Vaughn Gittin Jr Powerslides A Lincoln MKZ Remotely Using VR!

BY Brad Anderson | Posted on

This year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed attracted the powerhouses of the automotive industry, but there were also a number of startups looking to make an impression on the market. One of them was Designated Driver.

The company, based out of Portland, brought along a modified Lincoln MKZ to the British motoring event. However, this was no ordinary Lincoln.

Thanks in part to Samsung and Vodafone’s 5G technology, the modified MKZ can be driven remotely. Piloting the car remotely in the days prior to the Goodwood Festival of Speed was professional drifter Vaughn Gittin Jr. To drive the car, all the experienced racer had to do was strap on a pair of VR goggles using the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G and proceed to control the car with the steering wheel and pedals of a gaming console.

What’s particularly cool about the technology is that there is virtually no latency meaning that whenever Gittin Jr makes an input, the car immediately responds. The drifter was even able to easily powerslide the car with little fuss.

During testing, Designated Driver also controlled the car at Goodwood from its headquarters that are over 5,000 miles away in Portland, Oregon, and experienced a latency of just 100 milliseconds.

It’s hard to say when technologies like these will be introduced into the automotive market. Nonetheless, it is impressive to see such advanced systems being developed and put to the test – and we dare say that it won’t be long before we actually see them put into production.

 

Vaughn Gittin Jr Powerslides A Lincoln MKZ Remotely Using VR!

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