According to foreign media TechCrunch, car VR company Holoride has received $12 million in Series A financing, with a valuation of $36 million. The round was led by Swedish software development company Terrant, with the participation of Schell Games, an educational and entertainment game development company.
Co-founded in Munich, Germany in 2018 by Nils Wollny, Marcus Kühne and Daniel Profendiner, Holoride aims to revolutionize the passenger experience with VR devices: on the one hand, it can alleviate the user's motion sickness, on the other hand, it can transform "driving time" into a game-based interactive experience.
Holoride's unique software can synchronize the car's navigation, acceleration and braking data with independent VR devices, transforming data such as vehicle navigation routes, steering angles, and gravity changes under acceleration into real-time virtual environments. This allows VR devices to produce flexible content that changes with the movement of the car, which means that VR will display different content depending on which driving environment the passenger is driving in.
For example, the feelings brought to passengers by vehicle acceleration and steering can be synchronized with the immersive video in VR devices, allowing passengers to have a fantasy world experience in space and underwater, thereby alleviating or even eliminating adverse reactions such as motion sickness or nausea. In October 2019, the company also offered a "Bride of Frankenstein" themed VR driving experience service at Universal Studios Hollywood, where users can experience dynamic scenes of fighting evil spirits while driving, and help Frankenstein's bride send packages to her resurrected husband.
Previously, most immersive VR experiences were visual, but Holoride's VR technology allows passengers to get real-time physical feedback in the car, making the passenger's immersive experience more intense.
As THE COVID-19 pandemic spreads, data suggest that people tend to prefer private cars over public transport for health reasons, a change that could further block highways and extend travel times. But this overall situation also gives Holoride more opportunities to give driving time more entertainment.
At present, Holoride has established partnerships with Porsche and Mercedes-Benz, and is negotiating cooperation intentions with more car companies.
The application of VR virtual reality technology to vehicles can be described as very bold, breaking through many people's imagination of entertainment experiences during the ride. At the same time, this has very high requirements for the hardware and software system of the vehicle. Before Holoride can achieve large-scale commercialization, there are still many problems to be solved, such as compatibility with various models of software and hardware, VR system security issues, etc.
It is reported that Holoride will use the new round of financing to recruit more technical talents, while preparing to continue to expand to global markets such as Europe, the United States and Asia.
Editor| Chen Shuya