this crosspollination between chip makers and high tech and cars now. This does seem to be the way forward. What sort of standouts are you looking at for the show?

DAN HOWLEY: Yeah I think, you know, we had BMW show off their wild new concept car. We have Stellantis showing off a new Ram as well as they have their electric charger here. I got to get a close look on that. No keys around, so I couldn't take off with it, but, you know, I'll find a way. We have Mercedes behind us.

And then we have some other kind of gaming-related news with cars. Nvidia, believe it or not, is working with the likes of Hyundai, BYD, and Polestar to make it so that its GeForce cloud gaming platform works in those cars. So when you're parked, you'll be able to play video games on your infotainment center directly in front of you, whether you're the driver's side or the passenger's side. And then passengers in the rear, if there's a TV available in the back of the car, they'll be able to play as well. So we're seeing all this technology filter into vehicles that you might not have otherwise thought for some time.

Look, this is my, I think, 11th CES. I've seen cars kind of trickle in. But now, you know, as you said, this is really where the technology and the vehicles meet. Qualcomm is working with Sony. We have Nvidia working with other automakers. You name it, companies are working together to get more tech into cars, and we're just starting to scratch the surface here at CES 2023.

RACHELLE AKUFFO: Certainly full sensory overload now inside these cars. A big thank you to Dan Howley there live from Vegas at CES.