DID YOU KNOW that Sony and Honda have teamed up to produce electric vehicles? They recently showcased their joint venture's first prototype of "AFEELA," at the Tokyo Automobile Show in October 2023. Despite being well-known for their entertainment products, such as PlayStation and Sony Pictures, Sony is now also involved in rolling off electric vehicles through their partnership with Honda since 2022. I was surprised to learn about this unexpected collaboration between two companies in different sectors and wondered about the technology that Sony brings to the table. However, I discovered that Sony Semiconductor Solutions has been developing autonomous car technology, among other inventions, as evidenced by the patent documents searched with the J-Plat Pat, a document search tool of the Japan Patent Office.
Chart 1 displays the trend of patent publications related to autonomous cars by #SONY and #HONDA in Japan from 2014 to 2023. Surprisingly, the data indicates that SONY has filed more patent applications than HONDA concerning autonomous driving. (patentyouridea.tokyo produced the chart 1 and 2. Source: J- Plat-Pat, "Sony" and "autonomous" and ("car" or "vehicle") )
Chart 2 presents statistics on patent applications sorted by autonomous technologies, the #InternationalPatentClassification (B, F, G and H). The data shows that Honda contributes to the automobile architecture, while Sony focuses on electronic elements. That explains why they teamed up. #SHM #autonomouscar #EVs #patent
