I sat inside an Afeela and I am so ready for this Sony Honda Mobility EV future

Sony Afeela might be just what this sleeping self-driving EV industry needs. There, I said it, and it’s a change of heart that comes from finally sitting inside the prototype collaboration between Sony and Honda. Sony Afeela, the EV with the silliest name, may offer everything you want, including AI, in a next-level self-driving electric automobile.

It’s been a long road for Sony Honda Mobility’s Afeela EV prototype self-driving car. We first heard about it years ago when it was still called Sony Vision S. The rebrand introduced two years ago at CES 2023 was met with some head-scratching, though.

Vision S was cool. Afeela is a softball for wordplay mockery. Part of the problem is that Sony, for the most part, kept the media at arm’s length. That changed this week when Sony started inviting the press to a Classic Car Club hanger on Manhanttan’s West side.

Afeela is a joint project between Sony and Honda, and company reps insist that it’s a 50-50 endeavor. Honda did not simply build an EV and ask Sony for its branding consent. Instead, the fingerprints of both companies are all over the car.

In hindsight, the Classic Car Club might not have been the best place to showcase Afeela’s relatively low-key design. Outside the building, a collection of pricey, eye-popping sports and classic cars sat. The gray Afeela sat lonely in the cavernous hanger, looking much the same as it did when I saw it at CES last year and the year before that. Sony did tell me that other color options will be available when the EV goes on pre-order next year and ships in 2026.

Step inside

Sony’s intention this time, though, was not just to antiseptically tout…