Seven things I learned about a Sony car while playing Gran Turismo

Do you know how Sony will make electric cars with Honda in 2026? Sony Honda Mobility is now letting journalists get serious about the Afila prototype – and play with it Grand tourism A video game version of the car sitting on the original device.

That’s why I went to PlayStation’s North American headquarters last week to experience Afila in Afila and touch things we couldn’t touch before. But I got a little more than I bargained for!

Here is a short 50 second video of the experience and a short list of new things I learned.

No, before you ask, they didn’t let me drive a genuine Sony Honda. I grabbed the steering wheel and pressed the pedals, but they did nothing – in-game or otherwise. “We will give journalists the opportunity to test drive the vehicle as soon as possible in line with the vehicle’s development schedule,” said a statement from Sony Honda Mobility through external spokesperson Glenn Mandel.

I’ve heard that the driving test won’t take place this year – possibly next year – but it could be 2026 before a journalist gets behind the wheel.

There were two ways to open the prototype door from the outside. You can press a button on Afila’s smartphone app, or the camera system can open it for you after it detects your face. However, the latest prototype has a third method: a physical button at the bottom of the window that can send the same signal. I pressed it and it worked great. However, Sony Honda is still deciding how to verify your identity — staff haven’t said whether it will use the car key or a digital car key like UWB to find out who you’re around.

The Afila’s ultra-wide screen is one of its most attractive features, but Sony Honda doesn’t plan to let the driver see everything while driving. Instead, a type of privacy filter is used to isolate the passenger’s screen area, so they can continue watching without distracting the driver.

“Specifications for mass production are yet to be finalised, but we plan to include a system that is not visible from the driver’s side while driving so that the driver can drive safely,” says SHM.

i played Gran Turismo 7 Afila Display streams wirelessly from a nearby PS5 using Sony’s PS Remote Play app. There is no physical PS5 controller in the car and there are currently no plans to change that. In January, Izumi Kawanishi, president and COO of Sony Honda Mobility, told me that it has not yet been decided whether an original PS5 console will be released, but that SHM is now “expecting remote play rather than installing a PS5 controller.”

It’s also not clear if you can use Afilar’s steering wheel and paddles to play.

Sony Honda signed a deal with Microsoft last year Creating a “personal conversational agent” for cars, and while there aren’t any concrete details yet on what that actually means, I hear the goal is in-car AI. request you With questions after trying to guess your needs.

“We are exploring the possibility of two-way communication between humans and cars and are also developing an interactive personal agent in collaboration with Microsoft using the Microsoft Azure OpenAI service,” SHM wrote in response to my query. “We believe that as it grows based on the user, we will be able to communicate according to the user’s preferences.”

I explained this in the video, but many parts of the prototype are currently just mockups and not yet launched. These include fancy things like digital side mirrors and rearview mirrors, but everyday things like turn signal stalks, sun visors, gloves, storage compartments and most touchscreens are usable parts.

I could scroll around the map of Las Vegas, but I couldn’t click any pins; I was able to browse a playing video and place it on the driver or passenger side of the screen with a gesture, but I couldn’t operate many other functions on the touchscreen or in the companion smartphone app. I don’t mind SHM though; Sony Honda has been completely transparent that this is a prototype and they still have a few years to figure everything out.

Yes, the current prototype has a silly digital billboard above the front bumper that shows Sony-like specs. spider man And The horizon is barred to the west, and lets you fine-tune the car’s digital engine sounds with sounds inspired by Sony products like anime streaming service Crunchyroll. But a spokesperson told me that Sony Honda also wants to work with non-Sony companies – and I was able to display any text I wanted on the bumper screen by typing it into the phone app.

Of course I chose The Verge.