Hasta La Gadget!

At the CES 2025 in Las Vegas, Afeela—a joint venture between Sony and Honda—showcased the near-production version of its first electric vehicle, the Afeela 1. This midsize liftback promises advanced technology, a luxurious interior, and a strong focus on connectivity and entertainment. We were there in person to check it out!

Features and Design

The Afeela 1 measures 4,915 mm in length, slightly shorter than competitors like the Lucid Air, but its design emphasizes interior space with a generous wheelbase. Inside, the cabin features a futuristic layout with sustainable materials and a panoramic dashboard screen. A yoke-style steering wheel enhances the view of the displays.

Speaking about the panel, there are lots of possibilites like dragging windows from one side to the other:

And the screen also makes it easy to navigate when planning routes:

Entertainment and comfort are central to the design, with Sony’s 360 Spatial Sound Technologies providing immersive audio and the use of noise-canceling technology for a quieter ride.

The sound system really blew us away, the quality was superb and something that you would for sure expect from a car with such a hefty pricetag.

Afeela 1 Signature’s interior. The Origin variant doesn’t bring the screens for the passengers.

As we could see on the promotional video, it’s possible to communicate with the external world through messages, something that can be easily configured using your phone:

The vehicle is available in three different hues—Calm White, Tidal Gray and Core Black. The Origin version is only available on the latter, while the Signature variant can be reserved in any of the available colors:

Affela 1 Calm White

Affela 1 Tidal Gray

Affela 1 Core Black

And for the interior, the brand offers two possibilites, either Black or Gray:

Black interior

Gray interior.

Among the features mentioned on the official website the following are highlighted:

• AFEELA Intelligent Drive (Level 2+ ADAS)
• AFEELA Personal Agent
• Media Bar (External Information Display)
• Immersive 3D Map
• Immersive Entertainment Selection
• Customizable Theme
• Spatial Sound System
• 5G Connectivity

For the Signature version, we have some cool extras:

Performance

The Afeela 1 features a dual-motor all-wheel-drive system, with each motor producing 241 horsepower for a combined output of 482 hp. It is equipped with a 91 kWh lithium-ion battery that provides an estimated EPA range of up to 483 km (300 miles). Charging capabilities include DC fast charging at 150 kW and a NACS-style charge port for compatibility with various networks.

Driver Assistance and Technology

The vehicle includes the Afeela Intelligent Drive system, which utilizes 40 cameras and sensors for enhanced driver assistance:

Initially, it offers Level 2+ semi-automation, capable of operating on highways and urban roads, with driver supervision required. A Level 3 autonomy update is planned for the future.

The Afeela 1 emphasizes digital integration, featuring a suite of in-car applications and content, accessible through individual displays for each passenger. It supports an open ecosystem for developers, enabling the creation of apps and services tailored to the vehicle, mirroring the model of mobile phone app stores.

Pricing and Availability

The Afeela 1 will be available in two trims:

• Afeela 1 Origin: Priced at $89,900, it will be available starting in 2027.
• Afeela 1 Signature: Starting at $102,900, this model will begin deliveries in mid-2026.

Both trims include a three-year subscription to features like an AI-powered personal assistant and semi-automated driver-assist systems. You can already reserve yours clicking here. As of today, the brand charges a $200 reservation fee.

Production and Future Plans

Honda says it will manufacture the Afeela 1 at its plant in Ohio, with a launch in North America and Europe planned for 2026. Afeela intends to expand its lineup with an SUV and a compact model later in the decade.

Afeela 1: A High-Tech EV Unveiled At CES 2025

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It was an interesting year for robots at CES 2025. While we had hoped the AI boom would bring a new wave of useful robots to the show, it seems that many robotics companies are still figuring out exactly how to best use AI. 

What we found instead was a mix of adorable robot companions, strange concepts and one, slightly terrifying humanoid. We visited a lot of robots at CES and, for better or worse, some really left an impression on us. These are the ones that stood out the most.

TCL Ai Me

Karissa Bell for Engadget

Of all the surprisingly adorable robots we saw at CES, TCL’s Ai Me (pronounced “Amy”) was one of the cutest. The concept was on display at TCL’s booth delighting and bewildering everyone who walked by. With a voice and eyes that are meant to sound like an actual human child, TCL seems to be pitching this as an emotional support/companion robot for kids. At the booth, Ai Me wasn’t doing much besides moving around in its wheeled, egg-shaped base, but the company says that the AI-powered robot could be used to control smart home devices or record vlogs, thanks to built-cameras and AI capabilities. 

For now, it’s unclear if TCL actually plans to sell this thing, but the company seemed to have put quite a bit of effort into its CES demo. In addition to the one slowly wheeling around a mock-up living room, TCL showed off a lineup of different outfits, including fuzzy bunny suits and a denim vest, for Ai Me. -Karissa Bell

Ropet

Karissa Bell for Engadget

As we walked over to the Ropet booth, a person was waving a plastic hotdog in front of the little robot and small cartoon hotdogs flashed across its eyes in response. I was pretty much sold at that moment, but it turned out to have some other pretty interesting things going on too. Ropet responds to voice, touch and gestures, and has its own cute little emotional reactions. It’s conversational if you want it to be, with ChatGPT integration. Mostly it’s just adorable. -Cheyenne MacDonald

Mirumi

Cheyenne MacDonald for Engadget

Mirumi is one of those CES oddities that makes you simultaneously go, “What the hell is this?” and, “Omg I love this.” It’s small, fluffy and has no other purpose than to make you smile by looking around and staring at you like an innocent baby. I immediately felt the need to protect it with my life. — CM

Romi

Cheyenne MacDonald for Engadget

Romi is a conversational robot that fits in the palm of your hand and is here for you if you want to chat, vent or just hang out. The newest model of the robot turned up at Unveiled, and we couldn’t help but be charmed by its cute facial expressions. It fits nicely in your hands, so you can carry it around the house with you while you walk around complaining about your workday. -CM

Miroki

Cheyenne MacDonald for Engadget

Miroki was at CES last year, but the Enchanted Tools team was back showing off the latest version and some new skills, including LLM integration. If you were able to fight through the crowd surrounding it to get up close, you may have seen it rolling around waving at people, blinking its big cartoon eyes and flicking its ears like a deer. Undecided on whether it’s cute or a little unnerving. -CM

Scorpion

Scorpion is an AI bartender from Richtech Robotics that unfortunately wasn’t slinging drinks when we saw it (or scuttling around, apparently it doesn’t do that), but did perform a synchronized dance to “Apt.” with the company’s Adam bot. Come for the arthropodal robot, stay for the K-pop. -CM

Unitree G1 and “Robot Dog”

Karissa Bell for Engadget

Of all the robots we saw at CES 2025, Unitree’s take the prize for most terrifying. The company was showing off its new quadruped “robot dog” and humanoid G1 robots. The quadruped, which is essentially their take on Boston Dynamic’s Spot robot, showed off to onlookers by running around the booth, climbing stairs and sitting on its “hind legs.”

But it was the G1 that proved to be the robot we needed to worry about. I was taking photos of the roughly 4-foot tall humanoid when it suddenly ran at me full-speed. I was only a foot or so in front of it at the time due to the crowd in the booth, so the roughly 60-pound G1 slammed directly into my body at an all out run. The surrounding crowd met I was essentially pinned in place for a few seconds while the robot continued to attempt to run through me until its operator was able to regain control. Fortunately, this was a case of user error and not the beginning of a robot uprising. The person holding the gamepad-like controller for the robot had mistakenly mashed the joystick, sending it directly into my body. At least I can now say I know what it feels like to ve body slammed by a robot. -KB

Mi-Mo

Cheyenne MacDonald for Engadget

One of the more unusual robots we saw at CES, Mi-Mo is a six-legged table with a lamp on top. We didn’t see Mi-Mo do much besides shimmy around the show floor and “wave,” but there are some really interesting ideas behind the AI-powered robot. It runs on multiple large language models and “thinks and acts” based on its environment. Its creators say it could help with childcare and eldercare tasks. Mi-Mo will be available to developers and researchers as a dev kit later this year. -KB

Reachy 2

Daniel Cooper for Engadget

Pollen Robotics was here at CES showing off Reachy 2, it’s latest machine that’ll cost you $75,000 if you have that sort of cash laying around. It’s an adorable open-source machine with a human pilot that, its makers say, is ideal for tele-operation and data acquisition. I just think it’s cute, especially when it waves at you. -Daniel Cooper

Additional reporting by Daniel Cooper.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/smart-home/the-robots-we-saw-at-ces-2025-the-good-the-bad-and-the-completely-unhinged-174529774.html?src=rss

While there’s plenty of automotive news to go around at CES 2025, far and away, the talk of the show is the Afeela 1. Again. For five years now, Sony has been showing off some variation on this same theme, first as the Vision-S in 2020, then the Vision-S 02, before adopting the unfortunate rebranding to Afeela in 2023, and this year finally to Afeela 1.

Along the way, the car lost what little interesting styling it had while sticking true to some specifications that sounded good five years ago. Everything just feels a bit off, not the least of which is its starting price: $89,900.

I got a chance to get up close and inside the car, a demo that began with another explanation of what Afeela means. It’s a sort of overwrought portmanteau for the words autonomy, augmentation, and affinity.

This year’s Afeela 1 is little changed from last year’s numberless show car. The only significant visual update is found in the sensor pod protruding from the leading edge of the roof. A LiDAR module now stands proud, along with a couple of cameras on either end, staring in opposite directions chameleon-style.

While the bug-eyed look is not particularly charming, it is the only bit of visual character in an otherwise bland design. The lone other external talking point is the display embedded in the leading edge of the hood. This “media bar” is another thing that seemed novel and fun a few years ago on a concept car.

Tim Stevens for Engadget

It’s supposed to welcome you to the car or provide messages to those around you. But it’s hard to read from afar, and up close you can see the unfortunate seam down the middle where two panels were somewhat crudely joined together to form the thing.

To open the driver’s door, you either tap a button in the app or press a small button embedded in the pillar. There are no door handles to pull, not even a token fin like on the Ford Mustang Mach-E. I couldn’t help asking what do you do if you park in an ice storm and the door is frozen shut. I wasn’t given much of an answer.

Those doors open to a space that’s every bit as understated as the exterior except for one thing: the dashboard-spanning display. It’s vibrant and clear and about the only thing in here that reminded me that this is a Sony product. Well, that and the DualSense controller that you can pair to the car and then fire up PS Remote Play while you charge.

And you’ll need something to do because the maximum charge rate of the Afeela 1 is 150 kW for its 91 kWh battery, which provides an estimated 300 miles of range. Compare that to a cheaper Lucid Air, which can charge twice as quickly and cover over 400 miles on a charge and you begin to see the real problem with this thing.

That display plus the ambient lighting within the car are all comprehensively customizable, with the same sorts of themes available on the PS5. I sampled the Ghost of Tsushima and Fortnite themes, each of which splayed the interior in the proper series of colors, adding a splash of personality to the otherwise vanilla surfaces.

Tim Stevens for Engadget

That big display is the major talking point, but look a little lower and you’ll spot the world’s largest volume knob situated between the seats. It’s bigger than the iDrive knob on most modern BMWs, yet only controls the output of the 28-speaker Dolby Atmos sound system.

The software interface, meanwhile, looked largely unfinished, little more than a two-row grid of oversized boxes representing apps, settings and car controls. Given the width of the display, vital controls can easily stretch beyond the driver’s reach, leaving you to drag the whole array back to the left to get what you need.

After so many years of seeing what Sony’s first car would really look like, I couldn’t help feeling disappointed when I climbed out. But not nearly as disappointed as I was when looking down the spec sheet again.

There are two trims of Afeela 1, the $89,900 Afeela 1 Origin and $102,900 Signature. The latter has larger wheels (21-inch vs. 19), a rear-seat entertainment system (displays embedded in the headrests plus an HDMI input) and additional cameras. The Origin, meanwhile, is only available in black.

Seriously.

Tim Stevens for Engadget

Why Sony would even think about launching a $90,000 car that is only available in black is beyond me. Spend the $13,000 more for the Signature model, and you still only get three forgettable shades: white, gray and black again.

In the Origin we have a car that costs $20,000 more than a Lucid Air Pure but has considerably less range and slower charging speed. Go for the $102,900 Afeela 1 Signature trim, and you’re now spending more than a Porsche Taycan, which admittedly has less range but looks far better and will almost assuredly be the more engaging drive.

Five years ago, Sony’s vehicular aspirations made for an odd but intriguing project. Now, it all just seems misguided. How will it feel in another 12 months when the first cars start rolling off from Honda’s Ohio factory? That’s anyone’s guess, but I can’t imagine tomorrow’s market will look any more kindly upon this vehicular curiosity.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/sonys-afeela-1-feels-like-a-playstation-4-in-the-ps5-era-184620132.html?src=rss

Tesla has quietly unveiled its facelifted Model Y with new styling that will help it keep up with rivals like Kia and Volvo. Though currently only available in the Asia Pacific region, the refreshed “Juniper” model is likely to appear stateside in the coming months. That was the case with the revised Model 3, which first appeared in Asia in September 2023 and went on sale in the US in January the following year. 

The new Model Y retains the gawky proportions of its predecessor, but looks sleeker thanks to smoothed out front and rear ends. The smaller headlights bookend a slim lightbar across the front, with a similar treatment for the taillights. In the case of the lights, the new design language is more aligned with the Cybertruck than the Model 3. 

Tesla

Many interior treatments on the Model Y are similar to the Model 3, with one notable exception. Like the Model 3, it has new ventilated seats, a rear-seat display and a light strip that wraps around much of the vehicle. However, the new steering wheel lacks the turn signal buttons found on the Model 3 — instead, the Juniper Model Y uses a stalk like its predecessor. Tesla may have done that to keep it competitive with rivals, particularly in China where it’s up against juggernaut rival BYD. 

Tesla is offering rear-wheel drive and long-range all-wheel drive versions in Australia, but no performance option for now. It’s promising up to 342 miles (551 km) of range by the WLTP cycle on the long-range model, or around 307 miles by US EPA standards. However, US models could have different battery specs and thus different range numbers.

Tesla

The new model arrives in good time for Tesla. In 2024, the company saw its first drop in vehicle deliveries since 2012, even though it improved in its key market, China. The redesigned Model Y will start shipping there in March 2025 and is likely to arrive elsewhere in several months, though the company has yet to nail down a date for US deliveries. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/tesla-finally-launches-the-refreshed-2025-model-y-in-the-asia-pacific-region-133010038.html?src=rss

As we finish up our live coverage of all things CES, it’s time to pick the best in show. So many of the new things we saw this year had an AI component, with a noticeable uptick in AR glasses, hearing aid earbuds, solar-powered tech, emotional support robots and robot vacuums. (Why this year, robovacs?)

Our list of CES 2025 winners covers various categories, ranging from typical Engadgety things like PCs, home entertainment and gaming to themed winners in sustainability and accessibility.

In fact, our best-in-show winner was an accessibility pick: the WeWalk Smart Cane 2. A high-tech version of the mobility cane for people who are blind seemed like the best helpful application of AI. With a new voice assistant powered by GPT, users can speak directly to the cane to get navigation guidance, with sensors that alert the user of upcoming obstacles. Since the cane can handle things like turn-by-turn navigation, users don’t have to worry about holding a smartphone while trying to get around.

There were plenty of other winners too. Which laptop beat the rest? Read on for more!

— Mat Smith

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The biggest tech stories you missed

• The CES gadgets you can actually buy right now

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Sony Honda Mobility’s Afeela 1 feels like a PlayStation 4 in the PS5 era

As the EV approaches the finish line, it’s time to get critical.

Engadget

The automotive talk of CES was the Sony Afeela 1 — again. The company has been showing off some variation of this EV for five years at this point. Now, the car is almost ready to launch, and the more specifications we hear, the warier we’re getting. The maximum charge rate of the Afeela 1 is 150 kW for its 91 kWh battery, which provides an estimated 300 miles of range. Compare that to a cheaper Lucid Air, which can charge twice as quickly and cover over 400 miles on a charge, you begin to see the problems. All of this in a car that’s a heady almost-$90,000. The charming Tim Stevens takes Sony Honda Mobility to task — and not just for the company name.

Continue reading.

The weirdest tech of CES 2025

Sloth-koala robots? Sure.

Engadget

We’ve curated all the crazy (and sometimes useful) devices we spotted out in the wild of the show floor at CES. Weird doesn’t necessarily mean bad — it just might not have the might of a multinational corporation… or the desire to change the world. Still, solar sun hat? Yes, please.

Continue reading.

Samsung’s The Frame Pro is a big upgrade for the art TV series

Better screen, a better premise.

Samsung’s The Frame TV lineup was a success. It doesn’t just look like a black box when you’re not using it, but rather blends in with your home decor by showing art on the screen, with a single-cable build that tidies the usual mess of the back of TVs. It inspired many imitators, but Samsung is finally back with a pro iteration. Most importantly, The Frame Pro now has a Neo QLED display — the same Mini LED tech that powers the company’s high-end QN900 series TVs.

Continue reading.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-engadget-newsletter-121506805.html?src=rss