At first glance, it was nothing unusual when several Audi cars drove around the ‘Speedvegas’ racetrack in Las Vegas back in January 2019. After taking a closer look, it soon became clear that this was not about lap times or top speed. Equipped with VR headsets, the passengers in the rear embarked on an adventure into virtual worlds at the world premiere of holoride¹ technology – at full speed, mind you.
holoride* is now considered one of the leading providers of elastic content, an innovative entertainment format in vehicles. The tech start-up, which was founded in 2018 by Nils Wollny, Marcus Kuehne, Daniel Profendiner and Audi, combines extended reality (XR) content with navigational and motion data of the moving vehicle in real time: if the car takes a right-hand bend, the spaceship (for example) also flies to the right in the virtual world into which people are transported thanks to VR headsets. If the car accelerates, the spaceship also accelerates. These immersive experiences are created by combining physical feedback elements such as acceleration and steering with driving routes and times.
Audi & holoride* at the SXSW
The technology and the fact that Audi is the first automobile manufacturer in the world to bring virtual-reality entertainment from holoride into series production was presented at the South by Southwest (SXSW) music, film and tech festival in Austin, Texas. holoride¹ has close links with South by Southwest and was the winner of the prestigious SXSW Pitch 2021 in the ‘Entertainment, Gaming and Content’ category, along with the ‘Best in Show’ award. The panel discussion explored subjects such as the opportunities presented by digitisation for the future of mobility (pictured left to right.: Panel chairman Cliff Fluent, holoride* CEO Nils Wollny, Pearly Chen from HTC VIVE and Daniel Weissland, president, Audi of America).
Audi will soon be the world’s first automobile manufacturer to offer just such experiences in production vehicles. Selected models will be compatible with holoride* from June 2022. Passengers in the back seat can then experience virtual reality entertainment, films, video games and interactive content from holoride* with the aid of a VR headset – approved for this purpose – and turn their car journey into a multimodal gaming experience, if desired.
This will not only offer new forms of entertainment during journeys in the future – it will also provide opportunities for learning and working on the move. For the users, the interior thus becomes a personal space, while for developers and designers it will increasingly become a centre for exploring conceptual and creative ideas.
