What a Vision!

This was not my planned first writing on innovation. Once I read the news reports, it was impossible to consider anything else as the first in a series on innovation. Sony is making an electric car! (https://www.carandbike.com/news/sony-starts-testing-vision-s-electric-car-on-public-roads-2350416?pfrom=home-ndtv_auto). Sony’s website says: “On January 11th at CES 2021, Sony announced VISION-S development activity has reached the next stage. While continuing to advance vehicle development for safety and security, entertainment and adaptability, public road testing commenced in Austria in December 2020 for technical evaluation” (https://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/vision-s/).

According to the news report referred here, Vision-S has been built by Sony’s AI and robotics team and is now a driverless prototype embedded with 33 sensors. It has many more technologies such as “spatial audio technology for recreating vivid realism”. It (naturally) has a vast array of entertainment options. Sony surprised everyone last year at the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show (one of the most eagerly awaited events) when it showcased the fully electric Vision-S. Many years ago I wrote that Sony being innovative was a given, something everyone took for granted. Yes it did face some problems but this is Sony back again.

Since we are not privy to the thinking behind this strategic move, we can only speculate. The first aspect that comes to mind is that Sony must not have gotten caught in fruitless debates over ‘core competence’, a debilitating concept if ever there was. Instead, the discussion would have turned on how best to make use of the technologies it is continuously developing to fuse into something else, which, could only be a car or anything mobile. Sony is making drones too. This means that it understands mobility.

It was already deeply and successfully engaged in all the technologies that have gone into the making of Vision-S. To quote the news report: “It takes advantage of the brand’s expertise in the field of imaging, entertainment and sensors, which could be employed in the next-generation electric vehicles. The company is already supplying these technologies to Japanese automakers, however, it now wants to develop an individual product that can be supplied as an all-purpose solution”.

This is bold and, in retrospect, seems very logical. I am guessing that it must have started with the realization that more than 70% of a car today is electronics & software. Since this is an EV, the one crucial aspect is the battery management system and how it interacts with both the mechanical and electronic parts of the car. Anyone even reasonably familiar with this terrain will know that this is among the most challenging tasks in the making of an EV.

Someone must have said (and it would have received a patient hearing – widely considered a very Japanese management style) why not put all this together ourselves. Assembling comes naturally to Sony as a maker of televisions. The one crucial part outside its known areas of expertise is the chassis, which, in the case of most auto companies also, is an externally acquired product. Given that EVs have been around for a reasonable period of time, it is logical that chassis platforms for EVs have also grown in efficiency, a reasonable speculation to indulge in.

In the life of an individual or a company or any organization, there come moments which are life-altering and hence historic. Once Sony pulls off this as a mainstream business, it would have changed and in the process, it would have altered the auto and especially the EV landscape.

Another example of innovative steps, again in mobility and together with communication, is what Ford is doing in safety, based on the idea that if e-scooters (actually any scooter) and bicycles could ‘talk’ to cars, safety will be enhanced, according to a story in The Washington Post by Dalvin Brown (https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/01/13/ford-bikes-escooters-safety/).

Inspired by this idea, a consortium of bike and scooter manufacturers are coming together with a company called Tome Software, which has taken the initiative in this and working with Ford, Trek Bicycle and Bosch. This is the stuff of future, where you see hard core science (physics and electronics) married to engineering, software and some inventive thinking. Those who follow such developments will recall the excitement when near field communication, popularly known as NFC, began circulating around a decade ago. As the Post story says, “At the core of the effort is a software standard that would allow a wide range of vehicle services to exchange information in real time so that drivers in big cities and congested areas are more aware of riders out of their line of sight. It could also trigger visible alerts on bicycles when cars get too close”. This is a combination of sensor technology and electronic communication as already being used in autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles. It is called B2V, bicycle-to-vehicle technology based on Bluetooth5.

Innovative thinking is what will lead to any innovation. So simple to understand and yet so tough to embrace and internalize.