On Thursday, March 30th, holoride held its Gather Day 06, and the team would like to thank everyone who joined live. For those who missed it, let’s take a moment to revisit some of the topics that generated excitement. The agenda featured two main topics: in-depth insights gained from the CLX event with Audi headquarters, a detailed report about holoride’s role at GDC 2023 with special guest Hans Ippisch, Principal Producer at holoride, and some smaller updates on the content library.
The moment of truth: What do Audi car dealers from across the globe think about holoride?
During Gather Day 05, Nils Wollny shared the news about a large-scale behind-the-scenes event and a huge chance for holoride: the Central Launch Experience (CLX) organized by Audi Headquarters. Whenever Audi launches a new car model or product, representatives of car dealerships from around the world gather to test out the latest innovations. With the event taking place in Munich until mid-April, approximately 8,000 car dealers had the unique opportunity to try out holoride. This presented a rare chance for holoride to showcase its product to relevant customer touchpoints globally and receive feedback from a professional group that knows precisely what holoride’s target audience is looking for. During the event, the holoride team demonstrated the experience to the dealers and gathered their feedback through surveys, providing valuable data for the team. Of course, we are not withholding the treasure trove of data this event provided from our community!
Let’s start with the basics: Out of all the survey respondents, 63% fell in the age range of 20–39 years old. Furthermore, 90% of the participants identified as male, 9% as female, and 1% as non-binary. The fact that the car dealership industry continues to attract more men than women is noteworthy. Coincidentally, this aligns with the current trend in virtual reality usage, where studies indicate that more men than women are using VR applications. In any case, these statistics provide valuable insights and serve as a starting point for deeper analysis.
Fantastic results: 84% reported that holoride was easy to interact with. Even more noteworthy, of those who found it easy to use, 95% had little to no prior VR knowledge. These results are particularly remarkable given that VR is still a relatively new technology that has not yet been widely adopted. Overall, the survey suggests that holoride has achieved a high level of user-friendlisness even for those who are new to the VR world. All in all, a whopping 78% of participants believe that holoride is a highly competitive in-car entertainment option when compared to classic rear seat entertainment displays. This is great feedback!
Of course, there is always room for improvement, and survey participants pointed to available content and graphics as areas where holoride could do better. Specifically, respondents identified browsing and streaming services, as well as games, as categories that could benefit from further development.
In terms of improvements in the graphics section, Nils commented that it’s easy to forget that mobile headsets are always a compromise when it comes to graphics, as they are lightweight and easy to wear, but they can’t compare in compute power to a computer at home with a tethered headset. However, he emphasized that the most important aspect of gaming is the gaming mechanic, and the graphics become secondary if the gameplay is good.
While the current generation of mobile VR headsets may have some limitations in terms of graphics, Nils explained that this is not a restriction from the holoride technology, which does the synchronization with the vehicle’s movement and real-time rendering. Instead, it’s more of a limitation that comes with the devices themselves.
The good news is that progress is being made in this area, and we can expect to see better graphics in the future as more capable headsets become available. This means that holoride’s applications will become even more immersive and engaging, as they will be able to take advantage of the increased compute power of these devices.
Revving up the Fun: holoride shines at GDC 2023
It also seems that holoride has been anticipating some of the feedback of its survey participants when it comes to content, as one of the improvement suggestions has been implemented faster than anyone could have expected. holoride has added a major new offering to its content library. The company recently announced that it has partnered with t-online news, one of Germany’s most widely-read news portals, to bring a 30-second news stream experience to its users while they’re in the #Motorverse.
Speaking of more content, two of holoride’s team members recently attended the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2023 in San Francisco, an annual gathering of industry leaders in the video game development world. holoride was represented at the German pavilion, with general manager USA Chris Bellaci and Principal Producer Hans Ippisch in attendance. In fact, Hans joined Gather Day as guest speaker and had the opportunity to share his experiences at GDC with the holoride community. As the company’s Principal Producer, Hans who has been working in the Gaming Industry for over 30 years is responsible for ensuring a steady stream of exciting new content for holoride users. He works closely with Nils and Chris on the strategic planning of new content and collaborates with developers around the world to bring these ideas to life in the holoride app. At the GDC, Chris and Hans were able to showcase holoride’s technology to important partners, whose identities remain confidential. The feedback they received was overwhelmingly positive, with key figures in the industry declaring that holoride is „doing something that no one else has done before.“
Confronted with the question how to prepare for gaming experts before their first holoride experience, Hans revealed that the key to the success of holoride is setting the right expectations. holoride is not a replacement for modern game consoles or VR devices, but it enables a unique experience by synchronizing with the movement of the vehicle. The combination of car and VR is something that many VR experts find impossible, but holoride has been able to solve this industry-wide problem.
Looking towards the future, Hans shared that the family of gamers is growing, especially in casual games that anyone can play. Titles that allow users to generate content are becoming increasingly important, and the market for VR games continues to grow. With the headsets becoming lighter and more comfortable to wear, and the portfolio of content broadening, users can expect even more impressive content from holoride. Overall, holoride’s presence at GDC has generated a lot of excitement and has demonstrated the company’s position as a leader in the in-vehicle entertainment industry.
Closing remarks
Don’t miss out on the exciting community formats that holoride has in store for its audience. Starting in May, Nils will be hosting a Twitter spaces format where he’ll be discussing current trend topics with thought or industry leaders. You can expect insightful conversations that shed light on the latest industry developments. Plus, holoride has already lined up its first guest from another major MultiversX project, which is sure to be a thrilling discussion.
In addition, holoride is currently working on the next Product Deep-Dive, so keep an eye out for that. You’ll get an in-depth look at holoride’s latest developments and learn about the technology that makes these immersive experiences possible. Stay tuned to holoride’s social media channels for more information on these upcoming events.
About holoride
holoride creates an entirely new media category for passengers by connecting Extended Reality (XR) content with data points from the vehicle in real-time. These data points include physical feedback, like acceleration and steering, traffic data, as well as travel route and time. holoride technology provides a new type of immersion into any kind of VR content, creating a breathtaking, immersive experience, and significantly reducing motion sickness.
The tech startup was founded at the end of 2018 in Munich, Germany by Nils Wollny, Marcus Kuehne, Daniel Profendiner, and Audi, who holds a minority stake in the startup.
In April 2021, holoride raised €10 million in its Series A funding round led by Terranet AB, earning the company a €30 million valuation. That same year, holoride won the prestigious SXSW Pitch and was also named Best in Show. It has been hailed “Best of CES 2019” four times, recognized as one of the “100 Best Inventions of 2019” by TIME Magazine, and is part of the global innovation platform “STARTUP AUTOBAHN powered by Plug and Play”.
