AutoVision: The Bizarre In-Car Video Player That Never Happened

Before long, your daily commute could get a little more fun. In fact, it might not feel like a commute at all. When completely self-driving cars finally get here, that daily drive could turn into a time to play video games, 流媒体播放电影, 或者看最新一期的 权力的游戏 prequel you know everyone at the office will be talking about.

While it seems like sci-fi, in-car video streaming will be here soon. But I only recently learned about how long we’ve been dreaming of it. Cleaning out an old storage space, I stumbled on the June 1993 issue of 泛光灯. When I was younger, I never had much time for 泛光灯, which seemed like it featured a lot of sci-fi pipe dreams that would never come true. Poring over a 26-year-old issue is fascinating, because you can see exactly why those crazy dreams didn’t come true.

以电子宇宙游戏专栏为例, 例如, which in this issue singled out the Sega Virtua VR headset as one of the 10 best game developments of the year. 我认为虚拟现实头戴式耳机很新鲜? 好吧，他们不是. 那么为什么世嘉VR没有在90年代掀起一股风暴呢? 浏览维基百科 says Sega VR was used in arcades but never got a general release. Apparently, testers complained of severe headaches and motion sickness. 哦. 想知道 全向的 games columnist ever actually tried the device before he raved about it.

The Wheels column discussed an even more provocative and unrealistic product: AutoVision. This proposed in-car TV system relied on a built-in projector mounted by the car’s center dome light. ,投影仪发射电视图像对准挡风玻璃上的小屏幕. The driver would then see the TV image floating just above the horizon, so he or she could keep one eye on the road and another on a favorite show.

Obviously, AutoVision never made it out of Park. Adjusting the radio is too much of a distraction for some people, so I hate to think what a highway full of TV-viewing drivers would look like.

But clearly, AutoVision was ahead of its time, because in-car TV is on the way. 关于这个问题的一些观点, 我咨询了一位专家, 特蕾西Swedlow, 《百家乐软件app最新版下载》的联合制片人. 她已经跟踪这片区域很多年了. She pointed out to me that in-car video is already here. 任何有手机或平板电脑的人都可以玩. And, of course, backseat DVD screens have been entertaining kids for years.

Sure, today’s solutions are purely for passengers, but that will change. The car of the future will be a mini living room, Swedlow相信, 有舒适的座位和一张小桌子. 免费的d from having to drive, people will be able to kick back and enjoy themselves. Future cars won’t even need TV screens, since the windows themselves could do the job.

5G和atsc3等新技术.0 will help make in-car video a reality, Swedlow says. She knows of five or six companies that have secured funding and are now actively working on in-car video entertainment solutions. There’s a race on to be the Zenith of car TV, and I didn’t even realize it.

When does Swedlow think this new world of driving and streaming will be here? 大约5年后. It’s exciting to think that your next car might drive itself. I suspect that timeline is ambitious, but I hope not. 我相信Netflix也不希望如此. After years of stealing our sleep as we squeeze in just one more episode before we go to bed, we’d finally have plenty more time for our shows. Maybe binge viewing will translate to binge driving, and TV road trips will become popular. 把新一季的 陌生的东西在你意识到之前，你已经在佛罗里达了.

That could be our reality soon, and it’s pretty far out. 甚至比 泛光灯 本可以预测的.

[This article appears in the October 2019 issue of 流媒体杂志 就像“drive N Streamin”一样."]