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**The Metaverse and Cars: What's the Connection?**

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After Facebook announced it was changing its name to Meta, the **Metaverse became 2021's favorite buzzword**. It was also a banner year for NFTs which exploded in popularity among certain online circles and will likely play a big role in the future of the Metaverse.

There's never been a better time to make money speculating on the future of the internet. So it's not a surprise that automakers would try to join this futurist trend. What even is the **Metaverse?** And what does that have to do with cars?

Which Metaverse move from car makers makes sense and which are pure marketing ploys? Today on [insert title here]...

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WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- After Facebook announcedit was changing its name to Meta,the Metaverse became2021s favorite buzzword.It was also a banner year for NFTswhich exploded in popularityamong certain online circlesand will likely play a big rolein the future of the Metaverse.There's never been a bettertime to make money speculatingon the future of the internet.So it's not a surprisethat automakers would tryto join this futurist trend.What even is the Metaverse?And what the hell doesthat have to do with cars?Which Metaverse moves fromcar makers makes senseand which are pure marketing ploys?Today on "Wheelhouse," we'regoing inside the mainframeto give you the full scoop.Thank you to Raycon forsponsoring today's video.When I'm working on my car,things can get a little loudwhich makes it hard to listento my favorite podcast.But when I use Raycon's Everyday Earbudsthose disrupting noises are isolated awaythanks to their optimized gel tipsthat make this perfect in-earfit feel oh, so comfortable.And with eight hours of playtime and a 32 hour battery lifeI can keep working andnever miss another momentfrom my favorite podcast.(chuckling)That Nolan guy really cracks me up.You know, what's better thangetting premium audio quality?Getting premium audioquality at half the priceof those other top brands.It's no wonder the Everyday Earbuds haveover 48,000 five star reviews.That's a lot.I use my Raycon's all the time.And if you want your own pair,head on over to buyrayon.com/donutto get 15% off your Raycon purchaseor just click the linkin the description below.Now, if you'll excuse me,I've got some "Past Gas"to catch up on. (laughing)Nolan, you silly (beep).The Metaverse is a hard conceptto wrap your head around,in the same way that theinternet was probablytough to grasp before it existed.Oh, it'll be like, like booksand TV and every job all put together.And eventually it'll be owned by Comcast.The simplest way to thinkabout the Metaverse isas an evolution of the way weexperience the internet today.Supposedly it'll be a combinationof emergent technology like VR, AR, 5G, AIand possibly several othertwo letter abbreviations.Together, all that tech willcreate a shared 3D spacewhere users can interact with other peopleas well as the world around them.It might look fairlysimilar to the real worldor it could be a total fantasy worlddepending on the choice of the user.You know, like VR Chat orsecond life, or Garry's Modor World of Warcraftor Runescape or ClubPenguin, is that a Metaverse?Neo pets?In other words, it's acustomizable digital overlayon the real world thatrepresents the convergent pointof most if not all media computingand communication technologies.If that sounds impossible,consider that a global data overlayof our real lives already exists.But instead of seeing it visuallywe interact with it via our smart devices.The problem of course, is that mostof the theoretical uses arestill highly theoretical.And most users haven't exactly flockedto early Metaverse adjacentdevices like Google Glass.However, this hasn't stopped car makersfrom Meta wading into the Meta waters.BMW has started designing carsand even entire factories using a platformcalled the Omniverse.Omniverse's creator Nvidia calls itquote, "The Metaverse for engineers."Some tech experts believe it's likelythat the Omniverse will become a key partof the Metaverse'sfoundational technology.BMW's Regensburg factory has a fullyfunctioning digital twin in Omniversethat's capable ofsimulating scale productionat every level.BMW envisions a future in which engineersfrom all aspects of design collaboratein a shared virtual space with peopleand robots working togetheron a Metaverse versionof the factory floor. (deep breath)Deep breath. (chuckles)One key perk of designingcars in the Metaverseis that BMW can take a designer's workand using exactly the same set of assetsmake a photo realisticrepresentation of that carin a 3D space for exactlyzero additional dollars.Not just the appearance of thecar, but the physics as well.Now I actually think thisis the strongest use casefor "Metaverse tech"that I've seen so far.Conceivably BMW can builda brand new assembly linein Omniverse, develop entireworkflows and solve line issuesbefore any work begins in the real world.In the real Regensburg factorythe plants' robots arerepresented in real timeon the virtual floor and can be pilotedby a real person through Omniverseif the unit experiences an issue.And I think that's pretty damn cool.Meanwhile, over atHyundai, the Korean companyrecently announced they'releaning even furtherinto the future with a conceptthey call Metamobility.The press release featuredmore techno babblethan the manual for the Rocinante.Not only do they envision the carof the future as a 3D entertainment spaceinstead of a place for attentive driving,they're also basicallyhoping to merge the useof vehicles and roboticsthrough the Metaverse.Yeah, this one's a little weird.In the words of a Hyundai'schief vocabulary officer quote,"The idea behindMetamobility is that space,time and distance willall become irrelevant.Robots will become an extension ofof our own physical sensesallowing us to reshape andenrich our daily lives."Huh, okay.If robotics got you thinkingabout those creepy dogrobots that can open doorsand dance the samba,you're just like Hyundai.Just before announcing theMetamobility initiative,Hyundai bought a majoritystake in Boston Dynamics,the Massachusetts company that makesthose weird creepy robots.We actually did a videoabout this a while ago.The key piece of tech behindhigh Hyundai's robot dreamsis called the Plug & Drive Module.It's an AI based single wheel unitthat can be attachedto basically any objectand make it mobile.Hyundai foresees a variety of uses,from moving small objects,like an individual persons caneto chaining multiple units togetherfor public transportationor even mobile hospitals.I mean, it sounds kind of weird,but it's also kind of cool.I don't know if I'm ready forspace, time and distanceto become irrelevant.But if Hyundai can assistpeople get around, I'm for it.BMW and Hyundai have biggoals and high idealsfor what the Metaverse can do.But the real proof ofconcept will be whetherthey can turn a buck.If so, expect other carcompanies to release their ownMetaverse focused thesaurusheavy press releases ASAP.Speaking of quick money,the NFT gold rush was oneof the biggest stories in tech last year.In some ways NFTs and Metaverseare almost synonymous with each other.Both are based in Web 3.0,an umbrella term for a future versionof the internet without big middle menlike Google or Verizon.In their place is adecentralized system builton blockchain, whichis also the foundationfor Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.If you've been out of theloop or maybe just focusedon things that exist in the real world,NFT stands for Non Fungible Token.Non Fungible essentiallymeans something uniqueor without equivalent.A $100 bill for example is fungiblebecause it can be exchangedfor five 20s or 10,000 pennies.An original Picasso is Non Fungiblebecause there's no equivalent replacement.Right now NFTs are mostlypieces of digital memorabilialike a Onus Wagner baseball cardwith a digital transaction history.But eventually they could be integralto something as fundamentalas car ownership.For example, you can own an NFTthat represents your ownership stakein an autonomous vehicleand that gives youaccess to the car itself.And you wouldn't have to dealwith a dude named Beeple to get it.On an industry scale carcompanies aren't quiteas hip to NFTs as they are tothe bigger Metaverse concept.But it seems like someonenew announces a lineof collectible NFTs seemingly every day.In June of 2021 the BarrettJackson auction houseannounced that they were thefirst collector car companyto sell NFTs during alive in person auction.If you think that meansthey were selling NFTsof collector cars, you're wrong.They were selling NFTs commemoratingthe sale of collector cars. (laughing)What?The winning bidders received a videoan illustration andthree still images basedon previous instances in whichBarrett Jackson had sold carswith 001 VIN numbers.Cool man.A company called NFT Garageis hoping to create NFTsbased on real world carsusing a picture and stats todigitally represent the rides.They say the car will exist in two places,real life and as an NFT,but their values won'tnecessarily correlatewith one another.I don't wanna spend too muchtime on this particular venturebut I did find something very interesting.The main draw of NFT Garageis that you take a pictureof your car, upload it, andthen they mint it for you.They turn it into an NFT andthen hopefully down the roadyou can sell it for profit.Sounds like a great dealfor photographers, right?But it looks like you can justtake photos from other placeslike the Lamborghinipress site, for example.NFT Garage wants $75 for thisfour year old Aventador press photo.Here's a pic of a Maserati 300S,taken from the Red LineRestorations websitebased in Black Rock, Connecticut.These are the people thatactually restored this carand they put these picturesup so they could sell it.The NFT people thoughcropped it in Photoshopand then sold it for almost $2,000.The future rocks, man, this is awesome.I'm gonna be honest with you guys.It's really hard todescribe some of this stuffwithout making it sound like a scam.I'm willing to give almostany idea the benefitof the doubt, but it doesn't helpthat the NFT communityis full of scammers.Just Google "NFT scam" and you'll finda few dozen articles aboutwho's been ripped off right now.A flaw in the OpenSeamarkets NFT transfer processhas cost users, millions of dollars.A recent Ozzy Osborne themed NFT launchwas hijacked with a fake Discord serverto defraud investors.A fake NFT collection calledthe "Big Daddy Ape Club,"pre-sold $1.3 million worth of tokensthen never delivered the NFTsand deleted all their associated accounts.And that was all in a three day span.One crypto expert told"Rolling Stone" quote,"It's best practice toassume everyone is a scammeruntil proven otherwise."This does not sound like the incredibletechnological gamechanger we were promised.Even the solutions to theseproblems cause problems.A dude in New York had $2.3 millionworth of "Bored Ape" NFT stolen.Why is it?It's all apes.So OpenSea immediately suspended tradingof the stolen apes, but they're not reallysupposed to even be able to do thatbecause the whole point of NFTs and cryptois deregulated unprotected assets.None of this is very reassuringif the idea is to eventuallyturn important stufflike car titles into NFTs.And I haven't even mentionedthe environmental issue here.NFTs are at least partially responsiblefor the millions of tonsof carbon dioxide emissionsgenerated by thecryptocurrencies used to buyand sell them.For a car industry that isactively trying to decoupleitself from carbon emissions,this isn't a great look.According to cryptoart.wtf,an NFT called "Space Cat"has the same carbonfootprint as an EU residentselectricity usage for two months.And it's a GIF of acat in a space shuttle.The emissions are dueto the fact that NFTsare largely bought andsold with marketplaceslike Nifty Gateway and Super Rarethat use the cryptocurrency Ethereum.Ethereum, like most major cryptocurrenciesis built on a systemcalled "proof of work"that is incredibly energy hungry.Although Ethereum I will sayis more efficient than Bitcoin.In fact, the process isenergy inefficient on purpose.The idea is that using upinordinate amounts of electricityand the ensuing billsmakes it less profitablefor someone to mine it.And as a side effect Ethereumuses about as much electricityas the entire country of Libya.The greenhouse gas thing is agenerally acknowledged problemin the crypto community.And there are multiplestrategies being pursued tokeep blockchain secure in waysthat aren't as hard on the planet.So I'll give them some credit there.Ethereum in particularhas promised to migrateto a less energy intensiveform of blockchain.The problem now is that peoplehave been waiting for yearsfor Ethereum to make the change.And some of them aresceptical it ever will.Time will tell.The bottom line here is thatthe Metaverse has potential,but it comes with aspectswe should be sceptical of.It makes complete sense that car companieswould be investing inthe technology's future.But if the tech has any future,it has to be more than a cash grab.So props to BMW andHyundai for investigatingthe practical implicationsand boo to the countlessmarketing departmentsminting NFTs as fast asthey can upload a JPEG.Most of the benefits of the Metaverseare still theoretical.Attracting investors withpromises that your productcan be anything may sound enticing.Especially in the contextof an emerging technology.But in my experience, creativeconstraints and a focuson a singular goal, are whatreally lead to breakthroughs.Meanwhile, by its very nature,crypto has become a haven forscams and a notable polluter.The future of this tech mayvery well still be awesome.But as consumers and collectors,it's worth staying waryuntil the promises become reality.- Insideyour car, there is a creepunlike anything you've ever heard before.But be warned, it canbe quite temperamental.(evil laughter)Always run an inter cooler,do not use low octane dyno juice.(engine starts up)And the most important thing,(engine revving)beware the creep thatlurks within the boost.(monster growling)Donut Media presentsthe new hair raising Boost Creeps shirt.Available right now atdonmedia.com for just 29,98.Really, that cheap, huh?That's so much cheaper than $30.- Woo, all right, man, welearned a lot today didn't we?That was a, that was a fun one.Metaverse this, cryptothat, minting, funging,non-funging, Paris Hiltongoing on Jimmy Fallon.Like let's just go outside.Let's just go outside.How about that?Don't spend your money on a JPEG.Take that money buy somethingwith all wheel drive, go camping.Buy some all terrain tires for your Civic.Go out to Joshua Tree.Spend a hundred bucks on a tent.Do that.Hit up your friends thatyou haven't talked tosince like 2011, you know?See how they're doing?Do that, I'm gonna do that.Okay, be kind, see you next time.