Why Hollywood Could Make Billions From Self-Driving Cars

In-vehicle entertainment for passengers may translate to big business for studios: "Can the windshield be the movie screen of tomorrow?"

For the past 18 months, a river of money has been flowing between Detroit and Silicon Valley. In March 2016, GM spent $1 billion to acquire self-driving car startup Cruise Automation. More than 10 automakers, including Tesla, Audi and Mercedes-Benz, have set up autonomous vehicle development labs in Silicon Valley. Even Apple has its own model in the works, seen driving itself on the Cupertino streets of the new $5 billion Apple Park campus. With an estimated 21 million new connected cars (or vehicles with internet access) on the road in 2017 in the lead-up to fully autonomous vehicles hitting the streets over the next decade, it's no wonder that a 2016 Ernst & Young report projects that in-car streaming entertainment could bring $20 billion in incremental revenue to the industry.

"Our mobile lifestyle is expanding into cars — that is the next journey for entertainment. Hollywood is an important part of that discussion," says Ted Schilowitz, futurist at Paramount Pictures. He points out that while passengers will continue to use personal mobile devices, a self-driving car could deliver a more sophisticated offering of movies, TV and games as well as emerging platforms such as virtual, augmented and mixed reality. In a driverless car, "there's a lot of real estate," says Schilowitz. "If you look at the windshield and windows, they are 'screens' at the right distance to be entertainment portals. Can the windshield be the movie screen of tomorrow?"