A girl drives alongside a bucolic coastal highway at daybreak in her Honda 0 Sequence Saloon, which then asks her if she needs to see a “stunning view” someplace. It is aware of her favourite colour, the names of her buddies, what sort of temper she’s in and methods to maintain her after she’s had a foul day.
For those who drive a Honda proper now, it would not do any of that. (Nicely, possibly the final one, should you’re in a Civic Kind 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 may completely redefine the expertise of proudly owning and working a automotive.
However is that what individuals really need out of their automobiles within the coming years, and might it truly be accomplished? All of that’s laborious to say.
As anticipated amid its present growth, AI was in every single place at CES 2025. Dwelling devices, highly effective new processors and, sure, automobiles. Most of our collective expertise with AI to this point, if we’ve got any, has most likely been restricted to utilizing ChatGPT to cheat on time period papers, sifting by means of an limitless slop of pretend pictures in our social media feeds and fretting for the day when it may take our jobs. However traders and the tech trade writ massive are bullish concerning the methods AI may rework each manner we work and dwell—together with, sure, how we drive.
Picture by: Honda
03 Honda 0 Saloon inside
Honda needs in on this too. The 0 Sequence Saloon and SUV could have made waves for slick, wedge-like designs that boldly present the world that Honda is lastly taking electrical automobiles critically. 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 symbolize all of the methods Honda needs to plant its flag on the “mobility” tech of the long run.
That, in fact, means AI. So what does that imply within the context of a automotive? To Honda, it should be the “engine” that unlocks a variety of what makes the 0 Sequence particular.
A ‘Private’ Contact
“Our EVs will supply ‘ultra-personal optimization’ by considering utterly concerning the buyer, and optimizing all particulars together with exact management settings for car dynamics,” Honda electrification government Katsushi Inoue stated in his CES keynote speech. “Like a smartphone, numerous features of 0 Sequence fashions will proceed to advance even after the acquisition. The extra it’s used, the extra personalised it’s going to grow to be.”
The “like a smartphone” half is simple sufficient to know. Proper now, within the U.S. no less than, only a few automobiles really 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 wish to get there as a result of they suppose they can’t solely make their automobiles higher that manner 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 person’s preferences equivalent to music, in addition to the driving force’s behaviors and tendencies whereas driving, and can make numerous strategies,” Honda stated 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 could sound like a tricky promote in 2025—possibly individuals will need it, however possibly they will not. (We do have a loneliness epidemic throughout practically 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. Mainly, it hopes to lean on AI to eradicate issues like routing to chargers which are offline, or too sluggish, or jam-packed with individuals 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 type 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’ll present a personalised charging expertise for every particular person by way of discovering charging amenities and simplifying cost,” stated Jay Joseph, American Honda’s Vice President of Sustainability and Enterprise Growth.
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 largest occasion trick within the 0 Sequence. Tesla, in fact, 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 essentially make command choices on the highway—particularly the best ones.
The 0 Sequence automobiles will intention to come back with so-called Stage 3 automated driving help, that means a human driver can take his or her fingers off the wheel and eyes off the highway, whereas being able to intervene if essential. Thus far 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 in search of to modernize and federalize the principles round autonomous automotive testing.)
However Honda bought 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 follow.
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 could be no level in any other case. Some examples Honda gave embrace “AI that may acknowledge and perceive its environment by itself,” together with various kinds of timber alongside a highway; 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 highway.
Picture by: Honda
“The energy of our know-how is that it could reply appropriately to irregular conditions,” stated Steve Frey, the Vice President for Growth Operations at Honda’s North American improvement middle. “Our AD was developed for each attainable occasion to make it usable in visitors environments the place ‘something can occur.’”
That is a giant promise to make. It is the aim that numerous automakers and tech corporations alike are chasing, and to imagine the 0 Sequence can be prepared to totally obtain all of that when (and if) it goes on sale in 2026 could be to imagine quite a bit. 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 undertaking.
“The truth is {that a} general-purpose SoC can’t unlock the complete potential of AI software program for the 0 Sequence,” Frey stated. “If we will notice the complete potential of this ultra-high-performance SoC, we will run [autonomous driving], dynamics, vitality administration and extra on a single chip.”
Can It Be Performed, And Do Folks Need This?
Picture by: InsideEVs
These are huge guarantees to make at CES, a present identified for giant guarantees. And so they symbolize a wholesale transformation by Honda into a brand new sort of tech firm, one centered extra on delivering automated driving and personalised 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 delivery incomplete automobiles—or usually, each. It might be laborious to see an automaker with a blue-chip repute for high quality like Honda wish to do the latter, so if it runs into points, the previous is extra doubtless, 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 12 months to 18 months could as effectively be 10 years. We’ll quickly see what Honda can ship right here, and what position 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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