Audi wants to transform the ride experience for back seat passengers. The German luxury marque revealed a new virtual reality platform at the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show on Monday aimed at doing just that.
The VR platform was developed by Audi subsidiary Audi Electronics Venture. Both companies co-founded a new startup company called Holoride that will be responsible for commercializing the technology via an open platform that allows other companies to create content for it. Audi and Holoride will offer their technology to all automakers and content creators in the future.
Audi virtual reality platform, 2019 CES
Through the VR technology, backseat riders can enter into entirely new universes that work in concert with the car. At CES, Audi showed off a VR experience called "Marvel's Avengers: Rocket's Rescue Run." The experience sends riders into a rocket ship in outer space with characters from the "Guardians of the Galaxy" movies.
Audi virtual reality platform, 2019 CES
With the connected car and the VR technology, passengers careen left in the rocket ship when the demo Audi e-tron turns in real life, or experience rocket thrust when the e-tron accelerates. The experience follows all of the e-tron's movements and driver inputs in real time.
Other applications include video games and other adventures, such as pre-historic journeys. Audi imagines riders could interact with the virtual world when the car comes to a stop, too. For example, educational programs could pause a lesson at a stop light and create a pop quiz for users; video games could introduce their own mechanisms to capitalize on the car's pause in motion.
Audi virtual reality platform, 2019 CES
If all of this sounds like a one-way ticket to motion sickness, Audi said that since the visual experience and the user's perception are synchronized, the chance of car sickness is significantly reduced, even when watching conventional movies or presentations.
The Holoride startup plans to create a developer's kit that serves as the interface to the vehicle data and transfers that data into virtual realities. From there, any developer can create their own experience that will surely make its way to some sort of digital marketplace in the future. The goal is to roll out the VR interface, which users will experience through standard VR glasses, in just three years.
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