Article Image

Honda's Dream Drive VR experience may be the future of in-car entertainment

Honda has announced collaboration with DreamWorks Animation to demonstrate augmented and virtual reality for all passengers. A simulator showing off the tech will be available for all CES 2017 attendees.

From the automaker that believes in the “Power of Dreams,” a partnership has been formed with the studio that puts a trademark on the concept. At this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES), currently being held in Las Vegas, Honda has announced a collaboration with DreamWorks Animation to demo augmented and virtual reality from the passenger’s seat.

CES attendees will be able to test Honda Dream Drive in-car VR simulator that incorporates DreamWorks animation. As is shown in the accompanying video, Trolls movie characters will ride along with you as part of a studio tour — whether you find that terrifying or not is a different question.

The project will mate live telematics data with in-vehicle entertainment, education, and information while the car is in motion. To be clear, the practical use of this technology at present would be for passengers in Honda cars. However, once autonomous technology assumes driving responsibility, even the designated driver could participate.

“Entertainment in the car is rapidly changing as consumers rely more and more on personal devices and Honda sees new opportunities to create unique experiences for our customers,” said John Moon, developer relations lead at Honda Developer Studio. “The collaboration with DreamWorks enables Honda to enhance the in-vehicle experience through new ways of delivering information and entertainment.”

“We see the cabin of an automobile as an untapped platform for delivering entertaining and educational experiences to consumers,” said DreamWorks Animation’s Chief Animation Technology Officer Jeff Wike. “Working with Honda has enabled us to bring our collective talent together to explore and identify opportunities in adapting and creating new forms of consumer engagement.”

This type of virtual or augmented reality content could preview the future of mobile entertainment, where all passengers engage in a connected, interactive experience as their car zips toward its destination.

Apple won the PC market’s worst quarter, but that’s not the entire story. It won the race by stumbling less than everyone else.

PC makers shipped just 57 million computers worldwide in Q3, which might look good, but it’s a 21% year-over-year plunge (via Counterpoint Research). And despite Apple’s Mac shipments falling by 11%, to 5.6 million, its market share rose from 8.7% to 9.8%. How did that happen?

Update (October 22 23:54 PT): In response to our query, GM clarified that offline recording support is already available on eligible vehicles. Like Tesla's Sentry Mode, it requires owners to connect a USB drive to save incident recordings, which can be viewed on the vehicle's infotainment screen. The upcoming Connected Cameras feature will build on this by giving owners remote access to these recordings via the revamped OnStar app, allowing them to check footage without walking out to their car.

General Motors has announced plans to add a new Connected Cameras feature to its OnStar service starting next year, giving drivers a way to monitor parked vehicles remotely and capture footage of certain incidents.

Missing out on the self-driving future is a tough pill to swallow, especially as a car enthusiast. But that is what Tesla handed us on Wednesday, without a hint of mercy.

During its October 21, 2026 earnings call, Elon Musk told investors the Cybercab is meant mainly as a ride service. Further, nearly all of them will be owned and managed by Tesla.