Category: Audi

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Audi Cars to Gain holoride VR Entertainment This Summer

The idea of holoride’s in-car virtual reality (VR) entertainment system was always an interesting one, albeit one that seemed a little way off. Things have certainly stepped up a gear in 2022 with the company revealing a partnership with HTC Vive last month, and now confirmation that the first cars to be holoride compatible will be select Audi’s this summer.

holoride - Audi
Image credit: Audi

The rollout will begin in June 2022, coming to models featuring Audi’s third-generation modular infotainment toolkit (MIB 3) in Germany, the UK and the US initially. Those models will include the Audi A4, A5, A6, A7, A8, Audi Q5, Q7, Q8, Audi e-tron and Audi e-tron GT Quattro, expanding into further European, Canadian, Japanese and Chinese markets later on.

Holoride’s technology means that backseat passengers can put on a VR headset like the Vive Flow glasses and enjoy videogames, films and other interactive content. What makes the holoride experience slightly different from simply using any old VR headset in a car is its “elastic content”. This adapts to not only the movement of a car in real-time but also journey time and driving route. 

So imagine you’re on a VR rollercoaster or in a spaceship, as the car accelerates so too does the ship or as the car turns a corner the spaceship does likewise. In this fashion, holoride claims that motion sickness should be reduced to a minimum.

holoride - Audi
Image credit: Audi

And the system is completely wireless as well, with no cables running from the drivers’ console to the rear, all thanks to Bluetooth. The holoride system won’t support every Bluetooth-enabled VR headset, only those specifically enabled like Vive Flow.

No surprise really that Audi would be the first car manufacturer to feature this in-car entertainment experience, it was Audi that first envisioned the idea. Holoride was then spun out as a startup to further develop the technology for different manufacturers. The first example was an in-car Marvel VR experience during CES 2019.

The very latest version of holoride is being demoed at SXSW this week in Austin, Texas. For further updates on the latest innovative use cases for VR, keep reading gmw3.

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Holoride Secures $12M Funding to Create Immersive in-car VR Experiences

Holoride, the Audi co-founded startup aiming to inject immersive VR and AR into everyday car travel, announced it’s raised a €10 million (~$12 million) Series A investment round.

The company first unveiled its tech back at CES 2019, showing off its platform which integrates a car’s movement with a VR content. The idea is backseat passengers can use a VR headset whilst playing videos and games that are synced-up with the vehicle’s movement, something that aims to not only be fun, but also a comfortable experience since all of the movement you’re feeling in-game is also happening in the physical world.

The round was led by Terranet AB, developers of advanced driver-assistance software (ADAS). Other co-investors include Multi-Dimensional Connectivity (MDC) Limited, Schell Games, Audi, and a group of Chinese financial and automotive technology investors organized by investment professional Jingjing Xu.

The company says it’s using the fresh funding to acquire more talent, attract more content creators, and prepare for its international launch starting next year. The latest round brings the company’s estimated valuation to €30 million (~$36 million).

Terranet, a creator of advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), says it will work with Holoride to “enhance the real-time, in-car XR experience by incorporating aspects of its versatile sensor tech software to ensure precision, speed, and intelligence as vehicles move safely and quickly through their environments.”

Pär-Olof Johannesson, CEO of Terranet, will also be joining Holoride’s advisory board as part of the deal.

The post Holoride Secures $12M Funding to Create Immersive in-car VR Experiences appeared first on Road to VR.

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Audi’s 3D virtual office more than helpful during COVID 19 pademic

Employees using their avatars on Audi Spaces, which enables learning, collaboration, and working together. (Image courtesy Audis.)

Many companies have switched to virtual offices and Zoom meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic, but some are going a step further, into immersive 3D office environments, similar to that of Second Life or OpenSim.

Auto manufacturer Audi, for example, has rolled out Audi Spaces, a virtual 3D version of Audi’s actual working environment. More than 4,000 Audi employees can use it to work, meet, learn, and collaborate in more than 200 events each month.

It’s a sign of how effective virtual spaces can be for companies during times of crisis, Audi Spaces project manager Patrick Zobisch told Hypergrid Business.

“Audi Spaces was developed and implemented to increase the quality and flexibility of the training offerings at Audi,” he said. “Audi Spaces can be used for training and coaching, but also for collaboration and working together from a safe distance.”

Employees use it alongside other tools by the company such as Audi Akademie for learning and Audi IT, a support and advice platform.

Using Audi Spaces, employees can learn and attend training or coaching virtually (Image courtesy Audi.)

Video conferencing happens at the expense of a sense of a community among workers, he said, and these tools can also be impersonal, and the level of attention can decline over time. “Audi Spaces is much more interactive than ordinary video conferencing sessions and encourages active participation through the use of immersion provided by avatars. Full-day sessions are therefore much more entertaining and concentration can be maintained for longer.”

Employees using the software described the experience of using the software as more close to reality and more relaxing and less tiring than other video-based meeting and conferencing tools, according to a company’s press release.

However, users need to learn how to use this software, Zobisch said, adapt their event to Audi Spaces, and choose which interactions to move to the new platform.

The tool is helpful for interactive and innovative workshops and trainings and not so helpful for lectures that last for several hours, he said. “For some employees it is a big change,” he said, “But even employees with no previous knowledge can cope with it very quickly.”

It is not the first time Audi is using virtual technologies. Last year, the company launched a virtual reality experience for its dealerships, which allows customers to test drive and explore its models virtually and explore mechanical features of their cars virtually using virtual reality headsets before buying, and the company also uses this technology to showcase its auto offerings in trade fairs and shows.

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Holoride to Offer Immersive in-car VR Experience to the Public This Month

Holoride, the Munich-based startup co-founded by Audi that looks to change everyday travel by injecting VR into the passenger’s experience, is offering free rides in Los Angeles starting this week to demonstrate the technology to the public.

Unveiled back at CES earlier this year, Holoride is a platform that essentially integrates the car’s movement into VR content, letting backseat passengers view video, and play games and experiences using a VR headset.

To that effect, the company announced its demoing its service to the public for free for a limited time, starting on October 14th and going through November 9th. If you’re in the LA area, or plan to be during that time, you can sign up here.

Although previously shown in an Audi e-tron SUV showcasing IP from Disney’s Marvel franchise, this time the start-up has partnered with Ford and Universal Pictures.

Created in partnership with Universal, the spooky game Bride of Frankenstein will be offered to holoriders aboard the new 2020 Ford Explorer; the game tasks you with fighting off creepy creatures of the night on the 10-minute adventure.

Image courtesy Holoride, Ford

One of the advertised benefits of the platform is its ability to lessen the chance of motion sickness, which occurs when a VR user perceives motion that doesn’t match up with what they expect. For this public test, the creators advise users already prone to motion sickness and dizziness not to risk it though.

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Apple AR Headset FOV, Codename, and Stereoscopic Rendering Mode Reportedly Found in iOS 13.1

The company said back at CES 2019 that it intends on launching its integrated VR system within the next three years using standard VR headsets for backseat passengers. The company maintains that the long-term roadmap could see things like traffic events becoming a part of the experience, i.e. if you stop at a traffic light you could encounter unexpected obstacles in a game or interrupt a learning program with a quick quiz.

Since this month’s public demo will conducted on actual city streets, and not the race track used back at CES, it will be interesting to see just how far the company has come on their mission to integrate their system into real-world driving conditions.

The post Holoride to Offer Immersive in-car VR Experience to the Public This Month appeared first on Road to VR.

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Audi-founded Startup to Bring VR to Passengers Looking for Relief from Boredom & Motion Sickness

Using VR in the car sounds like a great way to kill some time on long road trips, but there’s a few factors that may stop you from strapping a headset to your face while in the passenger’s seat—namely motion sickness, unexpected turning, and lack of compelling content. Audi wants to change this with a new technology unveiled at CES this week.

The carmaker has co-founded a start-up named holoride which is commercializing a platform that’ll integrate the car’s movement into VR content, letting backseat passengers view video, and play games and experiences using a VR headset. The platform is slated to be open, and available to all carmakers and content developers in the future, the company says.

Audi and holoride are demoing the VR implementation using an Avengers-themed experience called Marvel Avengers: Rocket’s Rescue Run, an in-car VR experience for backseat passengers built by Disney Games and Interactive Experiences.

“Wearing VR glasses, the passenger in an Audi e-tron is transported into a fantastical depiction of outer space: The Audi e-tron now functions as the ship manned by the Guardians of the Galaxy, as the passenger makes their way through an asteroid field together with Rocket, a character that will appear in Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Endgame in spring 2019. Every movement of the car is reflected in the experience in real time. If the car turns a tight corner, the player curves around an opposing spaceship in virtual reality. If the Audi e-tron accelerates, the ship in the experience does the same.”

The startup will provide a software development kit that they say “serves as the interface to the vehicle data and transfers those into virtual realities, allowing developers to create worlds that can be experienced in-car with all of the senses,” the company says in a press statement.

Image courtesy Audi, holoride

One of the advertised benefits to this system is less chance of motion sickness, which occurs when a VR user perceives motion that doesn’t match up with what they expect. Audi says the visual experience and the user’s actual perception are synchronized, making conventional movies, TV or presentations capable of being viewed with what they call “a significantly reduced chance of motion sickness.”

SEE ALSO
Apple Shows VR Could Help Fight Motion Sickness & Boredom in Self-driving Cars

“Audi, Marvel and Disney Games and Interactive Experiences are celebrating Marvel Studios’ 10th anniversary with an Avengers experience that combines world class content and innovative technology,” said Mike Goslin, Vice President, Disney Games and Interactive Experiences. “While this CES demo was developed purely in the spirit of exploration and experimentation, we are constantly evaluating emerging technologies to enhance our stories and experiences.”

Audi’s co-founded startup holoride intends to launch its integrated VR system within the next three years using standard VR headsets for backseat passengers. The company maintains that the long-term roadmap could see things like traffic events becoming a part of the experience, i.e. if you stop at a traffic light you could encounter unexpected obstacles in a game or interrupt a learning program with a quick quiz.

A similar system has also been proposed by Apple of all companies, although the Cupertino-based tech giant admittedly has done anything public with its patent yet.

The post Audi-founded Startup to Bring VR to Passengers Looking for Relief from Boredom & Motion Sickness appeared first on Road to VR.

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Holoride: Audi macht die Rückbank zur VR-Zone

Lange Fahrten mit dem Auto können langweilig sein und deshalb ist das passende Unterhaltungsangebot im Fahrzeug ein großes Thema bei Audi. Jetzt möchte der Fahrzeugbauer nicht nur mit Komfort und 2D-Content punkten, sondern die Rückbank zur VR-Zone ausbauen.

Holoride: Audi macht die Rückbank zur VR-Zone

Audi turns the car into a virtual reality experience platform at

Audi e-tron

Auf der CES 2019 in Las Vegas zeigt Audi eine interaktive Erfahrung, welche in Zusammenarbeit mit Disney entstand und während der Fahrt auf dem Rücksitz gespielt werden kann. In Marvel’s Avengers: Rocket’s Rescue Run erlebt ihr die Fahrt mit dem Audi e-tron in einem Raumschiff aus Guardians of the Galaxy und der Fahrer des Autos verwandelt sich in Rocket. Das Besondere: Die Erfahrung reagiert auf jede Bewegung des Fahrzeugs. Fahrt ihr also in eine Kurve, beschleunigt oder bremst, reagiert der Content darauf. Dies sollte nicht nur der Motion Sickness vorbeugen, sondern den Content auch sehr immersiv machen. Das die Fahrt sich angenehm anfühlt, konnte Jan-Keno Janssen in seinem ersten Test für Heise.de bereits bestätigen.

Holoride soll jedoch kein exklusives Feature von Audi bleiben. Der Hersteller plant eine offene Plattform, damit Entwickler und andere Fahrzeughersteller ihrer Kreativität freien Lauf lassen können. Dementsprechend wird auch das SDK offen zugänglich sein, welches die Fahrzeugdaten in die VR transferieren kann.

“Kreative Köpfe werden unsere Plattform nutzen, um faszinierende Welten zu erschaffen, die die Reise von A nach B zu einem echten Abenteuer machen”, sagte Nils Wollny, Head of Digital Business bei Audi und zukünftiger CEO von holoride in einem Statement. “Wir können dieses neue Unterhaltungssegment nur entwickeln, wenn wir einen kooperativen, offenen Ansatz für Fahrzeug-, Geräte- und Inhaltshersteller verfolgen.”

Doch die Revolution im Auto wird noch etwas Vorlaufzeit benötigen, bis sie ausgereift und in vielen Fahrzeugen zu finden ist. Audi sieht innerhalb der nächsten drei Jahre ein großes Potential in der neuen Technologie. Auf der CES 2019 zeigt das Unternehmen den Holoride auch nur mit einer Oculus Rift ohne 6DOF-Tracking. Dies soll sich aber in der Zukunft ändern.

(Quelle: VR-Focus, Heise)

Der Beitrag Holoride: Audi macht die Rückbank zur VR-Zone zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!

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Audi Debuts in-car Marvel VR Experience at CES 2019

Car companies have been using virtual reality (VR) to improve and streamline the manufacturing process as well as the helping pick and customise their new cars before purchase. But what about the in-car experience for passengers? At CES 2019 this week Audi has been challenging just that concept with a VR experience that changes depending on how and where the car is driven.

Audi VR Ride
Image credit: Audi AG

Audi has co-founded a company called holoride with the sole focus being to provide immersive in-car entertainment. For the CES 2019 debut, Audi and holoride have teamed up with Disney Games and Interactive Experiences on a VR experience called Marvel’s Avengers: Rocket’s Rescue Run.

Sat in the back seat of an Audi e-tron passengers put on a VR headset, they find themselves transported into the  Guardians of the Galaxy ship, piloted by Rocket. What’s unique about the experience is that every movement of the car is replicated in real time, so if the car speeds up so does the ship, if the car takes a left-hand bend the ship will fly around an obstacle accordingly.

Audi will be licensing this technology to holoride, which in turn will create an open platform for developers and other carmakers to build their own experiences. It’ll provide a software development kit (SDK) that serves as the interface to the vehicle data which can then be transferred into VR.

“Creative minds will use our platform to come up with fascinating worlds that turn the journey from A to B into a real adventure,” said Nils Wollny, Head of Digital Business at Audi, and future CEO of holoride in a statement. “We can only develop this new entertainment segment by adopting a cooperative, open approach for vehicle, device and content producers.”

Audi VR Ride
Image credit: Audi AG

The technology can be used for many applications whether they are arcade videogames or more educational experiences. holoride also claims that: “Since the visual experience and the user’s actual perception are synchronized, conventional movies, series or presentations can also be viewed with a significantly reduced chance of motion sickness.”

“Audi, Marvel and Disney Games and Interactive Experiences are celebrating Marvel Studios’ 10th anniversary with an Avengers experience that combines world-class content and innovative technology,” said Mike Goslin, Vice President, Disney Games and Interactive Experiences. “While this CES demo was developed purely in the spirit of exploration and experimentation, we are constantly evaluating emerging technologies to enhance our stories and experiences.”

Currently, the tech is still in its infancy, with holoride expecting this new form of in-car entertainment to market within the next three years using standard VR headsets. As development continues VRFocus will bring you the latest updates from holoride.

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Audi Has Deployed 1,000 VR Showrooms in Dealerships Worldwide

German car maker Audi was quick to see the potential of VR and has been experimenting since the early days of VR’s resurgence to see how the tech could be used to enhance the car buying experience. Having introduced VR showrooms into dealerships as early as 2016, the company now has some 1,000 VR deployments in dealerships across the globe.

Speaking on stage last week at VRX 2018 in San Francisco, Audi’s Lorenz Schweiger, who looks after VR strategy at the company’s Business Innovation group, explored Audi’s ongoing work in bringing real-time VR visualizations into dealerships.

As Schweiger explained, the company has built a VR offering which acts as a virtual car configurator. Users strap on a headset and can view detailed car models at life size, with the ability to look at specific colors and configurations on the fly.

Audi has maintained a high bar for the VR visuals that is shows to customers, and that’s meant using the master vehicle models—developed throughout the car’s engineering and construction processes—as the basis for the visualization. As those models contain every single panel, screw, fastener, and fuse in the vehicle (and those for various configurations) they are far too complex to be rendered in a real-time VR visualization, Schweiger explained.

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And so the company had developed a process of reducing the complexity of the models by hand to the point at which they could be rendered in real-time against the 90 FPS demands of modern VR headsets—a process which took one to two weeks for a single vehicle.

But that bottleneck—of converting each year’s new lineup of vehicles—was a pain point for making the company’s VR deployments effective. Schweiger and his team sought a means of automating the process of optimizing the models until they could be rendered in real-time.

Image courtesy Lorenz Schweiger, photo by Road to VR

Some solutions which focused on automatically reducing the model’s geometric complexity resulted in an unacceptable sacrifice of the model’s visual quality. Wanting to keep visual quality high, Audi worked with a company called 4D Pipeline to develop a solution which would greatly reduce the complexity of the models by combining the many individual pieces into larger pieces, there by drastically reducing GPU draw calls while keeping geometric detail in tact.

And the results are very impressive indeed. Schweiger showed a handful of screenshots and flyby videos of the optimized models—which are ready to be rendered in VR at 90 FPS—revealing a very crisp look with realistic lighting, reflections, and interactions (like opening & closing doors and turning on & off headlights), both inside and outside of the vehicles.

The 4D Pipeline solution reduced the previous manual optimization process from one to two weeks per vehicle down to just 20 minutes, said Schweiger. The process also works directly from Audi’s master vehicle files, which means that if anything in those models were to change in the 11th hour, the process could quickly be re-run without ruining any additional work that had gone into the optimized models after the fact.

What’s more, the process also works with vehicles from Audi’s parent company, Volkswagen, because between the two companies the master vehicle files are based on the same structure, he said.

As the company continues to harness VR to create a more engaging sales experience, Audi has now deployed VR showrooms to some 1,000 dealerships, said Schweiger. The company has also previously said that it employs VR technology internally from sales & training to technical development & automotive production.

The post Audi Has Deployed 1,000 VR Showrooms in Dealerships Worldwide appeared first on Road to VR.

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Audi Ireland Launch New AR Experience For The New Audi A7

Automobile manufacturers have been one industry that has continued to embrace virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) as the technology continues to develop. The latest to do so is Audi Ireland who have announced a new AR consumer experience, which is set to release exclusively across a number of select Irish dealerships.

Audi Ireland AR

The new experience will allow Irish customers a chance to be the first in the world to become immersed in a showcase of the new Audi A7 in a fully interactive and immersive AR demo. This has been achieved thanks to state-of-the-art AR technology and by using a Microsoft HoloLens headset. The result is a customer experience unlike any other that allows for interaction with the latest Audi model complete with a wide range of AR features that help to enhance the viewing experience.

Richard Molloy, Head of Marketing, Audi Ireland said: “We, at Audi Ireland, are excited to be at the forefront of customer experience technology for the Audi brand on a global scale. For us, it represents the next step in the evolution of one of our core objectives – to become the leading customer experience brand. We are excited to join forces with vStream and by the prospect of creating a first for our customers, a first for Audi and a first for Ireland. We are encouraging Audi fans and customers to call into our Dealers and check out the state of the art technology experience for themselves.”

Lasting approximately ten minutes, the new consumer demo is broken into three different modules which offer a different look at the new Audi A7. This includes Exterior Design, Interior and Technology. Included in the demo is a holographic character by the name of Simone who will act as a guide to user and help walk them through the experience. Users will be able to see the whole story of Audi’s design and development for the new model thanks to holographic graphics, 3D sound and video all of which is included within the AR demo.

Audi Ireland AR

Andrew Jenkinson, Director & Co-founder, vStream said: “As an international experiential agency at the forefront of augmented reality and mixed reality technology, we at vStream are excited to be working with a global brand such as Audi to launch a global first in Ireland. For us, working with Audi Ireland represents strong synergies in terms of a shared goal in spearheading unique customer experiences through cutting-edge technology.”

The demo is currently available in three Audi pilot dealerships; Audi North Dublin, Audi Centre, and Audi Galway with more locations to be considered in the future. Audi released a short video that gives a taste of the new experience which you can view below and for more stories like this in the future, keep reading VRFocus.

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Audi Quattro Coaster Brings the Showroom to Your Home

Car manufacturer Audi have released a new augmented reality (AR) app that allows a user to bring one of four models of the Audi Quattro into their own home.

Audi Quattro Coaster screenshot 1

By using a device to scan a room a user will be able to view a detailed model of the Audi Quattro right in the comfort of their own home. The digital recreation of the car can be viewed in full-size to see how it fits in your driveway or placed on a table to allow for more compact exploration. All the details are faithfully captured even down to the interior of the car resulting in the same experience as attending a showroom.

On top of viewing the Audi Quattro the Audi Quattro Coaster app also allows users to create their own track and take it for a test drive. By holding down the red button in the app and then moving forward you can create a test track that is only limited by your available space and imagination. Take the course around chairs, under and over a table and up to the ceiling and back. Once finished the track remains in virtual space allowing a user to move around freely and study both the road and the cars in different angles. To showcase the four-wheel drive power that the Audi Quattro has the track will experience all four seasons and the cars will react accordingly, giving you a detailed test drive up close.

Audi Quattro Coaster screenshot 2

The Audi Quattro Coaster app will also let users see an extended version of the TV commercial by holding a device with the app open to your TV. When viewed this way, the camera will scan a point in the commercial which will then lead to the car continuing to move through the device screen, extending the content shown in the commercial.

The Audi Quattro Coaster app is currently only available on Apple iPhone and iPad devices running iOS 11 via the App Store but Audi is hoping to bring the app to Android in the future. As and when further details are released about the Android release and any updates VRFocus will keep you updated.