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Remember the CES Vision-S in 2020? It is back in 2021 and there are more than one.
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In fact, Vision-S has ventured into the real world for testing.
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I’m starting to get the impression that Sony takes this EV more seriously than we thought.
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The front is dominated by this screen that runs the entire width of the panel.
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Rear seat passengers have their own screens.
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A closer look at the panel.
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The side cameras replace conventional mirrors.
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Perhaps the highlight of last year’s CES was Sony’s surprise electric concept car, the Vision-S. At the time, we thought that the Vision-S – which looked like a cross between a Porsche Taycan and a Lucid Air – had as main objective to show all the different training technologies it contained, from sensors to entertainment. Well, Vision-S is back for this year’s CES that is not happening in Las Vegas, and it looks like the project may be a little more serious than we thought.
As you will see in the integrated video, Sony is testing the Vision-S, both on a test track and on public roads in Austria. Why Austria? This is where Magna Steyr is located, a third-party car manufacturer that currently builds vehicles for other automakers, including Mercedes-Benz G-Class, BMW 5 Series, Jaguar I-Pace and Toyota Supra. And Magna Steyr is one of Sony’s partners in Vision-S, along with tier 1 automotive suppliers Bosch, Continental and ZF, software company Elektrobit Automotive, mapping company HERE, as well as Nvidia, Blackberry (manufacturer of QNX) and Qualcomm .
Last year, Vision-S’s sensor count grew from 33 to 40, with Sony experimenting to see how it can improve the car’s 360-degree security system. The company is also working on the interior to make it a more relaxing place to be, according to Izumi Kawanishi, senior vice president of the AI robotics business group at Sony.
A clue to a future production car comes from Frank Klein, president of Magna Steyr. “I am very happy to see that Vision-S was just the starting point for our joint cooperation,” said Klein in the nearly nine-minute video. “We see that high-tech companies like Sony have a major impact on the mobility of the future.
Elsewhere on the Vision-S CES website, Sony discusses the Vision-S ‘platform, including the fact that it can be used for a wide variety of vehicle types. It probably hasn’t gone unnoticed by Sony that the market is ready to throw cubic dollars at anyone with half an idea for a new electric car – I hope you can read a road test of a new Sony EV battery attached to the Ars pages. Technica coming soon.
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