A lady drives alongside a bucolic coastal highway at daybreak in her Honda 0 Collection Saloon, which then asks her if she needs to see a “lovely view” someplace. It is aware of her favourite colour, the names of her buddies, what sort of temper she’s in and find out how to maintain her after she’s had a foul day.
In the event you drive a Honda proper now, it would not do any of that. (Nicely, possibly the final one, in case you’re in a Civic Sort R or one thing.) And also you in all probability have not ever thought that it ought to. However Honda—like a lot of the remainder of the automotive business—is banking on a future the place you want, 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 actually need out of their vehicles within the coming years, and may it really be executed? All of that’s exhausting to say.
As anticipated amid its present growth, AI was in all places at CES 2025. Dwelling devices, highly effective new processors and, sure, vehicles. Most of our collective expertise with AI up to now, if we’ve got any, has in all probability been restricted to utilizing ChatGPT to cheat on time period papers, sifting by means of an infinite slop of faux photographs in our social media feeds and fretting for the day when it may take our jobs. However buyers and the tech business writ massive are bullish concerning the methods AI may remodel each manner we work and stay—together with, sure, how we drive.
Picture by: Honda
03 Honda 0 Saloon inside
Honda needs in on this too. The 0 Collection Saloon and SUV could 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 vehicles, that are headed to manufacturing in 2026, are extra than simply Honda’s first fashionable from-the-ground-up EVs—they characterize all of the methods Honda needs to plant its flag on the “mobility” tech of the longer term.
That, in fact, means AI. So what does that imply within the context of a automotive? To Honda, it may be the “engine” that unlocks a whole lot of what makes the 0 Collection particular.
A ‘Private’ Contact
“Our EVs will provide ‘ultra-personal optimization’ by pondering utterly concerning the buyer, and optimizing all particulars together with exact management settings for automobile dynamics,” Honda electrification govt Katsushi Inoue mentioned in his CES keynote speech. “Like a smartphone, varied capabilities of 0 Collection fashions will proceed to advance even after the acquisition. The extra it’s used, the extra personalised it should turn into.”
The “like a smartphone” half is straightforward sufficient to grasp. Proper now, within the U.S. at the least, only a few vehicles actually get higher over time with new options, with Tesla and Rivian main the best way. 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 can’t solely make their vehicles higher that manner but in addition cost for a lot of totally different subscription companies alongside the best way.
Picture by: Honda
“With the utilization of AI and large information, the automobile will be taught the person’s preferences corresponding to music, in addition to the driving force’s behaviors and tendencies whereas driving, and can make varied solutions,” Honda mentioned on the 0 Collection 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 may be 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 might be offline, or too gradual, or jam-packed with individuals or in any other case simply not viable. Proper now, any EV driver in all probability leans on a hodgepodge of apps like ABRP, PlugShare or Tesla’s app to determine that out. Sooner or later, a 0 Collection Honda will kind all of that out for you.
“By incorporating [Amazon Web Services] generative AI and associated applied sciences into Honda clever expertise, and analyzing information obtained from the Honda 0 Collection and the in depth charging community”—on this case, the Tesla Supercharger Community it is natively appropriate with and the Ionna community Honda is a part of—”we are going to present a personalised charging expertise for every particular person when it comes to discovering charging amenities and simplifying fee,” mentioned 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 completely and safely drive itself can be AI’s largest get together trick within the 0 Collection. 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 selections on the highway—particularly the best ones.
The 0 Collection vehicles will intention to come back with so-called Degree 3 automated driving help, that means a human driver can take his or her palms off the wheel and eyes off the highway, whereas being able to intervene if essential. To date the one U.S. vehicles able to true Degree 3 driving are the Mercedes-Benz S-Class and EQS EV, however solely in California and Nevada and solely beneath 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 obtained 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 observe.
Picture by: Honda
Honda 0 Collection 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 embrace “AI that may acknowledge and perceive its environment by itself,” together with various kinds of bushes alongside a highway; turning left whereas avoiding bicyclists and motorcyclists in a crowded metropolis; auto-braking when one other automobile 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 expertise is that it will probably reply appropriately to irregular conditions,” mentioned Steve Frey, the Vice President for Growth Operations at Honda’s North American improvement middle. “Our AD was developed for each potential occasion to make it usable in site visitors environments the place ‘something can occur.’”
That is a giant promise to make. It is the aim that numerous automakers and tech firms alike are chasing, and to imagine the 0 Collection can be prepared to completely 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 undertaking.
“The fact is {that a} general-purpose SoC can’t unlock the total potential of AI software program for the 0 Collection,” 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 Carried out, And Do Individuals Need This?
Picture by: InsideEVs
These are massive guarantees to make at CES, a present identified for giant guarantees. And so they characterize a wholesale transformation by Honda into a brand new type of tech firm, one centered extra on delivering automated driving and personalised app experiences than high-revving engines.
Extra not too long ago, when “conventional” automakers and newcomers alike have tried this, the tip consequence has been product delays or transport incomplete vehicles—or usually, each. It might be exhausting to see an automaker with a blue-chip popularity 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 occurring 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 Collection is due out within the first half of 2026. Within the fashionable automotive business, a yr to 18 months could as properly 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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