In-Car Entertainment
When I was a kid, I played a game where I’d imagine a jumping guy that would run alongside the car when dad drove up the motorway.
Fast forward to a couple of years ago, I was really interested in how Map Apps only gave you efficient route options and how efficiency was never a part of the romance of travel — like remember that novel where the protagonist gets there on time because google maps showed me.
I commissioned an app called Wandrr — it showed you routes based on how much time you had and let your pick up to 3 places you want to stop at on the way.
I’d started to think about automated cars like once they drive themselves and only engineers have programmed them, the drives will be super-efficient and boring af. And, since there’s no way that Elon Musk is going to read this and be like “mate, that’s interesting, want to have a chat?” I started thinking about the inside of the car and the Simpsons just confirmed it…
Cut to now, I was watching a stream of the Simpson and a character just told Homer that not only could he text and drive he could write a novel… and the Simpsons are always ahead of the curve… And that was super true, at some point, someone will write a book from a car, and make music in a car, and open a smoothie bar and well, you get it…
I started thinking, like has anyone made a movie just shot in a car? I mean so many intimate conversations and emotions happen there… So, I wanted to put out some questions that could help shape creative thinking around this new, cool space…
- What happens when the car becomes a creative space?
- What happens when people start living in their EVs?
- Traveling Food Options — The moving service station?
- In-car VR, what could VR do to magic journeys magic?
- In-car app store so every dev and creator can craft experiences — Think HomeBrew on four wheels
New in-car creative thinking needs to fuel a new entertainment industry. Not just reusing content for this platform, this is the chance to create new works and new methods of storytelling, that combine location, speed and even how many people are in the car…
Some thought starters;
- Roads with stories and soundtracks you drive through
- A film you have to travel to discover — with episodes only being unlocked in certain cities and towns.
- Recommendations by locals — a wiki for wanderlust
- Car-2-Car communication — Automated convoys and a new, always- mobile, traveling creative culture.
It’s the last one that makes me excited, and that should be a guiding principle when car companies are thinking about their in-car experiences — beyond the freshly purchased — whats the experience that will inspire the next Jack Kerouac?
