holoride brings XR to Audi series vehicles

We’re delighted to share that holoride will be integrated into Audi series vehicles. Beginning in June 2022, Audi will be the first automobile manufacturer in the world to deliver holoride-ready experiences through its vehicles’ MIB 3 infotainment system. Through this partnership, we’re continuing to turn vehicles into moving theme parks and adding purpose to everyday commutes by making transit time count.

Adding holoride to Audi series vehicles is enabling a new form of in-car experiences by using motion-synchronized car and location-aware data with XR content in real-time. This unique approach opens a new level of immersion in entertainment, educational, gaming, and well-being content. The integration of holoride is also a strong commitment and testament to the importance of the passenger experience for the future of in-car entertainment.

Bringing Elastic Content to a large number of Audi vehicles

As of June this year, select Audi models that roll off the production line with the third generation of the modular infotainment toolkit (MIB 3) and the latest software cluster will be holoride-ready. In detail, this includes the models Audi A4, A5, A6, A7, A8, Q5, Q7, Q8, Audi etron, etron Sportback, and etron GT. We’re launching our product in the United States and Europe (starting with Germany and the United Kingdom) in fall 2022. We will successively add further markets within Europe in 2023 as well as expand product offerings to the Asian market including Japan, South Korea, and China.

Based on the vehicle’s motion data from a number of sensor sets such as acceleration, steering, and wheel ticks, holoride’s software will enable it to connect to the car with the VR headset. In Audi’s particular case, the connection will be enabled wirelessly and via the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) standard.

This news comes on the heels of our partnership with HTC VIVE at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona to deploy holoride technology in the VIVE Flow, a compact and lightweight immersive VR glasses device. With both the automotive integration in Audi series vehicles and the HTC VIVE Flow as the first holoride-ready headset, we are achieving another major milestone in preparation for our market launch.

Audi and holoride share history

holoride was first introduced at CES 2019 after its spin-out from Audi, where holoride’s three co-founders - then Audi employees - developed the concept. In collaboration with Disney Games and Interactive Experiences, both Audi and holoride showcased an action-packed VR experience named “Marvel Avengers: Rocket’s Rescue Run” with select media and experts at the famous SpeedVegas racetrack. The showcase earned holoride the designation of “Best at CES 2019 (incl. TechCrunch). After our inception in Las Vegas, we went on to showcase holoride with Audi at different occasions such as CES Asia that same year. At the IAA Mobility 2021, we once again teamed up with Audi for experience rides through the city of Munich. A few months earlier, we supported Audi in Austria with a VR experience set inside an Audi etron to travel back in time through the musical epochs of the world-renown Salzburg Festival in search of young Mozart.

What’s next?

We’re adding another essential element to allow for holoride in-car experiences starting off with the Audi brand and their vehicles. To get a taste of what that looks like, come find us in Austin, TX at this year’s SXSW. Together with Audi, we’re offering experience rides for media and SXSW attendees.

In line with our ambitious goal to become a manufacturer-agnostic media platform for immersive in-car experiences, we will be adding further partners to the holoride ecosystem including automotive, tech, and media companies to ultimately offer a first-of-its-kind passenger experience.

On that note, we're excited to share that we will be continuing our partnership with Schell Games but also will be working with ARVORE Immersive Games, TRIPP, Magnopus, PRELOADED, SpiceVR, FreshFX, Future House Studios, VRWERX and MEDIASQUAD to build our content platform. Over the course of the next months, we will share additional information about content strategies and details of the collaboration with these studios.

Onwards!