The Sony Vision-S is an all-electric

automobile platform A car platform is a shared set of common design, engineering, and production efforts, as well as major components, over a number of outwardly distinct models and even types of cars, often from different, but somewhat related, marques. It is pra ...

that was developed by

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

, with the first model unveiled at the 2020

Consumer Electronics Show CES (; formerly an initialism for Consumer Electronics Show) is an annual trade show organized by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). Held in January at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Winchester, Nevada, United States, the event t ...

(CES) in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Veg ...

as the Vision-S Concept. When the second concept was unveiled in 2022 as the Vision-S 02, the original concept was retroactively renamed to Vision-S 01. Sony plans to use the Vision-S platform to develop future electric vehicles under a new wholly-owned subsidiary, Sony Mobility Inc., which will assume responsibility for the Vision-S platform and vehicle development in the spring of 2022.

History

The Vision-S concept was designed by Sony's AI/Robotics division in collaboration with multiple companies in the automotive sector, including

Magna International Magna International Inc. is a Canadian parts manufacturer for automakers. It is one of the largest companies in Canada and was recognized on the 2020 ''Forbes'' Global 2000. The company is the largest automobile parts manufacturer in North Americ ...

Continental AG Continental AG, commonly known as Continental or colloquially as Conti, is a German multinational automotive parts manufacturing company specializing in tires, brake systems, interior electronics, automotive safety, powertrain and chassis ...

, Elektrobit, Benteler, and Bosch, featuring the latest technologies from Sony and its partners related to the automotive sector, such as always-on connectivity, sensory devices, and

autonomous driving A self-driving car, also known as an autonomous car, driver-less car, or robotic car (robo-car), is a car that is capable of traveling without human input.Xie, S.; Hu, J.; Bhowmick, P.; Ding, Z.; Arvin, F.,Distributed Motion Planning for Sa ...

. The first Vision-S was manufactured by

Magna Steyr Magna Steyr AG & Co KG is an automobile manufacturer based in Graz, Austria, where its primary manufacturing plant is also located. It is a subsidiary of Canadian-based Magna International and was previously part of the Steyr-Daimler-Puch cong ...

. The project was led by Sony's AI/Robotics team, previously responsible for the

AIBO AIBO (''stylized aibo, Artificial Intelligence Robot'', homonymous with , "pal" or "partner" in Japanese) is a series of robotic dogs designed and manufactured by Sony. Sony announced a prototype Aibo in mid-1998, and the first consumer model wa ...

robotic dog, and engineering and initial testing were performed at the Magna-Steyr facilities in

Graz Graz (; sl, Gradec) is the capital city of the Austrian state of Styria and second-largest city in Austria after Vienna. As of 1 January 2021, it had a population of 331,562 (294,236 of whom had principal-residence status). In 2018, the popula ...

, Austria. At the 2021 CES, Sony provided an update on the Vision-S concept after road testing to refine the vehicle's sensor suite and features. Izumi Kawanishi, the chief executive of Sony AI/Robotics, outlined Sony's vision in a May 2021 keynote address; like AIBO and the autonomous drone Airpeak also unveiled at the 2021 CES, Vision-S was meant to showcase Sony's development of

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech ...

. The three guiding concepts of Vision-S are safety, entertainment, and adaptability; safety would be implemented through autonomous driving, while entertainment is what Sony is perhaps best known for, and adaptability refers to the planned continuous evolution of features as well as contributions to environmental sustainability. For the 2022 CES, Sony exhibited a second concept based on the same platform, the Vision-S 02

sport-utility vehicle A sport utility vehicle (SUV) is a car classification that combines elements of road-going passenger cars with features from off-road vehicles, such as raised ground clearance and four-wheel drive. There is no commonly agreed-upon definiti ...

and announced they were forming a new company, Sony Mobility, which will focus on the group's electric car efforts. In March 2022, Sony and

Honda is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a producti ...

announced they would launch an unnamed

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...

to plan, develop, and sell battery-electric vehicles starting in 2025. Initially, the vehicles would be manufactured at one of Honda's existing factories.

Design

Daisuke Ishii stated the "S" in Vision-S stands for sensing, safety, society, and Sony. The Vision-S platform is equipped with two 200 kW electric motors and all-wheel drive. The drivetrain has a wheelbase of 3030mm and uses air-spring

Double wishbone suspension A double wishbone suspension is an independent suspension design for automobiles using two (occasionally parallel) wishbone-shaped arms to locate the wheel. Each wishbone or arm has two mounting points to the chassis and one joint at the knuckl ...

. Inside, a panoramic

touchscreen A touchscreen or touch screen is the assembly of both an input ('touch panel') and output ('display') device. The touch panel is normally layered on the top of an electronic visual display of an information processing system. The display is ofte ...

is built into the dashboard, accompanied by Sony's 360 Reality Audio. The backs of the driver and front passenger's seat are each equipped with a display, and the car has a 5G cellular connection, allowing passengers to stream and play games by remotely connecting to

PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a di ...

game console A video game console is an electronic device that outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can be played with a game controller. These may be home consoles, which are generally placed in a permanent location connected to a ...

Safety

At launch, the Vision-S concept included 33 sensors. After further testing and refinement, the concept was upgraded to carry 40 sensors (18 cameras, 18 radars, and 4 lidar), including

CMOS Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS, pronounced "sea-moss", ) is a type of metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) fabrication process that uses complementary and symmetrical pairs of p-type and n-type MOSF ...

, solid state

lidar Lidar (, also LIDAR, or LiDAR; sometimes LADAR) is a method for determining ranges (variable distance) by targeting an object or a surface with a laser and measuring the time for the reflected light to return to the receiver. It can also be ...

Radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, Marine radar, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor v ...

and

time-of-flight camera A time-of-flight camera (ToF camera), also known as time-of-flight sensor (ToF sensor), is a range imaging camera system for measuring distances between the camera and the subject for each point of the image based on time-of-flight, the round ...

s which collectively form an advanced driver assistance suite called "Safety Cocoon". Safety Cocoon will be capable of simpler lane and parking assist features in the beginning but through the use of over-the-air updates, Sony hopes to achieve a level 4 or higher of

self-driving A self-driving car, also known as an autonomous car, driver-less car, or robotic car (robo-car), is a car that is capable of traveling without human input.Xie, S.; Hu, J.; Bhowmick, P.; Ding, Z.; Arvin, F.,Distributed Motion Planning for S ...

Models

Vision-S 01

Sony Vision-S 01 (previously known as the Vision-S Concept vehicle at its 2020 launch) is a 4 seat sedan and was the first vehicle developed on the Vision-S concept. It uses the common Vision-S platform and drivetrain, giving Vision-S 01 a time of 4.8 seconds and a top speed of . The Vision-S concept was unveiled at the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas by CEO

Kenichiro Yoshida Kenichiro Yoshida is a Japanese businessman who is currently the chief executive officer of Sony. He began this role in April 2018, succeeding Kazuo Hirai, prior to which Yoshida was the company's chief financial officer. Yoshida joined Sony in 1 ...

. During development, the Vision-S Concept/01 was known under the code name "Safety Cocoon". After the vehicle was brought back to Graz for further testing and development, it was sent to

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.46 ...

in July 2020 for on-road testing.

Vision-S 02

Viewers of the publicity video that accompanied the original Vision-S concept noted that a crossover SUV appeared to be in development at the same time. The Sony Vision-S 02 is a 7 seat SUV, the second vehicle developed on the Sony Vision-S platform and unveiled at CES 2022. Acceleration numbers have not been disclosed, but considering that the SUV is 130 kg heavier than the Vision-S 01 sedan, the 0-100 km/h time is likely more than the 4.8 seconds of the sedan. The Vision-S 02 has a top speed of 112 mph (180 km/h).

References

External links

* {{Sony Corp Vision-S Electric concept cars Concept cars All-wheel-drive vehicles Mid-size cars Sports sedans Electric sports cars Mid-size sport utility vehicles Luxury sport utility vehicles Sony Vision-S 01 Sony Vision-S 02