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Sony Announces Electric Concept Car
- wyxuan 7y agoI think this is the kind of car we will see in the future. Not focused on driving, but on things like decked out entertainment systems - esp be/c of things like autopilot.
- simbas 7y agoThere's a good chance, knowing Sony, that this car will only be rechargeable with a special charger port only used by Sony.
- endymi0n 7y agoAs long as it accepts MemorySticks, I'm fine with it.
- aphextron 7y agoThis sounds weird at first, but it makes perfect sense. Anyone can make an EV. It's not hard. What sets them apart is the battery, and Sony knows LiPo batteries better than almost anyone.
- rootusrootus 7y agoI don't think an electric vehicle is substantially easier to engineer and mass produce than an ICE vehicle.
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- kec 7y agoIs this actually true, or just tech hubris? It took Tesla 5 years to essentially just swap the powertrain + rebadge a Lotus Elise, another 5 and millions in investment before their first in house design.
- willio58 7y agoThat was a very different time. Electric car engineering is somewhat fleshed out by this point, back then it wasn’t.
- kec 7y agoI don’t think automotive or manufacturing engineering have changed all that much in the last 10 years compared to the previous 100.... ICE manufacturers make a platform and use it for years, sometimes decades, with only relatively minor tweaks. The hard part as I understand it is literally everything else about manufacture, something which will be broadly shared with EVs.
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- freehunter 7y agoHere's a question: would anyone here actually buy a hypothetical Sony car or an Apple car? Why? What would make you buy an Apple or Sony or Google car versus one from a more established automaker? Obviously Sony has said they're not planning on actually making this car, but if they did... why would you buy it?
- rootusrootus 7y agoI think it is safe to say that a number of us are driving Teslas, so there is your answer. I would wait for all the safety tests and such, of course, and I would wait a couple years to let them work some of the kinks out, but I would not rule out a car from a non-traditional manufacturer just 'because.' That said, I'm not really expecting to see it happen. Unlike what someone else said in this thread, making EVs isn't so simple that just anyone can do it. Regardless of powertrain, a car is a complex machine, and mass-production is difficult. Someone like Apple certainly has the cash to make a go of it, but it's well outside their core competency so ... why?
- freehunter 7y ago>it's well outside their core competency so ... why? That's the crux of my question. Tesla is a car company. It's a no-brainer to buy a car from them. Making cars is what they do, and their entire existence depends on making good cars. Apple/Sony/Google are not car companies. Making cars is not what they do, and their existence does not depend on making good cars. If everyone waited a couple of years for them to work the kinks out, they would stop making cars because no one was buying them. Someone has to buy first, right? But why?
- detritus 7y agoBecause trusted media entities will get to try them out and deliver judgement that may (or may not) encourage people to take the plunge and try a test drive. I don't think it's rocket scienc.. oh, wait, Musk's got feet in both fields there.
- rootusrootus 7y ago
- just_myles 7y agoNot a fan of those sprawling dashboards. Drivers are distracted enough.
- gnicholas 7y agoI wonder if this makes it more likely or less likely that Apple releases a car someday. On the one hand, this has set a precedent for a consumer tech company making an EV. On the other hand, perhaps Sony has (exclusive) partnerships with several of the complementary companies.
- beamatronic 7y agoHope they partner with Lexus.
- mark-r 7y agoDidn't Apple already have a car group that they dropped?
- beamatronic 7y agoI’d like to see an EV where each individual piece is made by an company with expert core competency in that area. I’ve seen too many videos of water leaking into Tesla’s.
- rvz 7y agoWe all laughed at Apple, 13 years ago as they entered into the smartphone industry and lo and behold, they created an entire economy out of it. Although Tesla, Toyota, etc are starting to get in on the electric car craze, now Sony is starting to test the waters. It would take some form of interesting tech and magic to get people to dump their cars for electric ones. Perhaps Samsung will throw their hat in the ring if Apple throws in theirs, who knows. But I certainly won't buy a car designed by Mr Zuckerberg.
- rebolek 7y ago> We all laughed at Apple... Do you have any data that support that claim? I found (and still do) iPhone preposterous, but certainly didn't laugh, I knew it would be success with people with too much money on their hands.
- mandeepj 7y agohttps://youtu.be/eywi0h_Y5_U?t=12 https://youtu.be/eywi0h_Y5_U?t=12
- madrox 7y agoEveryone laughed when Sony got into the video game business. PlayStation was an awful name. That said, I hope Sony's only contribution is hardware. Their software is atrocious.
- uncletaco 7y agoI always thought "playstation" was a clever bit of marketing on the part of Sony, who from the outset saw the console as something that everyone should play, not just the kids. At work you go to your workstation, whether that's a cashier's register, computer, or factory spot, but when you come home you go to your playstation, and have some fun. Admittedly in 2020 the "workstation" moniker doesn't really apply to many white collar jobs, but it is sort of perfect if someone thinks about it in these terms. At least it's a better and more meaningful name than XBox
- Shivetya 7y agoFor the most part a technology demonstrator of what they could offer an established car maker. My take away. sedans with screens like those for rear seat viewers exist already normally in the form of luxury variants driven by others. the other use of course is mini vans and crossovers/suvs where children get access to screens. yet I am always of the belief most younger people would rather just access their own device. now if we could borrow from some recent scifi shows the ability to those swipe and push your content to internal screens would be very nice. as to that front panorama screen set up, that might work without a steering wheel implying entertainment options for everyone as everyone is a passenger. comparing this all to where Telsa is (TM3 owner), the setup in Tesla works because for the most part the driver never really needs to interact with the display. Most setting in modern cars are automatic and simple tasks replicate to steering wheel controls. Throw in a lot of voice commands; Tesla recently introduced dozens; and you can minimize taking focus off driving. This Sony setup appears to not consider that, it wants to be attention grabbing which it should not be in a car that requires a driver.
- windyaskew 7y agoI wonder if there's a way to modify Android Auto/Apple Car Play for passenger viewing. That way you can use all the applications on your phone but in your car. Do email in the back of a taxi/airport limo on a big screen or watch a Youtube video with 1 tap.
- dghughes 7y agoPeople must really hate cars. I like to drive and be in control of the vehicle. Often I go for drives in the country for a couple of hours. It's not about speed it's just fun to drive a nice car. Sure I like EVs but range (for now), lack of control, the sound of them are many things that ruin the art of driving. Pretty soon mechanical cars will be like expensive mechanical watches, rare.
- pathartl 7y agoI like cars, but I hate driving my commute. I hate road trips. I still like to take my car out on weekend drives. I'd rather not have to do the monotonous stuff.
- dangus 7y agoCars are transportation appliances. If they weren’t, the most popular cars wouldn’t be Toyota Highlander or Toyota Camry-style vehicles. “Drivers cars” are already rarities. Look at yearly sales figures for something like the Mazda Miata. Look at the overall sales numbers for manual transmission vehicles. They are not increasing and non-SUV vehicles are dying out (see Ford and GM). Cars are an expensive, depreciating liability. That’s why buying a fun car makes no sense from a financial perspective. An SUV is essentially the type of car that is least likely to be unusable for a particular task, which is why (now that the gas mileage is acceptable) it is the most popular form of vehicle. If I buy a Miata or even a Camry, one trip to the Home Depot can leave me wishing I bought a big, slow-ish SUV. This is a long-winded way of saying that the majority of the public won’t miss internal combustion engines. Electric cars are quiet and require less maintenance by far. Battery technology and pricing doesn’t have far to go before buying a gas car makes no sense. There will always be enthusiast cars of some kind, for the foreseeable future, but most people have no business buying them. In my view, any emotional attachment to them has been curated over decades by car advertisements. Sure, feeling some G-forces and the wind in your hair is fun, but I can do that at an amusement park for far less money, too.
- theFeller00 7y agoWhy would people have no business buying them? The cars I like aren't influenced by ads. Simpletons buy their cars based on the auto ads they see. How many times do you go to an amusement park in a year? My 950whp car puts a smile on my face every time I'm in it, which is multiple times per day. I'll take being able to make any commute a riot, that isn't bumper to bumper, which isn't even a thing where I live, over a couple yearly trips to Great America.
- mandeepj 7y agoElectric car is new the phone. Those who missed the boat earlier - are trying to catch up with this shot.
- dvh 7y agoExcept that they not selling it. It's like I was trying to compete with latest iPhone by publishing renders on my website of my cool new phone concept.
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- travisporter 7y agoI really don't get why major automakers are so late to the EV game, and still do not have a foot in the door. Even this Sony concept car does not have any major automaker collaborators. Is it just because they are too big to innovate?
- kickopotomus 7y agoAll of the major manufacturers are starting their EV rollout this year. Mercedes is starting with the EQC. Honda is launching their Urban E. Toyota is planning to rollout 6 models over the next 5 years. This will likely be the decade of the EV where Tesla starts to see some real competition in the space.
- jarjoura 7y agoWe better get some chargers out there. There's at most 2 chargers at places and with more EVs on the road, they will most likely always be taken.
- linuxftw 7y agoThere's not any money in it. The money is in selling trucks and SUVs, at least in the states. I've had a truck for over 13 years. Including purchase price, maintenance and gasoline, my cost over that period has been $243 per month. That was for a brand new truck. Even if electricity is free, and I bought a similar sized truck at today's prices, there's no way I'd come out ahead in an electric. If you factor in used truck prices of similar vehicles, you're 10's of thousands ahead financially. I recently paid $4500 for a 200k mileage truck, engine should last for another 150k before needing a rebuild, and I can get an entire new engine for $3700 (not including labor). How much are electric trucks going to cost to re-power? I've done the math even for commuter cars. It never makes sense to buy electric when I can get a 40MPG car for 10-15k new. Batteries need to quadruple in efficiency and be cost competitive, or they're never going to catch on in the US.
- mymythisisthis 7y agoI think cities could use good ebikes. Ones that can plug into the high-speed, high amp, chargers. Imagine charging an ebike in 3-5minutes and being able to go 70miles. People in cities would like to have an alternative to public transit and car ownership.
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- jiofih 7y agoI want this. Sony is a company with awesome attention to detail, and I bet one of the few that could match the experience of a Tesla. Sign me up.