Honda and Sony could be planning to take Tesla head-on by incorporating a PlayStation 5 into a future Honda electric car.
That’s right, more cars that offer gaming from the front seat. Tesla already offers gaming from the ‘comfort’ of your car as later models support a large screen on the dashboard that is capable of running various video game titles such as Cuphead. It’s not just Tesla though, BMW has also stated they have a partnership with AirConsole to start offering games in later vehicle models.
Of course, there’s much debate about the idea of games in cars, and both Tesla and BMW have stated that these options will only be available when the vehicle is stationary.
Now it seems Sony wants in on the action as president and COO of Sony Honda Mobility, Izumi Kawanishi spoke with the Financial Times saying “it’s technologically possible” for Sony to integrate the PlayStation 5 into the new car that it is being built in partnership with Honda.
Autonomous future
The idea is to go above and beyond that of Tesla and offer Sony entertainment services to create a car that is entertainment driven and can compete with anything else already out on the market. Kawanishi commented that “Sony has content, services, and entertainment technologies that move people. We are adapting these assets to mobility, and this is our strength against Tesla”.
Sony and Honda have stated that their plans for the future also involve the evolution of autonomous driving, with Kawanishi saying the technology “will have to evolve considerably” to achieve the desired goals. Because, let’s be real for a moment, if more cars start to integrate gaming into the dashboard, there’s always going to be two big elephants in the room.
Taking gaming on the road
First, there’s the safety aspect. In many countries you aren’t allowed on a phone while you are in the car (even if it isn’t moving) in some places you’re not even allowed to take a bite out of a sandwich if you’re at the wheel, so is gaming in the front of the car really going to take off?
Of course, there’s the point that these gaming systems only work if the car is stationary, however, if that’s the case wouldn’t it just be easier to play at home? Or if you’re stationary and need to kill twenty minutes while you wait in a car park, more than likely you would have your phone which you could choose to game on instead. Even if the gaming is being done by a front-seat passenger this could still be seen as dangerous as it would cause a massive distraction to the driver.
It would seem that Sony and Honda are at least aware of advancements that would need to happen to see the full potential of gaming and entertainment within a car, and that’s autonomous driving. For this to be something that takes off, does the car need to be moving without the need for the driver’s full attention?
Imagine if autonomous driving did reach a point where your car can take you on a point A to B journey without any issues or assistance from a human, that means you could simply sit back and make use of your travel time by catching up on a show or playing that game that’s still sitting in your backlog. Autonomous driving does exist already, however, the technology would need to see much improvement before it’s widely adopted.
Sony and Honda are hoping to launch their collaborative vehicle in 2025, so maybe you’ll be playing PS5 in a car before you can actually get your hands on one in a store.
Paige Cook is a writer with a multi-media background. She has experience covering video games and technology and also has freelance experience in video editing, graphic design, and photography. Paige is a massive fan of the movie industry and loves a good TV show, if she is not watching something interesting then she's probably playing video games or buried in a good book. Her latest addiction is virtual photography and currently spends far too much time taking pretty pictures in games rather than actually finishing them.
