Sony is ready to beat tesla

Sony's surprise concept car from

last january has arrived in tokyo acting

suspiciously like a real car so what is

sony's plans for the vision s

with cars becoming more and more like

playstations why not have the company

that

makes playstations make a car the vision

s was introduced as a concept and test

bed for sony's technology

even though it was a functioning car it

was never meant for production

but last month sony released a video

announcing testing for the vision s

but testing for what the consumer

electronics show held in las vegas every

year has traditionally been a time when

things like gaming consoles and fancy

peripherals are released

to grab headlines a company might

introduce the rare dancing robot

for 2020 there were more than a few

reveals that are usually reserved for

shows in geneva or detroit

this year ces featured more than a few

car companies or

would-be car companies revealing their

own new technology

mercedes-benz revealed a car inspired by

the blockbuster avatar that could drive

sideways for some reason

lamborghini revealed a hurricane with

alexa which you could order the lord of

the rings saga on dvd

while you're getting pulled over for

doing 180 miles an hour so you have

something to pass the time while your

license is suspended

to top that there was not one but two

flying taxis

ah flying cars the unfulfilled promise

of technology expos

seriously walter waterman revealed the

first flying car concept back in 1934

any day now folks another twofer at the

2020 ces

were concept cars called the vision s

one was from

not surprising that they made a car

hyundai who revealed the m vision s

a self-driving lounge that would drive

passengers presumably to their flying

taxi

the other was from totally surprising

that they made a car

sony who's surprised with their own

vision s sedan

not a digital car for their popular gran

turismo series but a real physical you

can sit in it and drive it car

one would expect from a car made by sony

insomuch as one would expect sony to

make a car

the vision s featured an extensive use

of screens

lots and lots of screens the modern

electric car has made the large

infotainment touch screen as normal as

plugging your car in instead of fueling

it up

sony has taken that concept and run

screaming with it where cars like tesla

and the ford mustang mach e

might be content with a 10 or 15 inch

touchscreen sony has installed three

rectangular screens across the dash from

one end of the car to the other

with the middle and passenger side both

being touch screens

like most so-called infotainment systems

the screens can be used to call up sony

movies and music

it is their car after all as well as

climate controls and other car needs

since there's a steering wheel between

the driver and the left side screen

for now there is also a trackball with

multi-touch and multi-function dial that

can click through options

increase volume and more naturally you

can't leave people in the back out of

the screen fun so they each get their

own set of screens as well

with all that screen action each seat

comes with a set of speakers that sony

claims allows everyone to listen to

their own stuff

provided we assume everyone cooperates

on volume levels

even the rear view duties are handed

over to screens all of this impressive

technology sits atop what is quickly

becoming the standard for electric cars

two 200 kilowatt motors driving one axle

each are enough to drive the car from

nothing to 60 miles an hour in 4.5

seconds

before the whole thing tops out at 149

miles per hour

four and a half seconds to 60 and a buck

50 top speed is pretty respectful for

entry-level performance cars

but the tesla model s does its shimmy to

60 in 2.4 seconds

and their upcoming roadster is looking

at a 220 mile per hour top speed

the performance figures for this vision

s are more on par with tesla's entry

option the model 3.

depending on what flavor of model 3 you

buy you get the 60 shuffle in 5.1 to 3.5

seconds

and the number on your framed speeding

ticket will top out at 162 miles per

hour

the star of the vision s is clearly the

electronics inside

in fact the car part was outsourced to

magnus stir and they didn't reveal the

all-important battery electric vehicle

stat

the range given those numbers it would

look for all the world that sony had

unveiled a car to compete with tesla's

model 3

a forty thousand dollar to sixty

thousand dollar rolling access to all

the entertainment sony has to offer

and other stuff i guess if you insist

remember those rear view screens

well rear view screens need rear view

cameras and the vision s

has a total of 10 cameras looking all

around the car an array of cameras

aren't the only thing keeping track of

the vision s's surroundings

they're also accompanied by a raft of

sensors including both radar

and lidar a kind of radar that uses

lasers instead of sound

while sony making a car was a surprise

sony getting into the car sensor game

wasn't that happened back in 2014 when

sony announced an investment in the

company zmp

that developed sensors for robotics and

in 2018 sony invested a staggering 5.3

billion dollars with a b

investment in autonomous car sensor

technology research

that 5.3 billion dollar investment is

now sitting quietly in the vision s

and is why the vision s is a functional

car and why late last month sony teased

that the car was going to enter

autonomous driving testing soon in tokyo

a seeing car is a hard thing to

demonstrate in a mostly static consumer

electronics show

but the sensor array was clearly the

star of the vision s and the screens

were just a way to grab some eyeballs

sony's claim that their sensor array can

see better than the human eye and the

testing in tokyo they hope will be the

game changer that autonomous cars need

to clear the hurdle from test beds to

consumer reality

one thing that is set to become a

reality though is sony as a car

manufacturer

sony has no plans to make the vision as

a car you can buy or any other kind of

car you can buy

nor has steer magna the developer of the

drivetrain instead

the vision s will live as a test bed for

the sensor technology

why go through the trouble of building a

car if sony isn't going to build cars

it's easy to understand why sony might

be reluctant to enter the car market

for every tesla that has emerged as a

market leader in battery electric cars

there's a fisker that comes and goes in

a year after a delay in battery

production sank the entire company that

caused the fisker name to be sold off

separate from the karma car fisker maid

a reformed fisker is hoping their new

ocean suv will fare better

it's not just startups that are at risk

in the automotive world in 2008 through

2010 a financial downturn threatened the

entire american automotive industry

the result was the end of several brands

like saturn plymouth mercury and hummer

domestically and companies like saab

that had been owned by gm abroad

with the future of the automobile at

stake entering the car market can be

both a huge opportunity

or a massive loss with little wiggle

room in between this would also put sony

in a tight spot regarding partners

by building their own car around their

sensors instead of taking on an existing

car and putting their sensors in it

gives sony the ability to control

all the factors and more importantly it

doesn't have to share any headlines

there's another reason that sony might

not want to commit itself to a single

manufacturer

and that's thanks to the way the future

of cars in general is shaping up

car companies that have for a century

been able to rely on some variation of

carl benz's internal combustion engine

are now having to quickly scramble to

develop

and adopt technology that is well out of

their comfort zone

from battery technology electric

drivetrain skateboards and self-driving

technology

in order to do that as quickly as

possible without wasting tons of money

starting from scratch or dead ends

they're having to do what tech companies

have been doing for years

invest in other tech companies playing

catch up with tesla

and their love it or hate it or wonder

what exactly he has done

thinking cyber truck ford has invested

in startup rivien to help develop

electronic pickups and trucks

likewise gm has invested in the company

lordstown to do the same thing

these kinds of investments range from

companies developing their own

skateboards or electric car platforms to

batteries and self-driving technology

of course sony is no startup instead

it's an established consumer electronic

giant that is hoping that a 5.3 billion

dollar investment will bring even more

billions down the road

by providing sensor technology for the

self-driving future to do that they need

more than a shiny box that looks like a

car

but an actual car the race to

self-driving cars has been one that has

generated a lot of interest

as of march of last year over 80 billion

dollars have been spent testing and

developing self-driving cars

and that's just starting in 2014

according to a brookings institution

report

that includes individual manufacturer

investment as well as startup and

venture capital spending

all of that money and the best we have

is a car that can kind of help you stay

in your lane or slowly find you in a

parking lot

as long as you're not too far away the

reality is we're no closer to a

self-driving car now than we were a

flying car when waterman

unveiled the flying car in 1934. in an

interview with reuters at the geneva

auto show last year

vw said an autonomous car future as its

stands now require

latest generation computing technology

constantly updated high definition maps

and perfect

conditions things as common as a puddle

or rain would force the driver to take

back control of the car

on top of all that the power drain from

all the computing cancels out the

efficiency benefit of having the car

drive itself

while all that seems daunting sony and

other companies are banking on a

constant referred to as

moore's law specifically moore's law

suggests that around every 18 months or

two years the number of semiconductors

in a chip will double while computers

will become

cheaper while that specifically isn't

true anymore

the idea that computing power continues

to improve on a fairly predictable arc

has more or less held true

if sony can be the company that figures

out how to make a self-driving car not

get thrown off by a puddle or able to

read an old country road sign the locals

used as target practice

they stand to be the leader in a field

that already has 80 billion dollars in

investment

and that could mean billions in

technology sales for sony so you won't

be able to buy a vision s

but you may be able to buy a car with

vision s technology

would you want a sony sedan let us know

in the comments and while you're there

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