Self-driving cars will boost VR
How having nothing to do opens up new opportunities
We are living curious times for Self-Driving Cars (SDC). They are mentioned soooo often in the tech news (both for praising their promise or for pointing them as a lie), yet most of us haven’t seen one “in the flesh.” Further, their tech is advancing relentlessly, yet you cannot actually buy an SDC (I mean level 5 SDC). All the great car brands promise to release one “in the next two years.” It looks like those two years get stretching and stretching…
But eventually will have them. And yes, they will transform not just the driving experience –or rather, the riding experience, as no one will be driving. They’ll make the road fatalities plummet. In short, they’ll transform the cities on which they’ll roam.
Of course, the entertainment possibilities that SDC open haven’t passed unnoticed: every single infotainment-related company is prepping its arsenal for the new times: music, TV, movies, you name it. Oh, and also VR!
VR is in a funny moment as well. Despite the hype generated by events like the recent OC6 from Facebook, with all the wonders of Oculus Quest hand–tracking and stuff, it remains that VR is still a niche, with hard-core gamers at its center. The Oculus Go has been a mostly failed attempt to reach the mainstream. Meanwhile, cellphone platforms like Daydream are just dying. Yet, many of us feel that there must be something on the horizon that will bring VR to the masses.
Yes, VR is now mostly used at home in spare moments, but if you have to travel, not driving of course, and you have a stable 5G connection, you can take your VR headset and use the 25 min commute to relax –or to stress — with your favorite VR title.
SDC will become mainly people transporters with comfort-related facilities. And VR will significantly benefit from it, getting a massive boost from the unavoidable commute times we all have to spend, but liberated from the responsibilities associated with the driving wheel.
Don’t assume that we will become, like in the Pixar movie, fat lazy people doing nothing but to kill time with VR games. You can also use your VR time to learn languages, like with Mondly or Avalinguo, and get updated with VR news like CNN, BBC, and many others. It’s just that when you are idly sitting in a car that you don’t drive, then getting virtually somewhere else –of course, with VR — is the next best thing you can have.
