Sony surprised everyone at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show with the debut of the Vision-S prototype. It took the form of a sleek electric vehicle with advanced autonomous systems and a pair of 268-horsepower (200-kilowatt) electric motors. At first, we thought that the Tokyo-based company could be testing the waters to enter the auto industry, but an executive later confirmed that it is not becoming an automaker.
Well, we are getting mixed signals now. Sony has just confirmed that it has shipped the Vision-S to Japan, where the firm will continue to advance its “detection and audio technologies.” The most interesting part of the announcement is that the concept will begin public road tests before the end of the year.
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“The Vision-S prototype has come to Tokyo to advance our detection and audio technologies,” says Sony. “The prototype vehicle is also under development for testing on public roads this fiscal year.”
As a reminder, the Vision-S has been developed by Sony in cooperation with big names like Nvidia, Continental, Bosch, ZF and Qualcomm. The main goal of the all-electric sedan was to show what Sony can offer the auto industry, including its advanced autonomous driving system with no fewer than 33 sensors.
But it is not just a static prototype. A video accompanying the ad shows the Vision-S in motion, and that’s not the first time we’ve seen it in action. In fact, Sony claims that it can accelerate from a standstill to 62 miles per hour (0-100 kilometers per hour) in just 4.8 seconds.
