The connection between autonomous cars and entertainment

There was once a time when people wondered if the technology would ever truly be developed. However, now it is merely a matter of when it will be fully developed. We are counting down days when only driver-less cars will be seen on the road.

The fact that there has been more than 80 billion dollars of investment in this technology in the past three years speaks volumes about the potential of self-driven cars. It is expected that by 2025, fully autonomous vehicles will constitute 6 billion dollars of market share while partially self-driven cars will have a global value of 30 billion dollars.

One might think that only consumers will benefit from self-driven cars. All you need to do is get in, tell your car where to go and voila you are in for a peaceful journey. If the entertainment industry has anything to do about it, your trip won’t be as quiet as you would like it to be. Instead, apart from consumers, advertisers and marketers will be the next stakeholders that are likely to benefit from the technology.

An opportunity for the entertainment industry?

Recently, Intel announced that it would partner with Warner Bros. and develop self-driven cars that will act as “consumer space” while also being a means of transportation for them. According to Intel’s CEO, the convergence of entertainment and self-driven cars will allow for an “immersive and in-cabin experience” for consumers.

What self-driven cars are offering to users is revolutionary. For the first time, you will be a passenger in your car, without the presence of any driver. Soon, people will let go off their old conventional cars and find information about how much to scrap a car.

After migrating to the technology, owners will have a lot of time to spare as they wait to reach their destination. This is bound to increase the time they spend on their connected devices. This, in turn, means that they will have more time to watch videos.

Let’s take America as an example. On average, people spend 300 hours behind the wheel in the country. With self-driven cars, this means that the audience is free for 300 hours where the entertainment industry can effectively target them. And this is precisely what many brands are planning to do.

The potential of AR and VR in autonomous cars

With hundreds of hours to kill, entertainment is bound to be your only resort during a long journey. This is why it is predicted that self-driven cars are likely to have VR and AR features to keep the masses entertained. For instance, someone who is a fan of the Marvel universe can ride around viewing it all from the eyes of Iron Man.

Or, you could be Alice traveling to Wonderland. The fact remains that an otherwise mundane journey can be transformed into an entertainment experience with the use of VR in futuristic vehicles.

On the other side of the spectrum, advertisers might also be inclined to tap into the consumer space via this augmented reality. Passengers can be shown promotions and ads in a new way, i.e., on windshields and windows. It might seem like an episode out of the Black Mirror, as we are entering a time when such marketing tactics can easily become a reality.

Considering that more than 35% people get annoyed by ads and 59% believe that there is a general ad overload, the chances are that such push marketing may not fare well with the target audience.

How can the entertainment industry use self-driven cars?

Let’s get down to the technicalities of it. How exactly are entertainment and self-driven cars connected? Well, they are connected in two ways:

A marketing tool

Marketing and entertainment industry, in general, thrive on data. The more accurate consumer data they acquire, the better campaigns and content they will be able to develop. Self-driven cars will allow such industries to access a lot of data.

They can use data like demographics, destinations, speed, weather, traffic conditions, and landmarks to deliver precise and customized consumer communications. This is something that is currently impossible to acquire at such precision. For instance, let’s say you are traveling to a closed roof restaurant on a bright sunny day.

A marketer of a restaurant that has an open setting and is nearby can target you by a customized message regarding how fun it is to dine out in this beautiful weather. Since it is the time of zero moments of truth, self-driven cars can allow marketers to exploit this.

A mini-entertainment center

As discussed previously, self-driven cars themselves can become a media vehicle. Brands will have the attention (at least figuratively) of consumers for quite a long time, considering the hours’ people spend in commute. If used strategically, brands can easily target the masses during this time.

However, it is important to note that one must find a way not to overdo it. People are becoming more and more wary of advertising. This is why influencers are now more effective than plain old ads.

In such a world, brands might face a challenge if they try to lock customers in and bombard them with ads that they don’t want to see. How exactly they will succeed in using the vehicle as a media channel is something time will tell.

Apart from the advertising industry, self-driven vehicles have also become a point of interest for game developers, e-commerce businesses, content creators, and telcos. After all, having your target audience’s undivided attention for hours is quite a lucrative proposition.

Currently, the self-driven car itself is a technology that hasn’t been widely tested. Companies would have to ensure that customers trust the technology well enough to migrate to it. We can then begin thinking about how the entertainment industry will benefit from the migration.

If giants like Intel and Warner Bros. have taken a step towards infusing such vehicles with entertainment features, it is safe to predict that the convergence of the two industries is imminent.

Michelle Joe is a blogger by choice. She loves to discover the world around her. She likes to share her discoveries, experiences and express herself through her blogs. You can find her on Twitter @michellejoe524.