Hyundai Just Teamed up With Roblox: An Unlikely Combo
Hyundai’s most recent advertising campaign is a lofty ambition, to say the least. Rather than just tease the technology of the future, the brand created a server on the popular children’s game Roblox. Think of it like Minecraft, but oriented toward exploring different worlds rather than building stuff. And now, Hyundai built a world of their own so players can journey into the future of electric cars, and other concept vehicles.
The Hyundai Mobility Adventure shows the brand’s vision of the future
A new future awaits one with hoverboards, drones, and self-driving electric cars. And truth be told, Roblox is a much cheaper way of displaying their technological fever dreams rather than actually building each product. But rather than cramming as much content into one area, Hyundai plans to divide the server into separate areas, or parks, each representing just one bit of the company’s goals.
When you open the server, you’ll drop right into Festival Square, where you can listen to music and show off your cars. The four other parks, however, have their own theme and cars tacked to them.
There’s Future Mobility City, where alternate mobility technologies like hydrogen cars rule the streets, but more on that in a bit. Then there’s the Eco-Forest Powered by Ioniq, where electric cars meet simple, slow living. There’s the Smart Tech Campus for the wannabe Hyundai engineers. And lastly, there’s the Racing Park Powered by the N-Line.
Those five worlds all sound intriguing in their own ways, though as of now, not all five are released to the public. The open beta only features the Festival Square and Future Mobility City, with plans to add the Eco-Forest in October, and the Smart Lab/Racing Park before the year’s end. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t any cool gadgets and cars available now.
What vehicles are featured in this Hyundai made Roblox server?
When you first spawn in Hyundai’s server, you’ll be presented with your brand new Hyundai Nexo. Think of this as the starter car in the game, though in the real work it’s far from it. The Nexo is Hyundai’s hydrogen fuel cell car, available only in California. And the base MSRP is a whopping $58,935, which questions whether this fuel cell SUV is worth buying.
The “poster child” of this Mobility Adventure, however, has to be the Ioniq 5. It’s Hyundai’s first exclusively electric car, boating 225 hp and 300 miles of range on the base model. Price, however, is TBA, and we’re not sure how that range will compare between the real world and Roblox.
Also featured in the trailer is a Hyundai Tucson, which we can only assume is either the 2022 plug-in hybrid model or the N line. Or both. After all, a regular gas-powered SUV doesn’t sound very “futuristic.”
But there are three other oddballs that don’t exactly fit into Hyundai’s portfolio, all of which are featured in this new Open Beta. For starters, there’s a small dog-like robot on wheels, reminiscent of Boston Dynamic’s Spot. There’s also a futuristic streetcar that simply wanders around the map. But perhaps the most exciting vehicle featured is the Hyundai S-A1 Air Taxi
A brief overview of the Hyundai S-A1 Air Taxi
I know, you came to read about Hyundai’s Roblox server. But the S-A1 Air Taxi is interesting enough where it deserves its own blurb. First revealed at the 2020 CES tech show, it’s a four-seater air taxi with some ambitious goals.
For starters, the S-A1 is a partnership between both Hyundai and Uber, meaning you can call for one of these things from your smartphone. Though, obviously, you’d need a helipad, which is where the Hyundai S-Hubs come into play. Like an airport for these electric airborne taxis, they can take passengers 60 miles per charge at speeds of 180 mph. Oh, did we mention Hyundai wants these things to be autonomous?
While the first production models will have a pilot, the S-A1 is meant to be fully autonomous. As are the little electric streetcars that get passengers to and from the S-Hubs. And while none of these have been built, likely due to the immense regulation hurdles Hyundai would have to get over, it’s nice to know the concept lives on in Roblox.
Is the Hyundai Mobility Adventure any good?
Well, I’ll start by saying you can log onto Roblox and play Hyundai’s Mobility Adventure for free. So if you end up hating it, at least you’re only wasting time and not money. Now, Roblox can be pretty buggy, especially when it comes to driving cars. So don’t expect this to be anything impressive, it’s really just a game.
But, as Hyundai explains in a recent press release, it’s also a form of communication. Younger audiences especially can get a taste of the future through the videogames they play, and there are means in the server to report problems and suggestions to Hyundai developers. It’s a strange way of accepting user input, but that’s more user interaction than a lot of automakers can tout.
Is this a revolutionary piece of technology that’ll change how you see the future? Nope, not even close. It’s a collection of minigames for kids to not only introduce the brand, but show off what might be in store for Hyundai in the future.
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