Audi cars will let you play VR games this summer — yes, really

News
By published

Just not while you're driving, obviously

Audi with holoride branding in front of sunset
(Image credit: Holoride)

Audi drivers will soon be able to play VR games on the move, although it's probably best left to those sitting in the passenger seat. The news comes after it was confirmed that select Audi vehicles are going to get support for Holoride's in-car VR tech. 

Beginning in June, owners of Audi A4, A6, A8, Q5, and e-tron GT will be able to take advantage of the new Holoride link. In fact, any car that has the company's MIB 3 infotainment system will ultimately be able to enjoy this VR oddity.

Why would you want to play VR games while on the move? That's a question that's still unclear, but Holoride does have some interesting technology behind its headset. It’s called Elastic Content and the theory is simple — in-game motion will be linked to the motion of the car, hopefully eliminating the possibility of motion sickness. 

The idea is that you’re playing a virtual reality video game that’s tied to the movements of your car. Should the car move in one direction, change speed or do just about anything else, the video game will register that and translate it to what you see on the headset.

Even though Holoride was once part of Audi itself, the technology is completely car and brand-agnostic. That means that we could see other car manufacturers link into the Holoride technology one day. It's fair to say this is the kind of thing we could imagine Tesla's Elon Musk being interested in. 

The most important thing is that the software required to make Holoride content and experiences is open source. Hopefully, this means people will make compatible apps pretty easily — especially since Holoride’s brand agnosticism means you can use any of the best VR headsets.

Again, it remains to be seen how compelling an experience any of this could be and whether there's actually a market for it, or not. But there is a version of Holoride that works with tablets which should help get VR skeptics on board with the concept.

TOPICS
Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributing writer

Oliver is a contributing writer for Tom's Guide based in the U.K. who has covered the tech world for more than a decade. His writing has appeared in titles such as How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, iMore and TechRadar. Oliver covers general computing and mobile news but predominantly writes about car tech and EVs for Tom's Guide. He's been gaming since the days of Atari and is always trying to discover the next great mobile game. He's still looking.