Shift Magazine - August 2021 - 7

THRILLS
ON WHEELS
Holoride looks to 5G to expand in-vehicle entertainment in new ways
BY MARCUS AMICK
L
OS ANGELES - Holoride, the
company behind a groundbreaking
extended reality (XR) in-vehicle
media platform, is looking to
drive the passenger entertainment experience
in ways never imagined, with the
wider adoption of 5G.
The German tech company - started in
2018 with backing from Audi - has developed
an application that delivers unique
immersive virtual reality experiences, using
XR content and vehicle motions.
The cornerstone of Holoride's platform
involves safely and securely syncing XR
content, in real time, with vehicle data
points such as physical feedback, acceleration
and steering, traffic data and travel
routes, all while reducing motion sickness.
Nils Wollny, CEO and co-founder of
Holoride, told Shift that the expansion of
5G wireless opens the door to a host of
unique immersive in-vehicle media experiences,
as the company prepares for its
2022 market launch. " With 5G and the
capabilities, a lot more functionalities will
live up to consumer expectations on the
go that probably weren't possible before
due to the high bandwidth, " explained
Wollny, who likens Holoride's platform to
a theme park in motion.
'EASY TO WEAR'
The wider adoption of 5G technology
will also allow for the design of more efficient
headsets for XR media experiences,
Wollny said. " It will take a lot of the [computing]
power out of the device and have
it on the edge or in the cloud, and being
streamed to the device. Then those [headsets]
can be lighter, more comfortable,
slimmer, easy to wear. "
A core component of Holoride's strategy,
Holoride's platform syncs extended reality content with vehicle data such
as physical feedback, acceleration and steering and traffic conditions.
enhancing the users' experience as they
collect digital pieces featured in the in-vehicle
content.
Holoride has already established partwith
the expansion of 5G, is a revenue-sharing
partnership with content developers,
giving them access to Holoride's Elastic
SDK, the toolset that powers the company's
media platform. In May, Holoride
announced that it will integrate nonfungible
tokens (NFTs), a type of digital ownership
certificate, into its media platform, using
blockchain technology to assure its automotive
and content partners that the revenue
is being distributed fairly.
IN-VEHICLE EXPERIENCE
The company also envisions NFTs
nerships with Mercedes-Benz, Ford and
Porsche, in addition to Audi, as the tech
company prepares for market launch. But
Wollny is quick to note that the key to
expanding the scope of immersive in-vehicle
experiences, with the wider adoption
of 5G, lies in the ability to get more car
companies, the XR tech industry and content
providers to realize the full potential of
a media platform such as Holoride.
" We have great partners on board, but
now we need to get this ecosystem going,
and we spend a lot of time on how we kick
this off, " said Wollny. " Transparency ... is
one of the major aspects we are working
on to really help build more confidence,
more trust for every ecosystem partner
involved, but it's still a massive, massive
task. " n
august 2021 * shift
7
Shift Magazine - August 2021

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