German luxury vehicle manufacturer Audi has announced a partnership with Disney to create a “new media type” for the eventual self-driving cars we will have, according to Roadshow.
- Disney and Audi will meet at Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2019 to reveal this new project.
- The project revolves around the concept of the “25th Hour,” which refers to the time drivers with gain with the eventuality of self-driving vehicles.
- The partnership will reportedly lead to the creation of what is being called a “new media type” that will be unlike anything we’ve ever seen and will entertain passengers of these autonomous vehicles.
- Roadshow speculates on virtual and augmented reality technologies being employed for this new project.
- Audi has also come up with a Long Distance Lounge Concept that uses TFT foils embedded in the windows allowing them to act as conventional windows or feature digital overlays providing information on the world just outside those windows.
- Earlier this month, it was reported that Walt Disney World’s self-driving cars were being held up due to a complicated legal battle between the companies responsible for the technology.
- CES 2019 will be held January 8 through 11 in Las Vegas.
What they’re saying:
- Nils Wollny, Audi’s head of digital business strategy and customer experience, on how the partnership with Disney came to be: “You might be familiar with their Imagineering division, they’re very heavy into building experiences for customers. And they were highly interested in what happens in cars in the future”
- Wollny on the technology and their plan for it: “There will be a commercialization or business approach behind it. It’s not something where two friends come together to [start] something vague, [and say,] ‘Maybe it’s not, maybe it is.’ It’s very specific. We have a very specific plan.”
- Wollny on what the partnership is working on: “I’d call it a new media type that isn’t existing yet that takes full advantage of being in a vehicle. What we’ve focused on is not a pure — not at all a classic marketing partnership, [of the sort] that very often happens between automotive companies and media companies. We created something completely new together, and it’s very technologically driven.”