00:01Can tech companies really make cars better?
00:04Will engines, powertrains and range no longer be the most important considerations?
00:08Will luxury take a backseat to connectivity and gaming?
00:12Will cars soon be made without steering wheels at all?
00:16And most importantly, can tech giants truly reinvent the car itself?
00:20Well, Sony with Honda are trying just that.
00:24Meet the Afila one.
00:26On the outside, the Afila looks like your average electric sedan,
00:29but look inside and it's apparent its priorities are very different.
00:33Instead of leading with power and performance,
00:36the focus is on sensors, screens and software.
00:40The concept for this car is to redefine the relationship between the mobility and people.
00:46With this car, because it has 5G connectivity, Wi-Fi and AI support,
00:51the car talks back to you.
00:53So you have this relationship with the car that you don't have with other cars.
00:56Inside the cabin is a digital display that stretches across the dashboard,
01:01combining most vehicle features into a single interface.
01:05Sony's background in gaming is evident here.
01:07You can even remotely access your PlayStation 5 and continue chasing that high score.
01:13Essentially, the Afila is less a vehicle and more a computer on wheels.
01:19There's sufficient power and distance that you can get from the drive train,
01:23but you really want to focus on what you do with the car, in the car,
01:28while you spend time in the car.
01:30Like multitasking while driving.
01:33So, let's say you're on the way to work.
01:36You have an 8am meeting, and you got stuck in traffic,
01:40and you have to take your Zoom call from your car.
01:43You can also do that from here.
01:48And we have a meeting already set up.
01:51And because we have multiple cameras, you can have the meeting as the driver yourself,
01:57and multiple other cameras, you can do the entire cabin if you have business executives in your car as well.
02:04Just in case you lose focus behind the wheel,
02:06the Afila one is equipped with a wide array of radar, lidar and cameras,
02:11designed to assist the driver and interpret traffic and road patterns.
02:15It also has Level 2 Plus ADAS, so assisted driving.
02:21It has 40 sensors, 18 cameras.
02:24That's the lidar big one right there.
02:26It has 9 radars and also 12 ultrasonic sensors to assist you with driving.
02:34That technology reflects how Sony and Honda view autonomy.
02:38The Afila is designed to support increasingly advanced driver assistance features over time,
02:43delivered through software updates.
02:45And that raises a broader question.
02:47If cars are increasingly defined by software and user experience,
02:51who is best positioned to shape their future?
02:54Traditional automakers or technology companies?
02:57To see how far that thinking can go, it's worth looking at a very different vehicle.
03:02This is Zoox, owned by Amazon.
03:04Unlike the Afila, Zoox isn't trying to blend old ideas with new ones.
03:08It's built from the ground up as a driverless machine.
03:11We like to say it's not a car because cars are built for drivers,
03:14but we built this vehicle for riders like you.
03:16The ride-hailing vehicle is designed to operate without a human at the controls.
03:24We built this fully from the ground up.
03:26There is no steering wheel, there is no front seat or back seat.
03:28It is truly built from the ground up and is the first robotaxi of its kind.
03:32The vehicle is fully symmetrical and bi-directional,
03:34which means right now the headlights are up there and the tail lights are back there.
03:37But if it wanted to, it could just swap its headlights and tail lights and take off the other direction.
03:42It represents autonomous driving taken to its natural conclusion.
03:46Zoox's take is that driving is non-essential.
03:49Meanwhile, the Afila still targets private car ownership in the US and Japan,
03:54with driving remaining part of the experience, even if it's no longer the central focus.
03:58Yet both approaches reflect a shift towards a more digital experience.
04:03The question is, do people want cars that feel like computers on wheels?
04:07Or is the visceral driving experience too valuable to be done away with?
04:12Either way, the future of the car may be shaped less by who builds the best powertrain
04:17and more by who controls the software, the data and the experience inside the vehicle.
04:24is currently the
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