Sony Drive-station
Sony surprised everyone with an electric concept that rolled onto the stage at the CES
SONY HAD A SHOWSTOPPER IN THE form of the Vision-S concept car at the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Sony would traditionally have showcased a new PlayStation or an Ultra HD 8K television, so a car is something that caught everyone off guard. The Sony Vision-S concept looks quite close to production ready although Sony states it is just a means to showcase the brand's engineering prowess. The car was developed by the robotics division at Sony with the help of Magna Steyr who, if you're not aware, also manufacture the Mercedes Benz G-Class, Toyota Supra and the BMW Z4.
Besides Magna Steyr, the car also showcases technologies from other major manufacturers like Nvidia, Continental, Bosch, ZF and Qualcomm. Sony says they have embedded the car with 33 sensors to detect people and objects, not only on the road but inside the car, as well as providing driving support. Design wise, the Vision-S seems to have drawn inspiration from a number of cars though the most obvious resemblance is to the Tesla Model 3. Sony, with its other consumer products, also keeps it clean in terms of design. On the inside, it has four individual seats enclosed by a glass roof, giving it a sense of space. The dash looked like Sony took inspiration from the Honda E concept, with its dashboard filled with a screen from end to end.
Sony has not released any official details about the performance or range, but they did mention a pair of 200-kilowatt (268bhp) electric motors. Now we just have to wait for Sony's arrival into the automotive sector. As an automotive enthusiast and an avid gamer on the Sony Playstation platform, one just hopes they will ship the car bundles with the newly announced Playstation 5! Jokes apart, the automotive landscape is changing, and more and more tech players want to enter a space otherwise strongly dominated by a few traditional automotive giants, making for interesting times.