Honda, SoftBank begin joint AI research for ‘emotion’ cars

Cutting-edge AI technology is essential for self-driving vehicles. 

Major automakers have been accelerating tie-ups with companies in other industries to implement greater use of AI in vehicles that could one day offer advice on what to wear and even cheer up someone with a broken heart. 

Honda aims to equip its cars with an “emotion engine”, a piece of AI technology developed by a company under the SoftBank umbrella. 

The engine will be a practical application of AI that can “read” a person’s emotions and hold a conversation with them and express its own feelings.

“We can make a product that people can feel affection for,” Yoshiyuki Matsumoto, president of Honda R&D Co, a development subsidiary, said at an event held by SoftBank in Tokyo last. 

At the event, images showed AI being used to understand the preferences and emotions of a woman driver, offering her advice on suitable clothes for the weather and cheering her up when she felt unlucky in love.

Other major automakers have also showcased their technological capacities through engine development and other advances. 

However, they have not made significant advancements with self-driving software that, for example, avoids accidents by predicting the movement of oncoming vehicles and pedestrians.

As a result, these automakers have quickly tried to incorporate AI technology into their vehicles. 

In January, Toyota Motor Corp and Microsoft Corp jointly established a company that will collect and analyse information acquired from vehicles.

In April, Fuji Heavy Industries, the maker of Subaru vehicles, and IBM Japan agreed to collaborate in AI and other fields to speed up the development of advanced driver-assist systems.

Such tie-ups between companies in different industries could increase in the future.