While talk of an Apple car has been raging for years, fellow electronics giant Sony actually made a car and unveiled the Vision-S Concept at CES in January 2020. Not only did Sony manage to build a fully-functional EV prototype, but it did so without the public’s knowledge. The question is, will the Vision-S ever be produced?
When it was first announced, Sony said it was using the car as a testbed for future automotive technologies and didn’t actually intend on producing it. It has continued to test the car over the past 18 months and during a recent interview with Auto News, Sony executive vice president Izumi Kawanishi admitted that not even Sony is completely sure of its plans with the EV.
“We don’t have a concrete plan at this time because our current phase is a research and development phase,” he said. “We have to investigate what is our purpose in contributing to mobility service. That is our basic idea, and we have to continue the R&D phase.”
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Kawanishi says Sony is looking for ways to turn future cars into living rooms on wheels, creating a small entertainment space that will prove particularly beneficial for fully-autonomous vehicles.
“What have a lot of content – movies, music and gaming – and we have to utilize that content and technology in the vehicle,” he said. “In order to build such entertainment space in the vehicle, we need to understand the opportunity and build the right cabin system.”
Among the key features of the Vision-S is a dashboard complete with panoramic screens and an innovative 360 Reality Audio System that creates a sphere of sound for each passenger.
