Honda R&D today announced plans to collaborate with SoftBank Corp. to begin a joint research mobility project on the so-called “emotion engine,” which is an artificial intelligence (AI) technology developed by cocoro SB Corp.
This joint research project with SoftBank will be one of the open innovation initiatives Honda will pursue in the area of artificial intelligence technologies.
This will, allegedly, allow Honda and SoftBank to “enable mobility products to use conversations with the driver,” together with other information obtained from sensors and cameras to “perceive the emotions of the driver and to engage in dialogue with the driver based on the vehicle’s own emotions.”
We are not making this up.
Moreover, by letting mobility products “grow up” while sharing various experiences with their drivers, the project “will strive to enable drivers to experience the feeling that their mobility product has become a good partner and thus form a stronger emotional attachment toward it.”
About Ken Zino
Ken Zino, editor and publisher of AutoInformed, is a versatile auto industry participant with global experience spanning decades in print and broadcast journalism, as well as social media. He has automobile testing, marketing, public relations and communications experience. He is past president of The International Motor Press Assn, the Detroit Press Club, founding member and first President of the Automotive Press Assn. He is a member of APA, IMPA and the Midwest Automotive Press Assn.
He also brings an historical perspective while citing their contemporary relevance of the work of legendary auto writers such as Ken Purdy, Jim Dunne or Jerry Flint, or writers such as Red Smith, Mark Twain, Thomas Jefferson – all to bring perspective to a chaotic automotive universe.
Above all, decades after he first drove a car, Zino still revels in the sound of the exhaust as the throttle is blipped during a downshift and the driver’s rush that occurs when the entry, apex and exit points of a turn are smoothly and swiftly crossed. It’s the beginning of a perfect lap.
AutoInformed has an editorial philosophy that loves transportation machines of all kinds while promoting critical thinking about the future use of cars and trucks.
Zino builds AutoInformed from his background in automotive journalism starting at Hearst Publishing in New York City on Motor and MotorTech Magazines and car testing where he reviewed hundreds of vehicles in his decade-long stint as the Detroit Bureau Chief of Road & Track magazine. Zino has also worked in Europe, and Asia – now the largest automotive market in the world with China at its center.
