Kenichiro Yoshida, Chairman and President of Sony Group, giving a speech at the press conference at the Sony booth at CES2023.
The Sony Group (hereafter Sony G) is doing well, but its business domain is still changing.
Sony Honda Mobility, a joint venture with Honda, unveiled the prototype of the new EV “AFEELA” for the first time in the world last week at the technology show CES 2023 conference held in Las Vegas for the first time in three years. and caused a great deal of discussion.
Kenichiro Yoshida, Chairman and President of Sony G, responded to an exclusive interview at CES2023.
Mr. Yoshida talks about the impact that “Metaverse” and “Mobility” will have on Sony, as well as his future investment strategy.
For Sony, image sensors are “creation semiconductors”
Sony booth at CES2023. Afira’s exhibition always attracted a lot of attention.
“We never thought we would end up building our own cars.”
Seven years ago, in 2016, Mr. Yoshida told me the following while looking back on the vivid impressions he had when he had a meeting with the top of an autonomous driving development company and drove a Tesla.
As a group, Sony is promoting its business under the theme of “expanding emotion.”
Among them, President Yoshida says that he is “emphasizing” the “metaverse (virtual space)” and “mobility (moving space).” Both have something in common, that is, they expand a new activity space for people.
“Metaverse and mobility have a lot in common. That’s the importance of image sensors and game engines.”explains President Yoshida.
Apple CEO Tim Cook also visited Sony Semiconductor’s image sensor factory in Kumamoto in December 2022.
President Yoshida explained to Cook, “Image sensors are creation semiconductors.”he told me.
He argues that this should be compared to “logic semiconductors” such as CPUs and “power semiconductors” such as power supply LSIs, and should be considered as another semiconductor field that will become the core of industry.
“In the Metaverse and mobility (automobiles), eye tracking and image sensors for external recognition are important. Furthermore, they are also used in technologies such as motion capture,” says President Yoshida.
Image sensors are not just “semiconductors that create images,” they are also semiconductors that “create” areas that expand reality and virtual space and connect drivers and mobility.
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Why cars need a game engine
The announcement of Sony Honda Mobility’s “Afira”, which was a big topic at CES 2023, seemed a little strange.
A game engine, as the name suggests, is a fundamental technology for developing games. Sony G has invested in Epic Games, one of the largest companies, and at Sony’s press conference, Epic Games CTO Kim Libreri was on stage.
Epic Games CTO Kim Libreri explained the importance of the game engine at a Sony press conference.
Interestingly, however, Libreri came on stage not when he was talking about the “game business” PlayStation, but when he was talking about cars.
President Yoshida explains why he emphasized the importance of game engines along with automobiles.
“Mobility will change as computing and networks evolve.
User interfaces, like ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems), require full use of computer power. If that’s the case, it’s natural to use a game engine there.” (President Yoshida)
He also points out the following “changes in entertainment.” This perspective, mentioned by Sony’s top management, is important.
“In the past 10 years, the main thing was to enjoy streaming from the network, like video distribution and music. However, from now on, entertainment will rapidly change to real-time CG.” (President Yoshida)
For real-time entertainment, development support with game engines is essential. If Sony is a company involved in entertainment, and even cars are “a place for entertainment,” then it is inevitable that the EV announcement will emphasize the importance of the game engine.
Seven years ago, “I never thought I’d build a car.”
Yoshida, president of Sony G, who responded to an exclusive interview at CES2023.
Looking back, it was in 2014 that Sony G began to appeal that it would “take aggressive measures for automobiles.” At CES 2018, it was announced that they had established cooperative relationships with eight automobile-related companies, including Toyota.
In addition to image sensors for automobiles, from 2022 we will also work on semiconductors for LiDAR, which captures the surrounding environment three-dimensionally with laser light. Both are worlds where Sony’s know-how in the entertainment field, in which it excels, does not apply.In particular, LiDAR is an area where there are voices saying that it is already “excessive competition”is.
“It took some time, but we’re still talking with various companies. Not only image sensors, but also LiDAR, with early support from Denso, the voices around us have changed.” (President Yoshida)
President Yoshida says that the following happened in the early days of the automotive sensor business.
“In 2016, I had a meeting with Amnon Shoshua, president of Mobileye (a developer of ADAS and self-driving technology. Since 2017, under the umbrella of Intel) in connection with the sensor business. When I saw it, I thought, “Oh, this is really going to be an IT (automobile).” (President Yoshida)
Mobileye was one of the companies named in 2018 as a company that supports Sony’s automotive business.
Seven years have passed since then, and Sony will make an EV with Honda.
President Yoshida”Of course, at the time, we had no idea that we would be building our own car.”While laughing at the opening words, he also says, “I really have high hopes for Sony-Honda.”
“If I interpret that (Afira’s) design in my own way, I understand that ‘the car will be designed softly and will be as simple as a smartphone,’ and I think that will happen.” (President Yoshida) )
For creators, “Don’t team up only with Sony”
Sony G is in the business of “from creating excitement to delivering it”.
However, in the meantime, the scope of investment is now rapidly shifting to the “creation” area.
In the background, the aim is not only to sell and provide content to consumers, but also to focus on the business of providing an “environment for creation” to the creators who create the content.
The business related to image sensors and game engines, as mentioned above, is the very core of this.
Equipment and services for creators and film production are the most important items for Sony G.
“We will continue to invest in the content itself and in the creation area,” says President Yoshida.
Hearing that, you might get the impression that they want creators to use Sony’s tools to create content for Sony’s platform.
However, President Yoshida clearly denies this point.
“Right now, I’m saying within the company, ‘You don’t have to partner with Sony alone.’With a synergy-driven (collaboration-oriented) way of thinking, the way of thinking itself becomes a limiting factor for creators.It’s important for us to support creators, so it’s better to be open.
It would be nice if we could do it as a group, but if anything, we’re shifting from synergy-driven to ‘purpose-driven’.” (President Yoshida)
The EV “AFEELA” is also looking for partners for related services and content. This is also due to purpose-driven awareness rather than synergy-driven.
The universe is also a place of “impression”.Satellite launch just in time
EYE, a microsatellite launched by Sony. After a six-floor launch delay, the launch was successful the day before the CES2023 press conference.
There is another interesting thing related to the story that “image sensors are creation semiconductors.”
At the beginning of the press conference, he mentioned the successful launch of the microsatellite “Star Sphere-1 EYE” developed by Sony. EYE was created for the purpose of providing opportunities for individuals to freely take satellite photos and videos from Earth orbit.
It is an ambitious attempt to provide satellite photography and “shooting from space” itself as a kind of entertainment and commercialize it. The service is scheduled to start this spring.
The EYE launch, which was scheduled for the fall of 2022, was postponed six times in advance, and finally passed the year. The final launch date is January 3rd. It turned out to be the day before the presentation.
“I was really worried about whether it would launch without problems,” laughs President Yoshida. As a result, the launch was successful and the satellite is in orbit.
“The challenge has just begun, and we have only achieved small things, but I hope that space will become a place of excitement in the future,” said President Yoshida.
Source: BusinessInsider
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