holoride and HTC debut ride-ready glasses for in-car entertainment
Launching XR on-the-go for HTC VIVE Flow users at Mobile World Congress 2022.
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holoride, the company advancing the future of in-vehicle entertainment, today announced it is partnering with HTC VIVE, the premier virtual reality (VR) platform and ecosystem. Through this partnership, holoride will deploy its extended reality (XR) technology in VIVE Flow, a compact and lightweight immersive glasses device, to transport users from the backseat of a car to an imaginative world filled with content around every turn, including both VR and traditional 2D content. VIVE Flow will be the first holoride-ready VR device for series integration in cars in the scope of the company’s market launch in the second half of 2022.
holoride adds thrill to every ride by merging XR content with real-time motion, location and navigational data from the car and its environment, creating hyper-immersive experiences. With VIVE Flow, riders can naturally navigate and maneuver through the virtual worlds with the same intuitive gestures as they would with conventional VR devices. And with holoride's advanced cinema mode, individual users can privately enjoy 2D content on a virtual, motion-synchronized cinema screen.
holoride is on a mission to create exciting in-vehicle experiences for passengers to travel the Metaverse, and that starts with putting our technology in the hands – or on the heads – of riders,
said Nils Wollny, CEO and co-founder of holoride. “VIVE Flow is the ideal device for on-the-go XR, so we are thrilled to be partnering with HTC VIVE to give riders direct access to holoride. The glasses’ sleek, portable design means riders can enjoy a fun and connected experience anywhere they go.”
VIVE Flow is the perfect travel companion. Weighing just 189g, it’s comfortable to wear and lightweight, so that riders can easily transport the glasses to and from the car. The dual-hinge design and soft face gasket make VIVE Flow easy to put on, take off and fold down into a compact footprint. And it delivers a cinematic screen to enjoy the content on, whether that’s gaming or TV and films.
VIVE Flow can fit in the palm of your hand and still deliver a breathtaking experience,
said Shen Ye, Global Head of Hardware at HTC VIVE. “Paired with holoride’s impressive tech, you’ll be able to turn car rides into virtual amusement parks. We’re very excited to work with holoride in shaping the future of passenger entertainment.”
VIVE Flow integrated with holoride’s XR technology will be on display and available for demo as part of the HTC VIVE exhibition booth (Hall 7, stand 7A40) at Mobile World Congress taking place in Barcelona, Spain Feb. 28 - Mar. 3.
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About HTC
HTC VIVE is the premier virtual reality (VR) platform and ecosystem that creates true-to-life VR experiences for businesses and consumers. The VIVE ecosystem is built around premium VR hardware, software, and content. The VIVE business encompasses best-in-class XR hardware; VIVEPORT platform and app store; VIVE Enterprise Solutions for business customers; VIVE X, a US$100M VR business accelerator; and VIVE ARTS for cultural initiatives. For more information, please visit www.vive.com.
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”.