Electronics conglomerate Sony has announced that it will foray into the mobility sector through a new operating company dubbed ‘Sony Mobility Inc’. The new venture, which will launch in spring of 2022, will aim to make use of AI and robotics technologies to differentiate the brand in the competitive electric vehicle (EV) market. Moreover, the Japanese firm seeks to create long-term value by exploiting company knowledge in autonomous entertainment and drones in the mobility sector.
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Sony’s interest in electric mobility was put on show at CES 2020, where the company exhibited an EV prototype called the “VISION-S”. Following positive feedback and significant interest, the electronics company started public road testing in Europe in December 2020. Subsequently, the company began 5G driving tests in April 2021, with an emphasis on low-latency transmission (video and control signals) and communication control (monitoring and prediction) functions.
Following promising developments, Sony has exhibited its first SUV-Type EV, the ‘VISION-S 02’, at CES 2022. The seven-seater vehicle, which shares the same EV and Cloud platform as the VISION-S 01, is set to offer SUV-crazed consumers luxurious, tech-enabled, autonomous era-ready, mobility.
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Sony is far from the only tech giant looking at venturing into the mobility space. Waymo, an autonomous driving technology company was purchased by Google’s parent company, Alphabet, in 2009, and Huawei has partnered with Seres to offer an electric car in its native market of China.
Meanwhile, many traditional automakers, such as the Volkswagen Group and Mercedes-Benz, have doubled down on electric car offerings, and a panoply of ambitious start-ups, such as Nio, Sono Motors, and Lucid Motors have made significant inroads toward competing with the current market leader, Tesla.
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How will the introduction of new market actors impact EV adoption in your country? Can tech companies take on the traditional titans of the automotive industry? Let us know in the comments.
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