So money can buy happiness now?

What even is going on here in this car commercial?

Pictured: a car commercial.
Not pictured: what even is going on here.

Honda CEO: "Design electric car."
Engineers: "Electric car: designed."

It's for an electric car made jointly by Honda and Sony in what I think business people call a collab. The preposterously named Afeela 1 is perhaps the world's most boring EV. Which I guess is why the car's technology and not design, is the selling point. It's stuffed with cameras, and sensors and boasts an AI-powered hands-free driving mode which, just on a pedantic note, isn't driving. Like, if your hands aren't on the wheel, I'm fairly certain you can't be said to be driving the car. 

You are that that point a passenger a best, but given the track record of self-driving vehicles, a human crash test dummy for Honda/Sony at worst. 

"Don't think of them as "fatalities," think of them as
customer feedback that helps us improve our product."

-Self-driving car manufacturers

It's basically a diamond
lane for rich people.

Anyway, the point here is that it's a robot car, which brings us to the weird ad I've seen every time I watch something on Youtube. It opens on a man crying in the driver's seat of his car. A disembodied AI voice then informs him that the road is clearing, and asks him if he'd like to take control. Then we're treated to drone shots of a personality-free car speeding down a winding stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway which I'm beginning to think is closed to all traffic except film crew making luxury car commercials.

As he drives, his mood evidently improves as his face breaks into what I can only imagine this car's AI thinks happiness looks like. So I have questions. 

Above: definitely how a human smiles.

Traffic, pedestrians, and ACME-
branded traps laid by coyotes.

Why was he crying at the beginning of the ad? Is it because his car costs $100K? And why does the AI offer to let him take over now that the road is clearing up ahead? It's just weird. Like, the road is completely empty in the wide shots, so what is it cleared of? And secondly, aren't self-driving cars famously bad at dealing with traffic and pedestrians? Shouldn't it offer to drive on the clear stretches where there'r few bike messengers to mow down, and let the human handle the trickier, more litigious traffic? 

"Afeela: purchasing one
literally makes you happier."

-this ad, apparently

Our story ends with the man parking, running his fingers in an alarmingly affectionate caress down the side of the vehicle, and then gazing out at the majesty of nature. The whole thing is just so unnerving. The m'eh design, the artless intercutting between shots of the car, and the man's increasing happiness, and why was he crying? Why? He's clearly doing alright for himself, did I mention the car costs a hundred thousand dollars? I'm not saying money buys happiness, but this commercial sure is.

It just seems like such a bizarre pitch when all they have to say is "our car company isn't owned by an autocratic right-wing repo-baby" and people will flock to their generic EVs.

What is he doing? Just...stop, stop doing that.
Is this...is this why they call it an "Afeela?"