AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)11/21 Report--

Izumi Kawanishi, head of Sony Honda Mobility, said in an interview on Nov. 21 that they were planning to build an electric car around music, movies and PlayStation 5, and said it was technically feasible to integrate PS5 into the car. The person in charge said bluntly: "this is the advantage against Tesla, but also Sony and Honda are different from Tesla in a way." According to related reports, Izumi Kawanishi used to be the head of Sony's AI robotics division.

As we all know, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has always been fond of bringing the game library into the car system. As early as last year, Tesla replaced the Ryzen chipset of AMD for the car system, and then Musk also announced that the game library of the Steam platform would be introduced into his car system, so as to enhance the entertainment attributes of the vehicle and meet Tesla's dream of having a "car game hall". For the Sony Honda to move the PS5 into the electric car, many media reports said: "Sony Honda is going to directly challenge Tesla."

On March 4, 2022, two Japanese giants, "Sony Group" and "Honda Motor", announced that they would jointly develop and sell high value-added electric vehicle products, and start selling them in 2025. This news has aroused great attention in the industry after the announcement. On June 16, the two sides jointly formed a joint venture "Sony Honda Mobility", which is located in Tokyo, Japan, with a registered capital of 10 billion yen and a 50% share of each side. Taixiu Mizuno, a former Honda China minister, is the chairman and CEO of the joint venture, and Sony Mobile President and CEO Kawanishi Izumi is the joint venture president and COO.

At the time of the establishment of the company, Sony Chairman, President and CEO Kenichiro Yoshida actually revealed that future new cars will use PS5 technology. Kenichiro Yoshida said the joint venture between Sony and Honda is likely to operate independently through public fundraising, while the new car will use technology from PS5. Before that, Kenichiro Yoshida said in an interview: "We agree that in the long run, it is better to make the joint venture independent, rather than putting it under Sony or Honda." Asked about the possibility of the joint venture IPO or selling shares to other companies, Mr. Yoshida said: "it's possible."

Comprehensive auto industry concern previously reported that after the Sony Honda cooperation, the respective responsibilities of the two sides are very clear. Sony does not come from the automotive industry, but as a world-famous large integrated multinational group, Sony has some accumulation in digital products, which is perhaps the most important point for Honda to put forward the alliance cooperation. In the joint venture, Sony is mainly responsible for developing car software and in-car entertainment systems and providing a travel service platform, while Honda focuses more on production and sales. Sony's president has said that areas such as sensors, communications and entertainment systems needed for pure electric vehicles are Sony's strengths, and this is a good opportunity for Sony to redefine cars.

With the rapid development of intelligent technology, cars are no longer limited to vehicles, and more and more intelligent technology companies have made the application and service fields of vehicles more diverse and interesting. Bringing PS5 and game libraries into the car machine system means that more perfect self-driving functions are needed. Self-driving has become a trend in the future, and it may be possible to completely liberate human hands and feet in the future, but from the point of view of the existing technology, the current auxiliary driving is not perfect and still needs the intervention and guidance of the driver. the scientific and technological configuration of vehicles also needs self-driving assistance, so before safely liberating human hands and feet The focus of car companies should be on product quality, driving control experience and so on.

So far, the two sides have not released the specific product name of Sony Honda Mobility, but judging from the above comments, the tram jointly built by Sony Honda may be built around entertainment products. Yasuhide Mizuno, chairman of SONY Honda Mobility, said that the company is building its production process around putting content first and will launch its first model in the North American market by 2025.

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