During January 8’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Sony literally pulled up on stage with a new electric vehicle that can be driven with the PlayStation 5’s DualSense controller. The vehicle, named AFEELA and created in partnership with car manufacturer Honda, has a bunch of features that should make driving safer. It also has a bunch of really unnecessary features, like the one seen in a new video where a handful of Fortnite ads are displayed on the dashboard and front bumper—in case you want to be a drivable billboard.
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Over on the AFEELA YouTube channel is a new advertisement for some of the car’s tech. It can do some cool stuff! There’s augmented reality navigation, which overlays a gamified waypoint-like display on the dashboard, and other advanced driver assistance systems to make getting around a city easier. You can hop into the vehicle by scanning your face and unlocking it with a smart entry feature. AFEELA can even automatically park, detecting people and spaces to ensure that the car gets into a spot safely, much like a Tesla can. This all sounds great. Interspersed in the video were several ads for iconic franchises like Sackboy: A Big Adventure, Fortnite, and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
If you fast-forward to the 2:00 mark, you’ll see the dashboard displaying an ad for Fortnite as the camera pans back to then show Across the Spider-Verse. This happens a few times, with clips of Across the Spider-Verse and Sackboy: A Big Adventure running for a few seconds. Around the 3:50 mark, Fortnite pops up again as AFEELA demonstrates what the “Media Bar” (aka the front bumper) can display, which includes a warning sign, the vehicle’s battery life, Across the Spider-Verse, and Horizon Forbidden West, alongside Epic Games’ battle royale shooter.
It’s a very strange innovation, as it immediately calls to mind the mobile digital billboard trucks that drive around New York City streets, blinding everyone in the process. Why you would want your personal vehicle to operate as a drivable billboard for Fortnite is beyond me, but hey! To each their own, as the saying goes. I guess AFEELA isn’t too dissimilar from the cheaper, ad-supported Kindle e-reader.
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AFEELA wasn’t the only new thing Sony revealed at CES. The company showed another round of display plate colors for the PS5 slim, a “spatial” VR headset that seems to mix augmented and virtual reality, and a glimpse at the Gravity Rush film. The company also hyped up The Legend of Zelda live-action movie, saying the project will “deliver an amazing tale of adventure and discovery” when it comes out.
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