After exploring the AR/VR ride entertainment experience, Sony wants to make the car an entertainment platform

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Sony wants to make the car an entertainment platform

Sony announced at ces 2022 that it was about to establish Sony Mobility and said it would use Sony's black technology in the fields of sensing, AI, communications and audio and video to create a future mobility experience from the perspective of safety, adaptability and entertainment. The company believes that autonomous driving and 5G technology is expected to transform cars into mobility platforms that provide information and entertainment services, reshaping the entire automotive industry.

A few days ago, Kawanishi Izumi, senior general manager of Sony Group, who is responsible for Sony's electric vehicle project, said that the future trend of automobile transformation will be similar to the process of information technology transforming functional machines into smart phones, and Sony hopes to build the car into an entertainment platform.

In fact, the team is already exploring the future of ride-hailing entertainment experiences, and an important cornerstone is AR/VR.

Based on an earlier patent application, Sony has conceived a solution around the combination of cars and AR/VR. Examples include "Display Control System and Method To Generate A Virtual Environment In A Vehicle", "Active Window For Vehicle Infomatics and Virtual Reality", and "Display Control Of Interactive Content." Based On Direction-Of-View Of Occupant In Vehicle and other inventions, Sony proposed a display control system and method for generating a virtual environment in the car. Specifically, Sony wants to turn the windows and/or windshield into augmented reality displays, bringing users a whole new digital interaction experience.

Further reading: Sony applied for a patent for autonomous driving AR/VR to provide an immersive driving entertainment experience

In addition to the augmented reality-based in-car entertainment experience, virtual reality can also become an important carrier tool. For example, users in Sony cars can wear a Sony PSVR headset at the same time. The headset can then fuse the real-time motion of the car and produce a corresponding all-digital immersive experience.

For many people, riding in a car is a rather boring experience, but through virtual reality and augmented reality, the space inside the car can be transformed into a new and interesting environment in an instant. For example, you can switch the scenery outside the car window to the scenery along the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, or provide corresponding VR games based on the real-time movement of the car, and so on.

In fact, from Microsoft to Apple, from Ford to BMW, a succession of technology companies and automakers have conceived AR/VR-based entertainment systems for the ride experience.

As Sony begins building cars, AR/VR will be able to help the team build the car into a mobile theme park and become an important differentiator.