Originally published at: Sony and Honda put Playstation 5 in cars to compete with Tesla | Boing Boing
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Great, another thing Musk has ruined. Here’s hoping that even if American regulators are toothless and asleep, that the rest of the world slaps this down hard and quick.
Who would want this? Even if it’s only entertainment for your passengers, as a driver wouldn’t it be super distracting to have your passengers engaged in game-play with a cacophony of explosions etc? Especially at night with screens reflecting off of the windshield?
Am I missing something?
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exploring new entertainment possibilities through digital innovations such as the metaverse." What that actually means is anyone’s guess
When you see the term “metaverse” used by a corporation, it’s safe to assume they’re really exploring new possibilities for getting consumers to shell out real money for worthless digital scrip.
That this will doubtless result in serious safety problems is beside the point.
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I think that we are all missing the point here. The most important and impressive thing about this car is that Honda and Sony decided to put a screen where the front grill would be on most cars.
And to have that screen play a trailer for a Spiderman movie.
Because that is the future they are pitching. A future where we will all be watching movie trailers, flipped in our rearview mirrors, on the car behind us in traffic.
ETA: Oh! The provided video is a boring one! I will have to look around and see if I can find one of the truly bonkers ones where they show off their ideas for things that no one wants
ETA: Here we are:
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Wasn’t the world supposed to be getting better? I hate where this is going. Ah well, nothing that a sledgehammer won’t fix.
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I feel like Honda could go a long way with “Our car batteries won’t explode, and if they do our cars won’t lock you inside to die a horrible death,” but sure, let’s go with Playstations and ads playing on bumpers.
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This crap needs to be proactively banned before it gets to market.
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It’s always been my habit to drive in the real world, but if the oncoming driver is driving in the metaverse, I can see how this would lead to seamlessly integrating my sedan with his 18-wheeler, which would indeed evolve my mobility space into emotional space. The entertainment space, however, would only be second-hand, for the bystanders recording the scene and their TikTok audience.
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I have Afeeling that if and when this hits the road there will be a rash of news items detailing the gruesome ways that Gran Turismo and reality intersect.
On the other hand, headphones.
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It is such a versatile device.
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And then how long will it be until someone hacks the car, sets up some touchscreen shortcuts similar to emotes in online games, and makes it so the drivers can let other people on the road know how they’re really feeling?
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Must be for the American market, as Americans don’t primarily see the car as a means of transportation, but as an extension of their living spaces, a consequence of the number of hours spent by Americans in their cars. It’s essentially another room in the home. A lot of insane-but-common driving behavior, car culture and American car design is explained by this.
While also making content for the corporation that the corporation can monetize. They’re seeing it as social media meets Roblox, with both types of revenue streams. 21st century “company towns” with brand-new added layers of exploitation.
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Some of it might be. Most Canadian provinces, for example, have pretty broadly-written distracted driving laws. Even looking at your phone can get you a ticket. There are also laws about any screens that face the driver, or face other vehicles. Certainly using this PS5 would be illegal (likely for anyone in the car) even if building it may not be, depending on how they do it.
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Most screens are bad enough even when they are trying to be helpful to the driver. Probably time for a pro-active, pre-emptive law on this one. I think all of it needs to be treated about how you would if you were offering a beer tap over the gear shift.
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There are a lot of things worthy of ridicule about this, but I just wanted to point out the steering wheel…
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Agree! I strongly believe that touch screen controls like Tesla has should absolutely be illegal for anything more than entertainment controls. Anything that requires you to look away and focus on the dash (because you can’t identify anything by feel) is an accident waiting to happen. I don’t mind touch screens for the navigation system and such, which have voice equivalents and you don’t interact with much while moving. But volume, heater controls, that sort of thing should all be tactile.
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Capitalizing on people who can’t afford mortgage or rent and are living out of their cars.
The car is much more affordable, as it only has 3/5ths of a wheel.
I assume the idea is that it’s for use only when park or autopilot are engaged. My family had a van with a DVD player in the front many years ago. It automatically shut off once you shifted out of park.
On its own, yes.
Compared to the cacophony of bored children bickering? Maybe not as bad.
