Starting in June 2022 Audi vehicles with the automaker’s MIB 3 infotainment software will be capable of running Extended Reality games using VR glasses that interact with the motions of the vehicle they are being used in. The tech, though, is not as frivolous a novelty as it may at first seem.
Audi has partnered with Holoride in order to create the technology that will allow rear-seat passengers to play a VR game while on the move. The game uses technology that adapts to a vehicle’s real-time movements in space and incorporates that into a game. If the car turns right, the spaceship that you’re playing in will also turn right. If the car accelerates, so does the ship.
Holoride, a Munich-based tech startup has called it “Elastic Content” and it can adapt not only to driving movements but to journey times and driving routes as well. Audi will introduce holoride-capabilities in certain MIB 3 equipped vehicles rolling off the line in June, including the A4, A5, A6, A7, A8, Audi Q5, Q7, Q8, Audi e-tron, and the e-tron GT quattro. It will be available in all of Europe, Canada, Japan, China, and the United States, however, the availability of holoride itself varies from market to market and users will need to have their own compatible headset.
Read Also: Audi Demonstrates In-Car VR At CES With Marvel-Themed E-Tron
Previously presented at CES in 2019, the technology was initially shown off as part of a “Guardians of the Galaxy” tie-up. The technology isn’t simply a frivolous way to introduce new Disney-related content, though, as Audi is thinking about the future of “mobility.”
If you’re like me and are prone to motion sickness and can’t, therefore, even read in a car, the concept of autonomous vehicles may sound kind of boring to you. Audi, though, proposes this as a way to entertain the carsick. Since the virtual world moves in sync with the motion of the real car, there’s less of a disconnect to make you sick. Moreover, as Audi focuses on autonomous technology, it’s in its best interests to make it as appealing as possible.
