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Seven things I learned about the Sony car while playing Gran Turismo inside one

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You know how Sony’s making a electric car with Honda that’s coming in 2026? Sony Honda Mobility is now letting journalists seriously touch its Afeela prototype — and play with a Gran Turismo video game version of the car while sitting inside the actual machine.

That’s why I drove to PlayStation’s North American headquarters last week, to try an Afeela inside an Afeela and touch the things we couldn’t touch before. But I got a bit more than I bargained for!

Here’s my quick 50-second video of the experience, and a short list of the new things I’ve learned.

1) Don’t expect test drives anytime soon.

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No, before you ask, they didn’t let me drive the actual Sony Honda car. I grabbed the wheel and pushed the pedals, but they did nothing — in game or otherwise. “We will provide journalists with the opportunity to test drive as soon as possible in line with the vehicle development schedule,” reads a statement from Sony Honda Mobility via third-party spokesperson Glenn Mandel.

I’m hearing test drives aren’t coming this year — next year is possible — but it might even be 2026 before a journalist gets behind a working wheel.

2) There’s now a physical button to let you open the door.

There used to be two ways to open the prototype’s door from outside. You could press a button in the Afeela’s smartphone app, or let a camera system open it for you after it recognizes your face. The latest prototype has a third method, though: a physical button mounted underneath the window that can send the same signal. I pressed it, and it worked great. Sony Honda is still deciding how to authenticate you, though — reps couldn’t say if it would use a keyfob or some sort of digital car key like UWB to know it’s you nearby.

That’s me pressing the door opening button. Not clear what the strip above it is.
Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge
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3) The Afeela won’t let a driver see what’s on the passenger’s screen.

The Afeela’s extra-wide screen is one of its most striking features, but Sony Honda doesn’t plan to let the driver see the entire thing while in motion. Instead, it’ll use some sort of privacy filter to wall off the passenger’s section of screen so they can continue to watch without distracting the driver.

“Specifications for mass production have not yet been decided, but we plan to install a mechanism that cannot be seen from the driver’s side while driving so that the driver can drive safely,” SHM tells us.

4) There probably won’t be an actual PS5 inside.

I played Gran Turismo 7 on the Afeela’s screen, streaming wirelessly from a nearby PS5 using Sony’s PS Remote Play app. There isn’t an actual PS5 console in the car, and there’s currently no plan to change that. In January, Sony Honda Mobility president and COO Izumi Kawanishi told me it was still undecided whether a real PS5 would appear, but SHM is now “assuming remote play instead of installing a PS5 console.”

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It’s also not clear if you’ll be able to use the Afeela’s own steering wheels and pedals to play anything.

5) The Afeela’s “personal agent” might prompt you with questions.

Sony Honda inked a deal with Microsoft last year to create a “conversational personal agent” for the car, and while there’s no firm details yet on what that actually means, I’m hearing the goal is for the car’s AI to prompt you with questions after attempting to anticipate your needs.

“We are considering the possibility of two-way communication between people and cars, and we are also developing an interactive personal agent using Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service in collaboration with Microsoft,” writes SHM when I ask. “We believe that since it will grow depending on the user, we will be able to communicate according to the user’s preferences.”

6) There’s a good reason Sony Honda didn’t let us touch the car at CES.

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I go over this in the video, but many pieces of the prototype are currently just mockups, not functional yet. That includes fancy things like the digital side mirrors and rear view mirrors, but also mundane bits like turn signal stalks, sun visors, glove and storage compartments, and most parts of the touchscreen user experience.

I could scroll around a map of Las Vegas, but couldn’t tap on any of the pins; I could scrub through a playing video and sling it to the driver’s or passenger’s side of the screen with a gesture, but couldn’t fire up a lot of other features on the touchscreen or in the companion smartphone app. I’m not dinging SHM, though; Sony Honda has been completely transparent that this is a prototype, and has a couple more years to figure it all out.

7) The Afeela doesn’t necessarily need to be a rolling Sony ad.

Yes, the current prototype has a ridiculous digital billboard across its front bumper that displays Sony properties like Spider-Man and Horizon Forbidden West, and lets you tune the car’s digital motor sound with noises inspired by Sony properties up to and including the Crunchyroll anime streaming service. But a spokesperson tells me Sony Honda is looking to partner with non-Sony entities too — and I was able to display any text I liked on the bumper screen just by typing it into the phone app.

The prototype Afeela’s screen can display text of your choice.
Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge
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I chose “The Verge,” of course.

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About the Author

Akinwumi Ajadi

Akinwumi Ajadi is a passionate blogger and technology enthusiast specializing in the information technology niche. With a keen eye for the latest trends and innovations, Akinwumi delivers insightful, engaging, and practical content to help readers navigate the ever-evolving world of tech. From software development to cybersecurity, Akinwumi's expertise spans a wide range of topics, making complex concepts accessible to both novice and experienced tech enthusiasts alike.

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Here’s an alleged Pixel 9 in a vibrant pink [Video]

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Google is releasing the Pixel 9 series very early, and right on cue the leaks are coming. In a first leaked video, we’re getting a look at a surprisingly vibrant Pixel 9 in a pink color.

It’s almost inevitable for every Pixel to leak in a hands-on video ahead of its launch, and that’s what it seems we’re now seeing for the Pixel 9.

A leaked video posted by @hanibioud on Twitter/X supposedly shows the Pixel 9 in a bright pink color. The device is supposedly from Algeria and is claimed to have 256GB of storage.

Focusing in on the color, it’s way brighter than any color we’ve seen in recent years outside of the A-Series, but matches the leaked “Peony” color that first surfaced back in May. The color is unusually vibrant for Google’s flagship lineup. As mentioned, we’ve not seen a color this vibrant on a Pixel outside of the A-Series since 2019’s Pixel 4 (with its delightful “Oh So Orange”).

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The design, of course, lines up perfectly with past leaks, with the device having flat edges and a glossy back, just like we’ve seen previously. This model also has two cameras, unlike what the similarly-sized Pixel 9 Pro is expected to have.

We’re taking this video with a grain of salt, but the user posting images claims we’ll hear more details tomorrow.

More on Pixel 9:

H/T Mishaal, Brandon

Follow Ben: Twitter/X, Threads, and Instagram

Update: Removed speculation over date.

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About the Author

Akinwumi Ajadi

Akinwumi Ajadi is a passionate blogger and technology enthusiast specializing in the information technology niche. With a keen eye for the latest trends and innovations, Akinwumi delivers insightful, engaging, and practical content to help readers navigate the ever-evolving world of tech. From software development to cybersecurity, Akinwumi's expertise spans a wide range of topics, making complex concepts accessible to both novice and experienced tech enthusiasts alike.

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The first Thunderbolt 5 cables are here, but there’s barely anything to plug in

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Available today from Amazon in 1-foot (0.3m), 1.6-foot (0.5m), and 3.3-foot (1m) lengths for $23, $27, and $33, respectively, the new cables obviously don’t do anything on their own — you’d need a computer with a Thunderbolt 5 port and a dock or accessory of some sort to get some real use out of it.

But as of today, the only laptop we’ve heard of with a Thunderbolt 5 port is the Razer Blade 18, and even there, it’s not guaranteed. You’d have to buy the $4,500 Mercury edition of the laptop to get that port. (You do also get an Intel i9 and a mobile RTX 4090 for the money.)

A Razer Blade 18 at CES with a Thunderbolt 5 port.
Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

And unless you own two of those laptops, there’s still probably nothing special you can do with a Thunderbolt 5 cable as of today because the peripherals we saw at CES aren’t yet ready: Belkin, J5Create, OWC, and Sabrent do not yet list any of those Thunderbolt 5 products on their websites, and Hyper still shows its $400 dock as being out of stock with a “Sign up to be notified” button.

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But if you do have two of the exact same $4,500 Razer laptops, could you use Thunderbolt Share to transfer files between them at ludicrous speed? Inquiring minds want to know. If not, I suppose you could use it as a USB4 / Thunderbolt 4 cable for now.

According to Cable Matters’ press release, its cable is manufactured by Lintes, the same company that provided the prototype cable we saw at CES.

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About the Author

Akinwumi Ajadi

Akinwumi Ajadi is a passionate blogger and technology enthusiast specializing in the information technology niche. With a keen eye for the latest trends and innovations, Akinwumi delivers insightful, engaging, and practical content to help readers navigate the ever-evolving world of tech. From software development to cybersecurity, Akinwumi's expertise spans a wide range of topics, making complex concepts accessible to both novice and experienced tech enthusiasts alike.

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Instagram’s ‘Made with AI’ label swapped out for ‘AI info’ after photographers’ complaints

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On Monday, Meta announced that it is “updating the ‘Made with AI’ label to ‘AI info’ across our apps, which people can click for more information,” after people complained that their pictures had the tag applied incorrectly. Former White House photographer Pete Souza pointed out the tag popping up on an upload of a photo originally taken on film during a basketball game 40 years ago, speculating that using Adobe’s cropping tool and flattening images might have triggered it.

“As we’ve said from the beginning, we’re consistently improving our AI products, and we are working closely with our industry partners on our approach to AI labeling,” said Meta spokesperson Kate McLaughlin. The new label is supposed to more accurately represent that the content may simply be modified rather than making it seem like it is entirely AI-generated.

The problem seems to be the metadata tools like Adobe Photoshop apply to images and how platforms interpret that. After Meta expanded its policies around labeling AI content, real-life pictures posted to platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Threads were tagged “Made with AI.”

You may see the new labeling first on mobile apps and then the web view later, as McLaughlin tells The Verge it is starting to roll out across all surfaces.

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Once you click the tag, it will still show the same message as the old label, which has a more detailed explanation of why it might have been applied and that it could cover images fully generated by AI or edited with tools that include AI tech, like Generative Fill. Metadata tagging tech like C2PA was supposed to make telling the difference between AI-generated and real images simpler and easier, but that future isn’t here yet.

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Akinwumi Ajadi

Akinwumi Ajadi is a passionate blogger and technology enthusiast specializing in the information technology niche. With a keen eye for the latest trends and innovations, Akinwumi delivers insightful, engaging, and practical content to help readers navigate the ever-evolving world of tech. From software development to cybersecurity, Akinwumi's expertise spans a wide range of topics, making complex concepts accessible to both novice and experienced tech enthusiasts alike.

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