Sony and Honda could put a PS5 in future EVs to compete with Tesla

Sony and Honda are considering putting a PlayStation 5 in future electric vehicles in a bid to compete with Tesla.

The Japanese titans want to bring a premium entertainment experience to their electric vehicles as part of a new mobility venture, Sony Honda Mobility, which launched in September, reports the Financial Times.

Integrating a PS5 into cars is “technologically possible,” Sony’s head of robotics told the publication. He added that content, services, and entertainment could give the new venture an edge over Tesla in the EV wars. The first model from the new outfit is slated to arrive in 2025.

Sony Honda Mobility is reportedly tweaking its entire car-building process to put content first. The company views a vehicle as hardware “that will cater to the entertainment and network we would like to offer,” Yasuhide Mizuno, chair of the joint venture, told the Financial Times.

In-car entertainment has accelerated in leaps and bounds in recent years, with tech and car companies looking to keep passengers and idle drivers engaged with rich dashboards that match tablets. Of course, automakers don’t want people crashing their cars while playing Call of Duty, so they’re relying on the arrival of autonomous driving to free up drivers to watch and play on their entertainment systems.

But as Mizuno explained to the FT, the tech is still miles away from being road ready. “Autonomous driving will have to evolve considerably from the current level to get to that point, and it will take time for that to happen,” he said.

Others have also introduced similar tech. For instance, Google and Apple have launched Android Auto and CarPlay, respectively. Google’s dashboard is available to car manufacturers, and provides everything from apps like Spotify to Android games.

Meanwhile, Tesla’s tablet-style dashboard lets customers browse the web and ostensibly access game-streaming services, like NVIDIA GeForce Now, among others. Elon Musk also previously tweeted that his company is looking to add support to Teslas for Steam, the popular digital gaming platform for PCs.

For its part, Sony also has access to entertainment and music as part of its Sony Pictures movie studio, known for the Spider-Man movies, and Sony Music Entertainment record label.