Not long ago, there were only a handful of options for people riding in the backseat of a car to fight off boredom. You could either look out the window for hours on end, read a book or sleep. But the modern day world offers a lot more distractions.
Since the rise of personal gadgets and screens, the experience of a ride in the backseat has forever changed. This didn’t happen long ago, and yet another major transformation is just around the corner.
At the beginning of the year at the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Audi presented the holoride backseat virtual entertainment system. A technology that places the user in a virtual world adapts to the driving time, motion and context of the real world.
This week, at the Startup Autobahn Expo Day in Stuttgart, holoride was presented in Porsche cars as well, with some improvements.
holoride consists of a virtual reality headset and sensors that pair to the vehicle itself. This way, whatever happens in the virtual world is a reaction to the car’s movements in the real one. If the car turns left, a space shuttle in VR does the same. If it accelerates, the shuttle does it too. And so on.
This type of interaction between real and virtual is said to help reduce motion sickness. But in the future, it could do a lot more. holoride plans to better its technology to allow, for instance, the playback of films or even the hosting of virtual conferences.
"A new dimension for in-car entertainment is opened up by holoride,” said in a statement Anja Mertens, Porsche manager for smart mobility.
“The manufacturer-independent approach convinced us from the start and, over the past few weeks, the team has proven what this technology can do. We look forward to taking the next steps together.”
The holoride VR system is still in development, but the company plans to have it ready for the market within three years.
At the beginning of the year at the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Audi presented the holoride backseat virtual entertainment system. A technology that places the user in a virtual world adapts to the driving time, motion and context of the real world.
This week, at the Startup Autobahn Expo Day in Stuttgart, holoride was presented in Porsche cars as well, with some improvements.
holoride consists of a virtual reality headset and sensors that pair to the vehicle itself. This way, whatever happens in the virtual world is a reaction to the car’s movements in the real one. If the car turns left, a space shuttle in VR does the same. If it accelerates, the shuttle does it too. And so on.
This type of interaction between real and virtual is said to help reduce motion sickness. But in the future, it could do a lot more. holoride plans to better its technology to allow, for instance, the playback of films or even the hosting of virtual conferences.
"A new dimension for in-car entertainment is opened up by holoride,” said in a statement Anja Mertens, Porsche manager for smart mobility.
“The manufacturer-independent approach convinced us from the start and, over the past few weeks, the team has proven what this technology can do. We look forward to taking the next steps together.”
The holoride VR system is still in development, but the company plans to have it ready for the market within three years.