Sony Honda Mobility’s updated Afeela prototype has debuted at CES 2024 as a near-production-ready prototype of their upcoming electric sedan.
It’s been a year since Sony Honda Mobility showed its first Afeela EV sedan concept at CES 2023. This year, they’ve returned to CES with an updated version with numerous refinements.
We find more production-ready details on the outside, such as redesigned bumpers and headlights, full-sized side-view mirrors, an updated greenhouse, and a new active spoiler. This new Afeela prototype retains its color display between its headlights, which Sony Honda Mobility calls the Media Bar. This customizable display can show everything from charging status to safety warnings, weather information, and more, with additional functionality added later through software updates.
Moving inside, we find last year’s interior design largely intact, though updated with subtle refinements, including updated seats, trim, and controls. Notably, last year’s yoke steering wheel is still present, with physical stalks behind it for easy access to transmission and wiper controls.
Of course, with Sony being onboard, there is plenty of interesting tech to discuss. The Sony Honda Mobility Afeela uses Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 5.3 to power the graphics and visuals on its ultra-wide dashboard display. Naturally, occupants will have access to titles from Sony’s massive entertainment empire, including movies, TV shows, and games, which can be consumed through the numerous displays dotting the vehicle’s interior. Epic Games’ Unreal Engine technology will also be used to help train Afeela’s driver assistance systems thanks to its hyperrealistic graphical capabilities, allowing for improved informational accuracy for the vehicle’s neural network. Sony Honda Mobility also announced an AI partnership with Microsoft that will leverage the software company’s Azure AI platform to provide Afeela with robust AI capabilities.
Sony Honda Mobility expects production vehicles to begin reaching customers’ driveways in 2026.
