Driving toward future of entertainment
Cars have long been the star, set and production studio, now they become living room
Cars have been vehicles for entertainment for a while now. But as media and technology continue to accelerate, we are all speeding toward a digital Autobahn.
The car has been the star, become a set and production studio, and will soon become an extension of the living room.
Cars have featured as subjects since the early days of recorded film; in the car chases of 1970s action movies; and as beloved features of TV series, such as K.I.T.T. and the General Lee in 1980s shows Knight Rider and The Dukes of Hazzard.
These days, people live-stream content from their cars, and dash-cam footage is becoming breaking news and going viral. And then there’s Carpool Karaoke. With all the anticipation surrounding self-driving cars and what they mean for in-car entertainment, Carpool Karaoke is a potential road map to where we are heading.
Started as a bit for a charity show in Britain by actor and comedian James Corden, Carpool Karaoke became a huge hit for his Late Late Showand now its own series.
Its first season is streaming exclusively on Apple Music, as Apple makes a first move into original content.
Of course, Carpool Karaoke was a hard sell at first.
“There was something really joyful about it and we wondered if there was an idea here. We’re going to be in Los Angeles, traffic, carpool lanes, karaoke, that’s fun. Driving people in a car, singing songs, great, people are going to love this. No one wanted to do it, no one at all,” Corden told Stephen Colbert last year.
“There wasn’t anyone who would do it, and then there was a chance meeting with Mariah Carey and she said, ‘OK, I’ll do it.’ We didn’t think it would turn out the way it has done and it’s great.”
Now the show has stars lining up, although the big question is how well it can do without Corden, since the new version features different celebrities behind the wheel.
Something such as Carpool Karaoke seems purpose built to drive other things. Apple, a tech company that is already in living rooms, working on in-car products and self-driving cars, recently committed $1 billion (U.S.) for creating original TV series.
It’s easy to envision Carpool Karaoke having brand extensions, as musicians receive a bump after appearing on it, and it’s easy to see it becoming an app or game; perhaps a show shot in a car that people could play along with, also in their cars.
It is also spurring copy cats. Discovery U.S. has announced it will bring back Cash Cab, a game show in which taxi passengers answer trivia questions, and that its next incarnation may feature celebrity contestants.
Streaming services are also taking to car-based entertainment. Sony’s free Crackle service landed Jerry Seinfeld and his Comedians in Cars Drinking Coffee, while Apple Music launched its video push with the Dragons’ Den- like Planet of the Apps along with Carpool Karaoke. Last November, Amazon Prime Video went worldwide, including Canada, and tied that launch to The Grand Tour, a new series from the former hosts of the monstrously successful Top Gear.
This makes some sense. Many of us still drive and there is a universality to being stuck in traffic or singing along to the radio, and smartphone cameras can turn anyplace into a broadcast studio. There are entire channels based on catering to auto enthusiasts, like Speed (which became Fox Sports 1) or Discovery’s Velocity.
“On Discovery, but mainly on Velocity, the cars are characters as well,” says Lindsay Cowan Dotchison, director of programming for Discovery Networks. “On Discovery Velocity, people want to watch content about cars, but really it’s about the life of a car. It is kind of an emotional reaction; we all grew up and had the family car, or our first car, and we think back on those. And a lot of our shows find old cars and reclaim them, and bring them back to life and sell them.”
Live car auctions are also a big hit for the specialty channel. Cowan Dotchison notes that Canada’s Worst Driver has been a hit for the main Discovery Channel, while Daily Planet has found success covering automotive technology and selfdriving car content.
But some of the biggest hits of carcreated content have come from regular people. With the explosion of live streaming, the proliferation of dashboard cams and smartphone holders, the car has become a good spot for people to create content.
“It is a nice place where you can sit and chat and talk when you are not doing anything else,” says Justine Ezarik, a YouTube creator known as i-Justine. “I do think it’s a good place for that. It’s also usually quiet, unless you are in traffic.”
Ezarik focuses on gaming content but was one of the first people to become a “lifecaster” on the site that would eventually become Twitch, streaming six months of her life online in 2007.
“I also do vlogs (video blogs) from my car, but I also have car mounts (for cameras) and everything set up, so if I hit record I’m already driving so I’m not paying attention to it. It’s just sort of something that’s there. I do film a lot in my car, like transition pieces going from home to other places, but I do think people have to be careful and think about safety before (filming in their cars).”
It’s impossible to get figures on how much live-streaming and video content is created in cars, but think about someone like “Chewbacca Mom,” whose laughing fit over a silly Star Wars mask occurred in the front seat of her car.
Or in a sadder example, the death of Philando Castile in Minnesota was live-streamed.
There are many instances where footage from cars has become evidence in court cases.
Where this is all going is of great interest to automotive and large entertainment companies.
“The digital revolution and content will change the car more in the next couple of years than ever before,” Gorden Wagener, head of design at Daimler AG told Road & Track last year. “In the future, people expect a seamlessly integrated in-car infotainment when they enter a car. They are used to taking their digital lifestyles wherever they are. At the same time, we always want to be surprised. The content within the vehicle becomes a digital core of the car and its design is very relevant.”
For everybody but the driver, the car is already a living room of sorts, with phones, tablets and in-car screens providing entertainment. With autonomous driving technology seemingly moving faster than the legislation surrounding it, drivers could soon be freed up to join in.
“I think the autonomous cars, it opens up a window where people can safely, not like they are doing now, consume content, and safely be in their own environment and own space,” Discovery’s Cowan Dotchison says.
“It’s a natural extension of what will come with all these new cars that are ahead for all of us.”
What that will look like varies wildly. There are app, tablet and phone-centric models. Apple has Car Play, while Google is competing with Android Auto. Voice-controlled smart speakers will likely make the move to cars soon enough.
There have been all sorts of concept car mock-ups, where the dashboard is a display. At least year’s Consumer Electronics Show, Honda showed off a Dream Drive in-car virtual reality simulator for passengers. There are already mock-ups of smart windshields that can become video screens.
The issue is that in-car entertainment will compete with things like getting a bit more sleep before work. If you take this to its end point, selfdriving cars could change the car ownership model altogether, creating the potential for a utopian system of auto sharing or part of an elaborate public transit network.
Until then though, the best thing to do is turn up the radio — or more likely a Bluetooth-connected phone — and enjoy the ride.