No Escape: Your Car Is the Next Major Entertainment Hub - PCMag

Mercedes F 015 "Luxury in Motion" Concept

Look around. No matter where you are—at home, in a coffee shop, on the subway—most people are probably staring at screens. From obsessively checking email or social media to binge-watching Netflix to scoping the latest sports clips on ESPN, what was once an activity reserved for a living room is now available almost anywhere thanks to the cloud.

Today, perhaps the only space safe from constant visual content consumption is the car—at least for the driver. While connectivity has invaded the vehicle interior in the form of Wi-Fi and streaming services, drivers still have to keep their eyes on the road instead of catching up on Stranger Things.

But that will change with the advent of autonomous vehicles. Content providers are salivating at the prospect of opening a pipeline into the car once people no longer have to pay attention to the road. Just this week, in fact, Intel announced a partnership with Warner Bros. "to develop in-cabin, immersive experiences in autonomous vehicle settings."

"The rise of the AV industry will create one of the greatest expansions of consumer time available for entertainment we've seen in a long time," Intel CEO Brian Krzanich wrote in a blog post. "As passengers shift from being drivers to riders, their connected-device time, including video-viewing time, will increase."

In addition to AV occupants watching movies and TV to help pass time in the car, Krzanich envisions "riders enjoying immersive experiences never seen before, courtesy of in-cabin virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) innovations. For example, a fan of the superhero Batman could enjoy riding in the Batmobile through the streets of Gotham City, while AR capabilities render the car a literal lens to the outside world, enabling passengers to view advertising and other discovery experiences," he added.

Intel calls its Warner Bros. partnership the AV Entertainment Experience and plans to create a concept car "to demonstrate what entertainment in the vehicle could look like in the future," Krzanich said. But the chipmaker and entertainment giant are one of several companies gearing up to develop content for what's been called the fifth screen.

The Next Journey for Entertainment

A 2016 Ernst & Young report predicted that streaming in-car entertainment could help the entertainment industry rake in an additional $20 billion in revenue. Ted Schilowitz, a futurist for Paramount Pictures, told The Hollywood Reporter in August that it will be "the next journey for entertainment" and said "multiple studios are looking at this and meeting with strategic partners."

Schilowitz added that the entertainment industry sees "a lot of real estate" in self-driving cars to deliver content. "If you look at the windshield and windows, they are screens at the right distance to be entertainment portals."

With the advent of self-driving, car design will radically change and the steering wheel and other controls will go away, making a vehicle interior a true drive-in theater. Automakers have already produced futuristic self-driving concepts like the Mercedes-Benz F 015 Luxury in Motion concept that has six screens and turns the cabin into a "digital arena."

"If you don't need a steering wheel or driver's seat, the car can be a new space," Alex Hilliger, advanced engineer at Mercedes-Benz Research & Development North America, told THR. "The vehicle could have a lounge atmosphere, and the passengers can face forward or backward. We're re-envisioning the automotive experience."

With content will come ads, and autonomous cars are also a marketer's dream since they'll be able to literally drive consumers to purchase products. So if you like driving without the constant content consumption that's invaded every other aspect of our lives, enjoy it while you can. On the other hand, if you find driving a waste of time, you can look forward to binge-watching—and likely seeing more commercials—instead of having to read bumper stickers and billboards to pass the time.