Welcome to the cutting edge ⚔️ 

Read time: 6 min

Today’s Slate

• Google adds GenAI features to Maps, Waze and Earth

• COSM adds Detroit to their list of locations

• Apple upgrades their virtual displays

• VR gets an interactive Black Mirror-esque movie

• Tesla innovates on the test drive experience

• The. future. is. here.

Artificial Intelligence

At a glance

• Google Maps: Enhanced conversational search powered by Gemini, route planning with landmarks, parking suggestions, pedestrian directions, and immersive AR views.

• New capabilities: Reporting weather disruptions, more detailed lane information, and immersive views of 150 cities.

• Waze: Integration of conversational reporting for real-time hazard alerts, allowing users to verbally report incidents.

• New tools for map editors to add school zones, with notifications for drivers passing through them.

• Google Earth: AI-enhanced complex search features for urban planning and analytics (e.g., identifying areas with few EV chargers).

Our vision

With generative AI integrated across Google Maps, Waze, and Google Earth, Google is set to revolutionize digital mapping. By harnessing Gemini’s conversational AI and data curation, Google Maps can now offer deeply personalized, accurate search experiences and real-time, voice-activated hazard reporting.

Meanwhile, Google Earth’s complex data visualizations promise new levels of insight for urban planning. Together, these tools aim to transform how users navigate, explore, and make decisions about physical spaces around them, pushing digital mapping to become more interactive, data-driven, and user-centered.

At a glance

• Oasis AI by Decart enables real-time, generative game worlds that adapt instantly to player actions.

• Demoed on a single NVIDIA H100 GPU, the tech currently supports 720p at 20 FPS, with plans to enhance quality.

• Unique “object persistence” means environments shift with each revisit, showcasing a new dynamic in gaming.

• Oasis AI isn’t a Minecraft replacement; it’s an experimental platform for exploring AI-driven, open-world creation.

• Built with GPT and NVIDIA’s GPU, the system minimizes latency, enabling responsive, immersive experiences.

• Decart envisions expansion into fields like interactive cinema and VR, targeting a new era of “Generative Interactive Experiences.”

Our vision

Oasis AI is a bold step into AI-driven digital experiences, promising unique, adaptive worlds that respond to individual users. Decart’s ongoing innovation could soon reshape gaming and beyond, merging real-time AI with personal, immersive entertainment.

We are wondering if research and development at the larger game studios have started to tap into this technology in a similar way or if they’ll just scoop up technology like this through acquisitions.

Spatial Computing

At a glance

• Cosm’s Fourth Venue: Set for downtown Detroit near Campus Martius, adding to locations in LA, Dallas, and upcoming Atlanta.

• Design & Tech: Features a 26.6m 12K LED dome and hi-res LED wall, similar to Hollywood Park’s 150-ft display, designed by Detroit-based firm ROSSETTI.

• Programming Highlights: Includes live sports partnerships with UFC, NBA, NFL, NBC Sports, and more, allowing fans to experience events through “Shared Reality.”

• Immersive Arts: Features Cirque du Soleil’s "O" and works by creators like Nancy Baker Cahill and Ricardo Romaneiro from the Cosm Studios Creator Program.

Our vision

With Cosm Detroit, the company aims to be a transformative force in urban entertainment, creating a venue that merges technology, sports, and immersive arts to redefine communal experiences. By anchoring itself in Detroit’s revitalizing downtown, Cosm’s venue aspires to celebrate the city’s rich culture while delivering cutting-edge, interactive entertainment for locals and visitors alike.

At a glance

• Exclusive Look by MKBHD: Tech influencer MKBHD reviewed Meta Orion and Snapchat AR Spectacles, offering a rare insight into cutting-edge AR glasses tech. His take highlights both the promise and challenges of today’s AR wearables.

• Meta Orion: A three-part system—glasses, a wireless puck, and an EMG wristband that reads electrical signals for hand gestures. Meta Orion overlays digital content seamlessly in the real world, allowing tasks like checking social feeds or scanning ingredients.

• Snapchat Spectacles: Standalone glasses without a separate computer, with high-res displays but a smaller field of view. They’re developer-focused, with built-in tint for immersive overlays and support for custom AR apps.

• Hardware & Usability: Meta's glasses, lighter and more transparent, offer around 2 hours of battery life, while Snapchat's bulkier design lasts 45 minutes due to all-in-one hardware. Both showcase advanced sensors, cameras, and materials but face battery and comfort limitations.

Our vision

MKBHD’s review underscores the potential of AR glasses to enhance daily interactions by blending digital content with the real world. Meta’s advanced gesture tech and Snapchat’s developer kit pave the way for a future where AR could replace phone screens, making tech more intuitive and interactive.

At a glance

• Multiple examples of the latest Apple Vision Pro software release demonstrate how virtual displays will replace physical ones

• While the technology is new, it is showing potential with high quality visuals

• While Apple focuses on one big display, others are letting you create a command center with up to 6 at a time

Our vision

With these developments a prediction we have made in the past is coming closer to reality. Over time AR glasses will replace your mobile phone and MR/VR headsets will replace your TVs for immersive entertainment and gaming. Both of these categories of devices are going to make physical displays obselete.

There are many technical hurdles along the way - such as sharing the screen in real time with others around you - but if we’ve come this far I’m sure the human race will continue innovating with these form factors and underlying computing capabilities to shift us towards a spatial computing revolution.

At a glance

• Release Date: Human Within, an interactive VR film by Signal Space Lab and Actrio Studio, launches on Quest on January 9, with a SteamVR release to follow.

• Format & Style: Inspired by Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, it offers user-driven choices that impact the story's progression and conclusion, featuring five possible endings.

• Storyline: The plot centers on Nyla, an engineer, and her sister Linh, who’s thrust into the metaverse after her consciousness is uploaded as part of a company project.

• Visual Experience: Viewers explore digital recreations of environments, shown as 3D point clouds, and engage with the story through both 2D and 360 video.

• Themes: The film examines the impact of advanced AI on human connections, reflecting on the real-world developments in technology like ChatGPT and Neuralink.

Our vision

Human Within aims to blend the immediacy of virtual reality with interactive storytelling, creating a reflection on how AI reshapes human identity and relationships. As viewers navigate a futuristic story that feels grounded in today’s advancements, they’re offered a personalized journey through choices that influence the plot’s outcomes, mirroring the ethical and emotional complexities surrounding AI in modern society.

Transportation

At a glance

• Tesla continues to provide an innovative end-to-end car purchasing experience

• Now you can use your phone to find a Tesla near you to test drive

• No human contact needed

Our vision

The automotive industry is moving quickly and car companies struggle to keep up with Tesla when it comes to it’s purchase experience. A friend recently described the process like buying an iPhone. Soon the days will be gone where you go to a dealership and haggle over a price that you want to be as low as possible while retaining the best configuration and features.

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