Next time you fly, you could get a Meta Quest 3 to keep you entertained with mixed reality experiences and movies after success with Meta’s recent pilot program. Although somehow it is already destroyed by being used for some generation of the next generation.
Travel mode landed on the Quest -headset a little less than a year ago to allow you to use your VR device while on a flight (and later while on a train journey). Normally, the vehicle’s movements will confuse your headsets sensors, but travel mode uses a “tuned” algorithm, according to Meta, which accounts for your aircraft’s movement so it doesn’t cause disturbance.
At that time, Meta announced a partnership with Lufthansa to provide entertainment during flight to people traveling in their Allegris Business Class Suite (on selected flights) so that they could enjoy activities such as virtual chess, meditation exercises and virtual sightseeing writings.
Now, 4,000 travelers later, Meta and Lufthansa are initial that the trial is successful and announced that this service will expand to “more airlines and routes” in the near future. Something I’m super excited about.
In addition to more immersive entertainment during flight-as he could lift your movie from the small screen on the seat in front of you and suspend it on a huge virtual display instead, I am particularly interested in these meditation exercises in the flight and other techniques that can help nervous flyers.
I feel good about flying, but I know lots of people who find the experience of stressful. A VR Headset that can whip you away to a place more relaxing. Useful mindfulness exercises could be exactly what they need to make aircraft a less nerve-wracking experience.
However, one feature that I am not interested in is how the Quest headset could be used for advertising during flight-something Meta also just advertised in its blog post.
Lufthansa and Cupra (a brand in the Volkswagen group) have collaborated with creating an “In-Flight Test-Drive app.” Meta explains that headset users will be able to customize their own Cupra car and “engage in Cupra Tavascan” as they explore virtual recreation of the streets of Barcelona and a Cupra garage -where you can learn more about the cars the company offers.
Presumably, this will be an opt-in experience rather than a feature that will be forced to users, but I still can’t help but feel that it is already cheaper the revolutionary entertainment system VR headset in the flight by reducing it to another boring way to sell you things. A Cool Cupra-sponsored SIM-Flight drive would be one thing; This is something much more Icky feeling.
I still think that virtual and mixed reality in the flight will be a fantastic thing-I got a taste when I use Xreal One AR glasses on a couple of recent trips-but we will have to wait and see if it develops in a fun way or if it just becomes another tool to sell us things.
