Bitche Original HandleVISION-S's body is raised and it becomes VISION-S 02. Yes, this is netizens' complaints about Sony's new concept car - VISION-S 02, and many netizens also like to describe the relationship between the two as Tesla Model 3 and Model Y, but ridicule is ridicule, for Sony like this When electronics giants enter the automobile industry, I believe that most people, like the author, have a reasonable but unexpected feeling. Why do you say that? First of all, it is certain that since Sony was founded in 1946, its advantages in hardware have been obvious to all. Its CMOS image sensors currently account for nearly 50% of the world's share! So the question arises, why doesn’t Sony participate in car manufacturing as a supplier like Huawei and use its own strengths? Instead, should we enter the game as a manufacturer (increase the risk)? Is it just envy of Tesla's huge profits in the capital market? Regarding the answer to this question, the author also wants to give his own guess.
Sony builds cars Hardware comes first
Unlike PPT car manufacturing, the Japanese attach great importance to the automobile industry. Caution, for a company like Sony, entering the automobile industry is the result of caution. When we pull the timeline back to 2020, Sony officially released its first pure electric concept model - VISION-S. The partners of this car can be said to be well-established, including the well-known Qualcomm and NVIDIA , ZF, Bosch and Magnaand other automotive upstream and downstream supply chain giants. Therefore, it is not an exaggeration to say that SonyVISION-S was born with a golden key. It is a "star model" created by a "star team"; and since then Sony Group PresidentJudging from the highlights promoted by Kenichiro Yoshida, this car is also very"Sony".
SonyVISION-S is positioned as a four-door pure electric coupe, the main design of the new car’s appearance The highlight is that both the front and rear adopt the design of through-type headlights, and the integrated exterior mirrors show that it is still in the concept car stage. At the same time, according to foreign media, the development process of VISION-S also includes Toyota Spura, BMW Z4 and Mercedes-Benz G-Class teams participate! In terms of performance, VISION-S is equipped with dual motors at the front and rear. The acceleration time from 100 kilometers to 100 kilometers is 4.8 seconds. However, this data obviously does not count when compared horizontally today. Bright.
But if you know Sony well enough, you will know how much emphasis this technology company has placed on hardware over the years. SonyVISION-S is embedded with a total of 33 sensors including CMOS and ToF, and is equipped with an ultra-wide display that almost runs through the entire center console. It has a 5G communication module and can run Sony PlayStation games, and it also has a 360Reality Audio sound system with 3D sound effects. From a hardware perspective, VISION-S does reveal Sony's core advantages.
SonyVISION-S’s 33 sensors include 3 solid-state lidars, 18 Millimeter wave/ultrasonic radar, and 12 cameras equipped with Sony image sensors. For comparison, let’s compare VISION-S with the ET5 just released by Weilai.
As you can see, VISION-S and NIO ET5 both have 33 sensors. , but Sony can use fewer image sensors to achieve stronger assisted driving functions,Having said this, you may want to ask why Sony has a preemptive advantage in automotive image sensors.
In fact, many consumers know about Sony cameras, Sony game consoles and even Sony Pictures, but they do not know that Sony is also an important supplier of automotive image sensors. In2015, Sony announced its entry into automotive image sensors. Although it started late and was criticized, with continuous efforts, Sony has now surpassed South Korea and the United States and become the leader of most car companies such as Toyota, Nissan, and Hyundai. suppliers and occupy 50% of the world's market share!
After the VISION-S concept car received a lot of positive feedback during the European trial, Sony's turbulent executives seemed to see a glimmer of hope, so they continued to launch international consumption in 2022. At the Electronic Products Exhibition, a brand new concept car - VISION-S 02 was brought, and it is equipped with a newly developed intelligent car networking system and up to 40 sensor configurations, taking the hardware configuration to a new level. According to foreign media reports, both the VISION-S and VISION-S 02 models have reached the L2 level of automatic assisted driving, and will reach the higher L4 level in the future.
But objectively speaking,VISION-S and VISION-S 02 will It is obviously not appropriate to redefine or subvert traditional cars. At least for now, the author does not agree with this view. Because in terms of design and overall performance, compared with Sony's electronic products, VISION-S and VISION-S 02 are far from meeting the expectations of consumers and the industry. Compared with the ET5 just released by Weilai, the hardware The slight advantage does not make Sony's halo appear so dazzling.
Second, we know that the real gap between pure electric models is at the software level, because intelligent assisted driving does not simply rely on "Pushing materials" can be completed. Matching at the software level is also very important, even more important, but this is precisely the part that Sony lacks most, and we can also see from Sony's smartphone business and camera business The first clue is that Sony places too much emphasis on hardware and neglects software. This is also the biggest question I have about Sony’s car-making at present, because Sony’s hardware advantages accumulated in the electronic field alone are obviously not enough.To allow Sony to gain a higher position on this new track.
Sony's sword dance, intended for Tesla?
At the 2022 CES show, Sony Chairman and CEO Kenichiro Yoshida announced A new division, Sony Mobile, has been established to be responsible for the commercialization of electric vehicles. In other words, Sony has officially stopped making cars. Regarding officially entering the automotive industry, Sony executives responded: The two models are Sony’s innovation and exploration in the automotive field, and are used to research and verify some new technologies. As for when mass production will take place, no conclusion can be given at present, but even if Sony is different from high-profile domestic new forces in building cars, various signs also indicate that Sony will aim its "sword" at Tesla.
Let’s talk about it firstVISION-S, its body dimensions have been announced. The body length is between Model 3 and Model S, and the 3000mm wheelbase completely exceeds the latter two. In other words, VISION-SThe interior space is larger than TeslaModel 3 and Model S.
Similarly,The body length of VISION-S 02 is also between the Tesla Model X and Model Y, and the wheelbase of 3030mm exceeds Model X’s 2965mm and Model Y’s 2890mm. So you can see here that the two models were aimed at mass production from the beginning of research and development, and competitors were targeting Tesla. Although Sony has always denied this, from the information collected by the author so far, Sony is targeting Tesla. Both models develop new car platforms, and in 2020 At the end of the year, VISION-S took the lead in starting public road testing. In April 2021, Sony jointly conducted a 5G communication function test of VISION-S with telecom operator Vodafone in Germany to further explore the use of autonomous driving-related modules when driving at high speeds. Communication stability. There are various signs that this is not a simple self-assessment!
The conclusive evidence that allows the outside world to confirm that Sony is going to mass-produce VISION-S is Sony moved the prototype of this model to Frankfurt, the center of the German automobile industry, in May 2021 to conduct a series of adjustments in terms of acceleration performance, NVH and comfort. The development process of the entire car is almost the same as that of a mass-produced car. Consistent!
Getting into building cars is not just a whim
In fact, when it comes to building cars, Sony is not just a whim. As early as the era of Akio Morita, when Sony's energy department was researching fuel cells, it trial-produced a Sony fuel cell car, but this car used zinc air (Zn-Air) fuel cell, with a power of only 3kW. At the same time, because it was a test platform, the new car did not even have a casing, so it was abandoned at the time.
The time has comeIn 2017, Sony released an electric concept similar to a square box shape Car SC-1, two years later, Sony announced that it would put the SC-1 concept car into mass production, but this model will not be sold to the mass market, but will be used as an amusement park vehicle in cooperation with some leisure industries. From this time on, Sony has been swinging back and forth between eagerness to build cars and speculation from the outside world, but since the electric concept car SC-1, there has been more news related to "Sony builds cars" Now, some media have revealed that Sony is seeking large-scale cooperation with auto-related parts manufacturers, and in 2020, the Sony VISION-S concept car will officially meet with everyone, and the timeline and events involved The stitching is quite intriguing.
Editor’s comment: Friends who follow Sony must know that Sony has not been very innovative in the fields it is good at in recent years, and the performance of its main business has not been up to expectations. As a technology company, For a cross-century international company, this kind of "middle-aged anxiety" is obvious. In order to regain its momentum, new CEO Kenichiro Yoshida announced his entry into the automobile industry. In the author's opinion, this is the first step in Sony's self-salvation. . Although the official mass production time of both models has not been announced, judging from Sony’s current actions, Sony is undoubtedly “recognizing it” this time.Really", and the Japanese's focus on polishing products is obvious to all, and it still demands itself by the standards of a changer. Compared with the impetuous new energy capital market, Sony obviously has greater ambitions!
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