A lady drives alongside a bucolic coastal street at daybreak in her Honda 0 Sequence Saloon, which then asks her if she desires to see a “lovely view” someplace. It is aware of her favourite coloration, the names of her buddies, what sort of temper she’s in and how you can handle her after she’s had a nasty day.
For those who drive a Honda proper now, it would not do any of that. (Properly, possibly the final one, should you’re in a Civic Sort R or one thing.) And also you most likely have not ever thought that it ought to. However Honda—like a lot of the remainder of the automotive trade—is banking on a future the place you will have, and pay for, options powered by synthetic intelligence that can completely redefine the expertise of proudly owning and working a automotive.
However is that what folks really need out of their automobiles within the coming years, and might it really be performed? All of that’s onerous to say.
As anticipated amid its present increase, AI was in all places at CES 2025. Dwelling devices, highly effective new processors and, sure, automobiles. Most of our collective expertise with AI to this point, if we have now any, has most likely been restricted to utilizing ChatGPT to cheat on time period papers, sifting by means of an limitless slop of faux pictures in our social media feeds and fretting for the day when it may take our jobs. However traders and the tech trade writ giant are bullish concerning the methods AI may remodel each means we work and dwell—together with, sure, how we drive.
Picture by: Honda
03 Honda 0 Saloon inside
Honda desires in on this too. The 0 Sequence Saloon and SUV might have made waves for slick, wedge-like designs that boldly present the world that Honda is lastly taking electrical autos severely. However this household of automobiles, that are headed to manufacturing in 2026, are extra than simply Honda’s first trendy from-the-ground-up EVs—they characterize all of the methods Honda desires to plant its flag on the “mobility” tech of the longer term.
That, after all, means AI. So what does that imply within the context of a automotive? To Honda, it may be the “engine” that unlocks quite a lot of what makes the 0 Sequence particular.
A ‘Private’ Contact
“Our EVs will supply ‘ultra-personal optimization’ by pondering fully concerning the buyer, and optimizing all particulars together with exact management settings for car dynamics,” Honda electrification government Katsushi Inoue mentioned in his CES keynote speech. “Like a smartphone, numerous capabilities of 0 Sequence fashions will proceed to advance even after the acquisition. The extra it’s used, the extra customized it’ll turn out to be.”
The “like a smartphone” half is simple sufficient to grasp. Proper now, within the U.S. at the very least, only a few automobiles actually get higher over time with new options, with Tesla and Rivian main the way in which. Most others have struggled deeply with over-the-air software program downloads past navigation system updates and possibly bug fixes. However all of them need to get there as a result of they assume they cannot solely make their automobiles higher that means but in addition cost for a lot of completely different subscription providers alongside the way in which.
Picture by: Honda
“With the utilization of AI and large information, the car will be taught the consumer’s preferences equivalent to music, in addition to the motive force’s behaviors and tendencies whereas driving, and can make numerous recommendations,” Honda mentioned on the 0 Sequence web site.
Now, the AI private assistant that understands while you’re having a crappy day like within the video above might sound like a troublesome promote in 2025—possibly folks will need it, however possibly they will not. (We do have a loneliness epidemic throughout almost the entire world.)
Picture by: InsideEVs
A Higher Charging Expertise
However there’s yet one more tangible space the place Honda hopes AI will make the EV possession expertise a lot better: charging. Principally, it hopes to lean on AI to remove issues like routing to chargers which can be offline, or too sluggish, or jam-packed with folks or in any other case simply not viable. Proper now, any EV driver most likely leans on a hodgepodge of apps like ABRP, PlugShare or Tesla’s app to determine that out. Sooner or later, a 0 Sequence Honda will kind all of that out for you.
“By incorporating [Amazon Web Services] generative AI and associated applied sciences into Honda clever know-how, and analyzing information obtained from the Honda 0 Sequence and the in depth charging community”—on this case, the Tesla Supercharger Community it is natively suitable with and the Ionna community Honda is a part of—”we are going to present a customized charging expertise for every particular person when it comes to discovering charging amenities and simplifying cost,” mentioned Jay Joseph, American Honda’s Vice President of Sustainability and Enterprise Improvement.
No matter makes public charging higher will surely be welcome.
Autonomous Driving
Picture by: Honda
Arguably, getting a automotive to totally and safely drive itself can be AI’s greatest occasion trick within the 0 Sequence. Tesla, after all, is leaning on AI too to make Full Self-Driving a actuality (maybe, as many critics say, to a fault.) However each automaker will want some extent of superior synthetic intelligence to actually make command selections on the street—particularly the proper ones.
The 0 Sequence automobiles will goal to return with so-called Stage 3 automated driving help, which means a human driver can take his or her palms off the wheel and eyes off the street, whereas being able to intervene if needed. Up to now the one U.S. automobiles able to true Stage 3 driving are the Mercedes-Benz S-Class and EQS EV, however solely in California and Nevada and solely below very particular circumstances. (Maybe pushed by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the incoming Trump administration is looking for to modernize and federalize the foundations round autonomous automotive testing.)
However Honda received there first in Japan with the Legend sedan in 2021, though that system was additionally restricted to below-highway speeds and not particularly spectacular in apply.
Picture by: Honda
Honda 0 Sequence Saloon Driving
So the place does AI are available? Supposedly, by studying concerning the many alternative edge instances and nuances concerned with driving, similar to a human can—besides higher, as a result of there can be no level in any other case. Some examples Honda gave embody “AI that may acknowledge and perceive its environment by itself,” together with various kinds of timber alongside a street; turning left whereas avoiding bicyclists and motorcyclists in a crowded metropolis; auto-braking when one other car cuts into the automotive’s lane; and detecting and avoiding a chunk of burst tire on the street.
Picture by: Honda
“The energy of our know-how is that it will probably reply appropriately to irregular conditions,” mentioned Steve Frey, the Vice President for Improvement Operations at Honda’s North American improvement heart. “Our AD was developed for each attainable occasion to make it usable in visitors environments the place ‘something can occur.’”
That is an enormous promise to make. It is the aim that numerous automakers and tech firms alike are chasing, and to consider the 0 Sequence can be prepared to totally obtain all of that when (and if) it goes on sale in 2026 can be to imagine loads. However the automotive will include some potent {hardware}: a “system on a chip” (SoC) from Japanese tech firm Renesas that is tailor-made particularly to this mission.
“The truth is {that a} general-purpose SoC can’t unlock the total potential of AI software program for the 0 Sequence,” Frey mentioned. “If we are able to notice the total potential of this ultra-high-performance SoC, we are able to run [autonomous driving], dynamics, vitality administration and extra on a single chip.”
Can It Be Completed, And Do Folks Need This?
Picture by: InsideEVs
These are large guarantees to make at CES, a present recognized for giant guarantees. They usually characterize a wholesale transformation by Honda into a brand new type of tech firm, one targeted extra on delivering automated driving and customized app experiences than high-revving engines.
Extra lately, when “conventional” automakers and newcomers alike have tried this, the top outcome has been product delays or transport incomplete automobiles—or usually, each. It might be onerous to see an automaker with a blue-chip repute for high quality like Honda need to do the latter, so if it runs into points, the previous is extra possible, particularly as that is Honda’s first actual foray into the reinvention of the automotive that is taking place proper now. And what’s extra, the far-off guarantees of AI have, as I write this in 2025, stayed largely conceptual.
However the 0 Sequence is due out within the first half of 2026. Within the trendy automotive trade, a yr to 18 months might as nicely be 10 years. We’ll quickly see what Honda can ship right here, and what function AI will actually play in it. And one factor is for sure: the AI-in-car wars are simply getting began.
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