Honda trusts you I want to talk to your car.
The Japanese automaker this week shared new details about its 0 Series, its latest foray into electric vehicles. Two electric vehicles, the 0 Saloon and the 0 SUV, will debut in 2026, with rounded, unconventional styling that whispers future. The electric element is only a small part of the planned innovation, Honda executives promised on stage in CES in Las Vegas. In a presentation during the show, Honda’s head of electrification Katsushi Inoue emphasized the “new level of intelligent vehicle technology” built into the 0 Series.
“Honda’s approach to the art of making things has always been human-centered,” he said, then showed the opposite: a talking robot built into a car.
To show the robot in action, Honda then inspected short video which showed the driver talking intimately with her-a system that lives in her electric car, with a chatbot embodied in a Siri-like animation on the dashboard. “Saloon is my partner, always by my side, opening me up to new experiences and expanding my world,” said the theoretical Saloon driver during the promotional video. “Tell me more about yourself,” said the car. “Of course,” replied the driver.
Series 0 comes with a new operating system, Asimo, named after it Honda’s track-clearing robot from the 1980s. This embedded OS is designed to continuously update its experience according to the driver’s preferences. The system will “enable Honda to provide a personalized ownership experience that will enhance driving pleasure,” the automaker said in a press release.
Indeed, evidence of automakers hoping to reshape drivers’ intimate relationships with their cars was all over Las Vegas.
“That was the theme of the entire CES: You talk to the machine. You’re not connecting with people,” says Jessica Caldwell, Director of Insights at Edmunds. “Everywhere you look, there are robots.”
Many automakers and suppliers have introduced experiences and design updates laser-focused on adapting to driver preferences through software systems and interiors—and finding new ways to keep them happy inside the closed (and perhaps lonely?) cabin.
