Rowdy kids in your car’s backseat have you screaming for the hills? Thanks to the Audi-backed German startup Holoride, you can now turn your car into a roving mobile theme park. And since we love any kind of innovation on wheels, we’ll happily hitch a ride with our VR goggles and hand controller in tow.
The Holoride technology—due out this summer—syncs up data from your car’s journey (e.g., location, speed, steering and acceleration) with fun virtual videos and games for a truly immersive experience. In one example from the Holoride trailer, a backseat passenger is transported to a colorful fantasy land populated by blue and white chickens. As her car stops at a pedestrian crossing in the real world, her virtual world also pauses to let several chickens cross the road (which she quickly zaps with her controller to score points).
Basically, all the movement players feel in-game is actually happening in the real world. The haptic feedback from the real drive makes the virtual experience feel incredibly realistic, according to the Holoride website.
And Holoride is for all ages, too. Passengers can fly over rainforests or enter a virtual office to join a work call—all safely from their car’s backseat. Each experience is different each time you climb into the car. It’s a whole new media format that’s called “elastic content.” The tech even promises to reduce motion sickness by matching what you see with what you feel.
Are we there yet? Are we there yet?