holoride, Universal Pictures and Ford Announce the World's First In-Car Virtual Reality Experience Offered to the General Public

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif., Oct. 10, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- holoride, the company advancing the future of in-vehicle entertainment, today announced it is partnering with Ford Motor Company and Universal Pictures to create a complimentary in-car virtual reality experience that will be offered to guests for a limited time beginning October 14 through select dates until November 9. Powered by technology from holoride, and set inside new 2020 Ford Explorer vehicles, with advanced connectivity specific for this experience, riders are transported to the mysterious world of the Bride of Frankenstein through newly inspired content created by Universal Monsters in collaboration with immersive specialist, REWIND. This marks holoride's first offering to the general public following their successful debut at CES this past January.

"We are partnering with Ford and Universal to bring holoride's immersive, elastic content to the general public," said Nils Wollny, CEO and co-founder of holoride. "Riders will be able to experience first-hand what the future of in-vehicle entertainment looks like through the lens of the compelling story of the Bride of Frankenstein."

Riders will step inside a 2020 Ford Explorer from the designated pickup location at Universal CityWalk during hours of operation. Once inside the vehicles, riders buckle their safety belts, put on their VR headset and are joined by a re-imagined, virtual Bride of Frankenstein on a journey to deliver an important message to Frankenstein. Along the way, riders will encounter virtual monsters and obstacles in a fully immersive, virtual reality experience complete with sound effects and visuals that adapt to movement of the car.

holoride uses navigational data like travel route and time along with driving data from the Ford Explorer, such as steering, accelerating and stopping to adapt the experience to match the movement of the vehicle. The result is in an in-vehicle entertainment experience unlike any other.

"The connected vehicle technology from Ford can help completely revolutionize what the in-car experience can be, moving us toward never-before-imagined productivity and entertainment in the vehicle," said Brett Wheatley, vice president of Mobility Marketing and Growth at Ford. "This collaboration allows us to showcase the promise of the connected vehicle and get essential customer feedback on what they want and don't want in terms of immersive in-car entertainment experiences."

Greg Reed, Vice President, Universal Pictures Technology Partnerships added: "This partnership with holoride and Ford highlights NBCUniversal's ongoing commitment to collaborating with the most innovative technology companies and consumer brands to create unique and forward-thinking immersive experiences for our audiences. Building on Universal Pictures' vast experience in developing award-winning AR and VR content over the last few years, we are excited and inspired as 'everyday travel' begins to emerge as a new content platform."

To participate in this complimentary experience, guests can visit holoride.com/bride to schedule Universal Monsters Presents Bride of Frankenstein holoride, or visit the designated pickup location at Universal CityWalk. The ride's hours of operation are Monday through Wednesday during Oct. 14-16, Oct. 21-23, and Oct. 28-30, and Monday through Saturday the week of Nov 4-Nov 9. All rides will take place between 12 p.m. and 8 p.m. PST.

About holoride
German startup holoride creates an entirely new media category ("elastic content") for passengers by connecting Extended Reality (XR) content with data points from the vehicle in real time. These data points include physical feedback, like acceleration and steering, traffic data, as well as travel route and time. holoride technology provides a new type of immersion into any kind of VR content, creating a breathtaking, immersive experience, and significantly reducing motion sickness. The tech startup was founded end of 2018 in Munich, Germany by Nils Wollny, Marcus Kuehne, Daniel Profendiner, and Audi Electronics Venture GmbH, who holds a minority interest in the startup. It was hailed "Best of CES" (Las Vegas, January 2019), and is part of the global innovation platform "STARTUP AUTOBAHN powered by Plug and Play." For more information about holoride please visit http://www.holoride.com.

About Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is a global company based in Dearborn, Michigan. The company designs, manufactures, markets and services a full line of Ford cars, trucks, SUVs, electrified vehicles and Lincoln luxury vehicles, provides financial services through Ford Motor Credit Company and is pursuing leadership positions in electrification, autonomous vehicles and mobility solutions. Ford employs approximately 194,000 people worldwide. For more information regarding Ford, its products and Ford Motor Credit Company, please visit http://www.corporate.ford.com.

About Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures is a division of Universal Studios (http://www.universalstudios.com). Universal Studios is part of NBCUniversal. NBCUniversal is one of the world's leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production and marketing of entertainment, news and information to a global audience. NBCUniversal owns and operates a valuable portfolio of news and entertainment networks, a premier motion picture company, significant television production operations, a leading television stations group and world-renowned theme parks. NBCUniversal is a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation
 
About REWIND
REWIND uses new technologies to deliver immersive solutions for the world's largest companies, agencies, and brands. The team is formed of creative technologists, engineers, product designers, directors, and entrepreneurs - a collective of skilled immersive tech builders with a passion for innovation and problem-solving. REWIND has been solely VR/AR/MR focused for the last six years. In this time, the company has won multiple awards and has been nominated for an Emmy. For more information about REWIND please visit https://rewind.co.

Media Contacts

holoride
Catharina Wollny, Head of Marketing & Communications
[email protected]

Ford Motor Company
Fazel Adabi, New Business, Technology & Strategy Communications
[email protected]

Universal Pictures
Lauren Purnell & Jenny Tartikoff, Global Communications
[email protected]
[email protected]

SOURCE holoride

Related Links

https://www.holoride.com/