Sony's Next Big Thing in Tech Is Helping Honda Take On Tesla

tech.hindustantimes.com:

In early 2020, Sony Group Corp. Chief Executive Officer Kenichiro Yoshida took the stage at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas — the tech industry’s main annual event — and announced a once-in-a-decade pivot: the Japanese electronics maker was joining the electric vehicle race.

As Yoshida wrapped up his 30-minute presentation, the lights on stage dimmed and a glowing grille emerged from the shadows. The CEO raised his hands as a sleek, Sony-branded car rolled onto the stage. Like mobile phones during the past decade, “the next megatrend will be mobility,” Sony’s chief declared. 

With Yoshida’s pronouncement, the 76-year-old Japanese company joined a growing roster of technology giants plotting their foray into the automobile industry. As vehicles become electric, autonomous, gadget-stocked and web-connected, the movement is luring a wide array of new players — most notoriously Apple Inc. with its secretive Apple Car — all betting they have the technologies necessary to disrupt the $3 trillion market.

While Big Tech’s jostling has largely been downplayed by many incumbent carmakers, the push by Yoshida, 62, gained him an unlikely fan back in Japan: Toshihiro Mibe, who at the time was running research and development at Honda Motor Co.

Of all Japan’s carmakers, Honda had thrown itself most aggressively into Electric Vehicles, targeting a full phase-out of combustion-engine vehicle sales by 2040. From early on, Honda saw potential for collaboration with Sony with its consumer electronics, autonomous driving sensors and software as a way to differentiate new models and add value to the low-margin business of making cars.

Behind the scenes, Mibe had spent years courting Sony’s top management, seeking to sell them on his