Innovation
Honda 0 Series Updates the Fun of Mobility: Dynamics and Digital UX Developer Discusses New Experience Values
The Honda 0 Series, based on Honda’s new “Thin, Light, and Wise.” EV development approach, aims to create a nimble driving experience that transcends the existing image of EVs, as well as new experience values that will excite everyone who rides in the car.
This article introduces the passion of Honda’s people involved in creating new values in EV mobility at the Honda Tech Meeting 2024 held in October.
Dynamics, Automobile Development Center, Automobile Business View More Close Tatsuya Mori
Digital UX, SDV Business Development Unit, Electric Business Development View More Close Shinji Yasuhara
Easy and fun even for people not used to driving
The Honda 0 Series was developed after reexamining from scratch what kind of EV Honda wants to create in the coming era. The Honda 0 Series aims to create new EV value by freeing the EV from the constraints of being big and heavy due to the increased battery capacity, and large chassis and platform to ensure a long cruising range. Honda calls this new approach to EV development “Thin, Light, and Wise.” Based on its M/M philosophy* that has been an important part of Honda’s manufacturing, Honda will provide the next-generation Joy of Driving that is yet to be offered by conventional EVs.
※M/M (Man maximum, machine minimum) philosophy: A fundamental philosophy behind Honda’s car manufacturing that maximizes space for people while minimizing space required by machinery, to raise space efficiency in cars.
Honda’s EV platform exhibited at Honda 0 Tech Meeting 2024, realizing lighter and smaller new power unit and collision control to drastically reduce weight.
The Honda 0 Series also uses behavior control technology to enhance driving stability, incorporating bipedal robot technology, and chassis technology that effectively utilizes body warping to control tire load during turns, leading to optimal ride comfort. Furthermore, to achieve excellent ride comfort and handling, and comfortable acceleration feel, Honda has evolved electronic control technology for dampers, motor torque control, and tuning of basic suspension geometry.
By combining these advanced technologies with technologies for refining dynamics performance, Honda has pursued an EV driving experience filled with an unprecedented freedom and exhilaration, in which the body and soul become one with the car. Honda aims to provide an experience that, through mobility at will, makes driving and riding in a car more casual and enjoyable, and creates an atmosphere that the occupants would not want to leave.
Mori’s dream at Honda is to “provide an EV that even people who are not confident in driving want to ride in again, and to expand the possibilities of many people’s lifestyles.”
“Able to be done without doing”: New technology that understands the user’s intentions and predicts actions
By applying the knowledge that Honda has amassed to date and by further advancing its intelligent technologies, Honda will realize its own proprietary software-defined vehicle (SDV), in which the car becomes wiser and provides a new mobility experience. Honda is developing this platform from the perspective of how to incorporate the latest IT and digital technologies into cars, and what approaches are necessary to maximize the value of the car. Honda aims to reduce user stress and contribute to the user experience (UX) of the “fun of driving, using, and being connected” by providing optimal functions and services optimized to each individual.
Various types of stress in the cabin cannot be achieved with specific technologies alone, but requires a combined effort of simplifying operations, understanding intentions and predicting behavior through voice and image recognition, and offering personalized suggestions.
E&E architecture for the Honda 0 Series that rapidly provides the latest digital functionality and services
One of the most important development efforts is In-Cabin Agent based on scene understanding using generative AI technology. If, for example, a person is driving for a long time with a pet in the car, the AI can read the facial expressions and gestures of the driver who is concerned about their pet from image recognition and understand the situation. Based on this understanding, the agent can make suggestions such as displaying search results for the nearest pet facilities, or play calming music. We are developing technology that will minimize stress for drivers and passengers, and in the future, through suggestions based on understanding of the user’s intentions and behavioral predictions, we hope to realize a world in which the car is always prepared, and just works, even without user intervention.
In-cabin agent demonstration with dog toy
The joy of driving together, even remotely: Highly immersive ultra-real experience
Honda is also focusing on efforts to utilize technological advances in IT for various functions in cars. When 5G and XR technologies emerged a few years ago, question on how to use the technologies with cars arose within the company. This led to a technology-driven approach to development.
This approach resulted in the form of cross-reality technology that provides a virtual ride-along experience. By attaching cameras to the interior and roof of a moving car, this technology allows people in remote locations to see a real-time 360-degree view from the car using VR goggles, realizing an experience of driving together, from a remote location. This technology also allows for experiences that transcend reality, such as looking from above the roof to see the sky or a ferris wheel from below. Through such digital UX initiatives, Honda aims to create new mobility experience values and also maximize the value of the car.
Demonstration held during Honda 0 Series Tech Meeting 2024. The demonstration connected visitors with Honda employees driving around Yokohama at the same time in a virtual ride-along experience using VR goggles.
We are expanding the possibilities of many exciting new functions, including the virtual ride-along experience. These new values are potential values, which probably won’t become apparent even if we interview customers on what new value they wanted in a car of the future. We would like to create such unprecedented value with free thinking, and turn dreams into reality. We are also developing ideas to increase the value of mobility by freely sharing opinions at work, discussing features that we would want ourselves. After all, Honda is all about how to make the customer happy.
Yasuhara’s dream at Honda is to “make mobility life for many people in the future more enjoyable.”
Responses gained at Honda 0 Tech Meeting 2024, and engineers’ passion on making cars
Mori and Yasuhara shared what they learned, and what they gained, through speaking with visitors at Honda 0 Tech Meeting 2024.
Many people who test-drove the prototype on the new platform with new chassis technology commented that the driving feel was “very nimble and natural, and the handling is very predictable.” Motor journalists, who analyze the driving feel in detail, were also impressed, and we felt that we had succeeded in expressing what we were aiming for.
There were many questions, and many people were interested in our change of chassis development approach from a high rigidity, stiff design to a more relaxed, flexible chassis rigidity, unbound by conventional wisdom. We believe that EVs, which can be precisely controlled, reflect the unique characteristics of the manufacturer, and we will continue our pursuit of easy-to-drive and fun-to-drive dynamics performance.
Our presentation was unprecedented, proposing the creation of new value through digital technology, and I was pleased to see the positive response from the participants, as awareness of SDV has been growing in recent years. We felt that the audience had high expectations for our ideas. In particular, their response to our in-cabin agent that uses generative AI, which is now popular, was particularly strong, with one participant commenting that they realized that incorporating IT technology into cars can cause change and generate new values.
The virtual ride-along experience was also well received by many participants, who call it “typically Honda.” The digital UX field is one that is expected to continue to evolve and change in many ways, and Honda is committed to an approach to thinking and development that will continue to evolve based on feedback from customers, even after we launch the services. Honda is a company with the flexibility and freedom to take on new challenges, and I would like to take advantage of this to create new value that no one has imagined yet.
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Honda is committed to the concept of pursuing a sense of unity in dynamics performance. We also place emphasis on how the customer feels, based on Honda’s human-centric idea, or respect for the Individual, which has been handed down through the generations. We have also pursued an evolved driving feel tailored to EV characteristics, aiming to provide the customer with the joy of being able to freely move beyond their expectations. As EVs run on motors, they offer a high degree of freedom of control, such as how torque is delivered, and because they are quiet, we see them as a blank canvas. What kind of picture can we paint? We will pursue Honda’s uniqueness with our accumulated know-how and new technologies, and refine the ride quality of each 0 series model to satisfy our customers.