Sony and Honda combine forces in challenge to Tesla
Companies envision electric cars without human interaction, freeing up drivers to game, view other content
In early 2020, Sony Group Chief Executive Officer Kenichiro Yoshida took the stage at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas — the tech industry's main annual event — and announced a once-in-a-decade pivot: The Japanese electronics maker was joining the electric vehicle race.
With Yoshida's pronouncement, the 76-year-old Japanese company joined a growing roster of technology giants plotting their foray into the automobile industry. As vehicles become electric, autonomous, gadget-stocked and web-connected, the movement is luring a wide array of new players — most notoriously Apple with its secretive Apple Car — all betting they have the technologies necessary to disrupt the $3 trillion market.
While Big Tech's jostling has largely been downplayed by many incumbent carmakers, the push by Yoshida, 62, gained him an unlikely fan back in Japan: Toshihiro Mibe, who at the time was running research and development at Honda Motor Co.
Of all Japan's carmakers, Honda had thrown itself most aggressively into electric vehickles, targeting a full phaseout of combustion-engine vehicle sales by 2040. From early on, Honda saw potential for collaboration with Sony with its consumer electronics, autonomous driving sensors and software as a way to differentiate new models and add value to the low-margin business of making cars.
“Companies from completely different industries have different cultures and sources of value,” Mibe said, speaking about Honda's partnership with Sony in an interview in April. “There was this idea that we could create a chemical reaction together. This was a fascinating concept, and I met with President Yoshida and said, `Let's do this.' ”
For Honda, Mibe's approach makes sense. Over the past few years, Tesla, with its autonomous driving features and ability to improve car performance via over-the-air updates much like an iPhone, has highlighted the knowledge gap when it comes to the software powering the next generation of cars.
Sony envisions the cars will be connected to the cloud and equipped with in-house sensors that will eventually enable levelfour autonomous driving. At that stage, cars don't require human interaction in most circumstances, thereby freeing up drivers to game, potentially, or view Sony content.
Honda confirmed these technologies are under consideration for future joint-venture models, the first of which are due for release in 2025.
For Sony, partnering with Honda gives it access to supply chains, production know-how and vehicle-sales expertise. Automaker operations are held to stringent safety standards and they need to be responsible for the whole lifecycle of their vehicles, from maintenance to eventual scrapping.
While the process of forming Big Tech-automaker partnerships might prove challenging, the model is “essential” to keeping pace with the rapid evolution of cars, said Olaf Sakkers, co-founder of RedBlue Capital, an early-stage investor in mobility startups.
“There's a clear target — Tesla — compared with which everyone is falling behind,” Sakkers said. Sony and Honda's alliance shows that “companies are having to realize what their core competencies are and where they need technology and partners,” he said. Not only is there likely to be more consolidation within the automotive industry itself going forward, but “the partnership model is going to be seen more and more.”
That doesn't mean it will be easy. Apple has searched far and wide for an ally to help it develop and produce its car, but talks with the likes of Hyundai Motor Co. and Ferrari NV have stalled, likely because they're wary of becoming an assembler for a product that could end up cannibalizing their business.
Most tech-auto tie-ups so far have avoided Honda and Sonystyle 50-50 partnerships.
Chains limit abortion pill buys as demand surges
CVS Health Corp. and Rite Aid Corp. pharmacies are limiting purchases of emergency contraceptive pills as demand for the medication surged following the U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down the constitutional right to abortion.
CVS is temporarily limiting purchases to three pills per customer to ensure equitable access and consistent supply on store shelves, a spokesperson said Monday. The pharmacy chain has ample supply of the emergency contraceptives Plan B and Aftera, both online and in store, the spokesperson said. Rite Aid is also limiting purchases of Plan B to three per customer due to increased demand, a spokesperson for the company said.
The court's decision allowing individuals states to ban abortion stands to have a strong and long-lasting impact on many dimensions of health care. Insurers and clinicians are already planning for pregnant people to cross state lines to seek procedures, leaving employers, insurers and advocacy groups to grapple with the costs and logistics.
Some chains haven't put limits on the medications. Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. hasn't taken such steps, a spokesperson said.
Yellen pushes price-cap proposal for Russian oil
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is pressing European counterparts to embrace measures designed to enforce a price cap on Russian oil, a move that U.S. officials hope would maintain global crude oil supplies while at the same time limiting Moscow's revenue.
Yellen spoke Monday with Constantinos Petrides, the finance minister of Cyprus, a major maritime player that serves as Europe's largest ship-management center. The two “spoke about the goal of placing a price limit on Russian oil to deprive the Kremlin of revenue to finance their war in Ukraine while mitigating spillover effects for the global economy,” the Treasury said in a statement.
The U.S. is also pushing Cyprus to impose a ban on Cypriotflagged vessels transporting Russian oil to third countries, according to a person familiar with the matter. Petrides raised concerns about such a step, however, given that many other countries aren't imposing sanctions on Russia, the person said, asking not to be named as the discussion was private.
A U.S. Treasury spokesperson didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
The European Union recently unveiled a sixth round of sanctions that specifically targets Russian seaborne oil, phasing in a ban on the commodity among its constituent nations over several months. To alter the language to incorporate more comprehensive measures would mean renegotiating a deal among 27 countries, some of which would be expected to resist any substantive alteration.
Qatar Energy joins effort to cut methane emissions
The state-owned oil and gas company Qatar Energy said Monday it is joining a new industry-led initiative to reduce nearly all methane emissions from operations by 2030.
It comes as part of a broader global push to tackle emissions from methane, or natural gas, which is the second most polluting climate-changing gas after carbon dioxide, and much more potent than CO2. Unlike carbon dioxide, though, methane's leakage into the atmosphere is not the result of combustion or fuel-burning — instead, it represents the loss of a marketable fuel. Methane is responsible for about a quarter of all the climate change already being experienced worldwide.
Technology has allowed energy companies, independent groups and citizen sleuths to monitor methane leakage with cameras, drones and satellites. This monitoring along with greater climate change awareness is pushing companies to reduce their methane emissions and fix leakages from faulty pipes and other equipment.
With its pledge, Qatar Energy joins an initiative launched in March of this year by 12 other major oil and gas companies, including Aramco, BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, TotalEnergies, Shell and others.
Qatar is among the world's top liquefied natural gas exporters, and Qatar Energy operates all of the country's oil and gas exploration and production, making the peninsular nation among the world's richest per capita. The tiny country shares control with Iran of the world's largest underwater natural gas field.