A lady drives alongside a bucolic coastal street 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 deal with her after she’s had a nasty day.
Should you drive a Honda proper now, it does not do any of that. (Properly, possibly the final one, if you happen to’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 trade—is banking on a future the place you want, 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 individuals actually need out of their automobiles within the coming years, and might it truly be completed? All of that’s onerous to say.
As anticipated amid its present increase, AI was in every single place at CES 2025. House devices, highly effective new processors and, sure, automobiles. Most of our collective expertise with AI thus far, if we now have any, has in all probability been restricted to utilizing ChatGPT to cheat on time period papers, sifting via an countless slop of faux photographs in our social media feeds and fretting for the day when it would possibly take our jobs. However traders and the tech trade writ giant are bullish in regards to the methods AI would possibly rework each means 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 Collection 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 fashionable from-the-ground-up EVs—they symbolize 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’ll be the “engine” that unlocks numerous what makes the 0 Collection particular.
A ‘Private’ Contact
“Our EVs will provide ‘ultra-personal optimization’ by pondering fully in regards to the buyer, and optimizing all particulars together with exact management settings for automobile dynamics,” Honda electrification government Katsushi Inoue stated in his CES keynote speech. “Like a smartphone, varied features of 0 Collection fashions will proceed to advance even after the acquisition. The extra it’s used, the extra personalised it should grow to be.”
The “like a smartphone” half is simple sufficient to grasp. Proper now, within the U.S. no less than, 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 suppose they can’t solely make their automobiles higher that means but in addition cost for a lot of totally different subscription companies alongside the way in which.
Picture by: Honda
“With the utilization of AI and large information, the automobile will study the person’s preferences akin to music, in addition to the motive force’s behaviors and tendencies whereas driving, and can make varied ideas,” Honda stated on the 0 Collection web site.
Now, the AI private assistant that understands if 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 remove issues like routing to chargers which can be offline, or too sluggish, 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 type 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 intensive 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 customized charging expertise for every particular person when it comes to discovering charging amenities and simplifying cost,” stated Jay Joseph, American Honda’s Vice President of Sustainability and Enterprise Improvement.
No matter makes public charging higher would definitely be welcome.
Autonomous Driving
Picture by: Honda
Arguably, getting a automotive to completely and safely drive itself can be AI’s greatest celebration 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 a point of superior synthetic intelligence to essentially make command selections on the street—particularly the fitting ones.
The 0 Collection automobiles will goal to come back with so-called Stage 3 automated driving help, which means a human driver can take his or her fingers off the wheel and eyes off the street, whereas being able to intervene if crucial. To date 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 principles 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 follow.
Picture by: Honda
Honda 0 Collection Saloon Driving
So the place does AI are available in? Supposedly, by studying in regards to the many alternative edge circumstances 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 embody “AI that may acknowledge and perceive its environment by itself,” together with various kinds of bushes alongside a street; 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 bit of burst tire on the street.
Picture by: Honda
“The power of our expertise is that it may possibly reply appropriately to irregular conditions,” stated Steve Frey, the Vice President for Improvement Operations at Honda’s North American growth heart. “Our AD was developed for each attainable occasion to make it usable in site visitors environments the place ‘something can occur.’”
That is a giant promise to make. It is the purpose that numerous automakers and tech firms alike are chasing, and to consider the 0 Collection can be prepared to completely obtain all of that when (and if) it goes on sale in 2026 could be to imagine so much. 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 venture.
“The truth is {that a} general-purpose SoC can’t unlock the total potential of AI software program for the 0 Collection,” Frey stated. “If we will understand the total 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 Individuals Need This?
Picture by: InsideEVs
These are large guarantees to make at CES, a present identified for giant guarantees. And so they symbolize a wholesale transformation by Honda into a brand new type of tech firm, one targeted extra on delivering automated driving and personalised app experiences than high-revving engines.
Extra just lately, when “conventional” automakers and newcomers alike have tried this, the top end result has been product delays or delivery incomplete automobiles—or usually, each. It might be onerous 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 seemingly, 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 Collection is due out within the first half of 2026. Within the fashionable automotive trade, a yr 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.
Contact the creator: patrick.george@insideevs.com
