- [Nolan] After Facebook announced
it was changing its name to Meta,
the Metaverse became 2021s 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 the hell does that have to do with cars?
Which Metaverse moves from car makers makes sense
and which are pure marketing ploys?
Today on "Wheelhouse," we're going inside the mainframe
to give you the full scoop.
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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 concept to wrap your head around,
in the same way that the internet was probably
tough to grasp before it existed.
Oh, it'll be like, like books
and TV and every job all put together.
And eventually it'll be owned by Comcast.
The simplest way to think about the Metaverse is
as an evolution of the way we experience the internet today.
Supposedly it'll be a combination
of emergent technology like VR, AR, 5G, AI
and possibly several other two letter abbreviations.
Together, all that tech will create a shared 3D space
where users can interact with other people
as well as the world around them.
It might look fairly similar to the real world
or it could be a total fantasy world
depending on the choice of the user.
You know, like VR Chat or second life, or Garry's Mod
or World of Warcraft
or Runescape or Club Penguin, is that a Metaverse?
Neo pets?
In other words, it's a customizable digital overlay
on the real world that represents the convergent point
of most if not all media computing
and communication technologies.
If that sounds impossible,
consider that a global data overlay
of our real lives already exists.
But instead of seeing it visually
we interact with it via our smart devices.
The problem of course, is that most
of the theoretical uses are still highly theoretical.
And most users haven't exactly flocked
to early Metaverse adjacent devices like Google Glass.
However, this hasn't stopped car makers
from Meta wading into the Meta waters.
BMW has started designing cars
and even entire factories using a platform
called the Omniverse.
Omniverse's creator Nvidia calls it
quote, "The Metaverse for engineers."
Some tech experts believe it's likely
that the Omniverse will become a key part
of the Metaverse's foundational technology.
BMW's Regensburg factory has a fully
functioning digital twin in Omniverse
that's capable of simulating scale production
at every level.
BMW envisions a future in which engineers
from all aspects of design collaborate
in a shared virtual space with people
and robots working together on a Metaverse version
of the factory floor. (deep breath)
Deep breath. (chuckles)
One key perk of designing cars in the Metaverse
is that BMW can take a designer's work
and using exactly the same set of assets
make a photo realistic representation of that car
in a 3D space for exactly zero additional dollars.
Not just the appearance of the car, but the physics as well.
Now I actually think this is the strongest use case
for "Metaverse tech" that I've seen so far.
Conceivably BMW can build a brand new assembly line
in Omniverse, develop entire workflows and solve line issues
before any work begins in the real world.
In the real Regensburg factory
the plants' robots are represented in real time
on the virtual floor and can be piloted
by a real person through Omniverse
if the unit experiences an issue.
And I think that's pretty damn cool.
Meanwhile, over at Hyundai, the Korean company
recently announced they're leaning even further
into the future with a concept they call Metamobility.
The press release featured more techno babble
than the manual for the Rocinante.
Not only do they envision the car
of the future as a 3D entertainment space
instead of a place for attentive driving,
they're also basically hoping to merge the use
of vehicles and robotics through the Metaverse.
Yeah, this one's a little weird.
In the words of a Hyundai's chief vocabulary officer quote,
"The idea behind Metamobility is that space,
time and distance will all become irrelevant.
Robots will become an extension of
of our own physical senses
allowing us to reshape and enrich our daily lives."
Huh, okay.
If robotics got you thinking
about those creepy dog robots that can open doors
and dance the samba, you're just like Hyundai.
Just before announcing the Metamobility initiative,
Hyundai bought a majority stake in Boston Dynamics,
the Massachusetts company that makes
those weird creepy robots.
We actually did a video about this a while ago.
The key piece of tech behind high Hyundai's robot dreams
is called the Plug & Drive Module.
It's an AI based single wheel unit
that can be attached to basically any object
and make it mobile.
Hyundai foresees a variety of uses,
from moving small objects, like an individual persons cane
to chaining multiple units together
for public transportation or 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 for
space, time and distance to become irrelevant.
But if Hyundai can assist people get around, I'm for it.
BMW and Hyundai have big goals and high ideals
for what the Metaverse can do.
But the real proof of concept will be whether
they can turn a buck.
If so, expect other car companies to release their own
Metaverse focused thesaurus heavy press releases ASAP.
Speaking of quick money, the NFT gold rush was one
of the biggest stories in tech last year.
In some ways NFTs and Metaverse
are almost synonymous with each other.
Both are based in Web 3.0,
an umbrella term for a future version
of the internet without big middle men
like Google or Verizon.
In their place is a decentralized system built
on blockchain, which is also the foundation
for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
If you've been out of the loop or maybe just focused
on things that exist in the real world,
NFT stands for Non Fungible Token.
Non Fungible essentially means something unique
or without equivalent.
A $100 bill for example is fungible
because it can be exchanged for five 20s or 10,000 pennies.
An original Picasso is Non Fungible
because there's no equivalent replacement.
Right now NFTs are mostly pieces of digital memorabilia
like a Onus Wagner baseball card
with a digital transaction history.
But eventually they could be integral
to something as fundamental as car ownership.
For example, you can own an NFT
that represents your ownership stake
in an autonomous vehicle
and that gives you access to the car itself.
And you wouldn't have to deal
with a dude named Beeple to get it.
On an industry scale car companies aren't quite
as hip to NFTs as they are to the bigger Metaverse concept.
But it seems like someone new announces a line
of collectible NFTs seemingly every day.
In June of 2021 the Barrett Jackson auction house
announced that they were the first collector car company
to sell NFTs during a live in person auction.
If you think that means they were selling NFTs
of collector cars, you're wrong.
They were selling NFTs commemorating
the sale of collector cars. (laughing)
What?
The winning bidders received a video
an illustration and three still images based
on previous instances in which Barrett Jackson had sold cars
with 001 VIN numbers.
Cool man.
A company called NFT Garage
is hoping to create NFTs based on real world cars
using a picture and stats to digitally represent the rides.
They say the car will exist in two places,
real life and as an NFT,
but their values won't necessarily correlate
with one another.
I don't wanna spend too much time on this particular venture
but I did find something very interesting.
The main draw of NFT Garage is that you take a picture
of your car, upload it, and then they mint it for you.
They turn it into an NFT and then hopefully down the road
you can sell it for profit.
Sounds like a great deal for photographers, right?
But it looks like you can just take photos from other places
like the Lamborghini press site, for example.
NFT Garage wants $75 for this
four year old Aventador press photo.
Here's a pic of a Maserati 300S,
taken from the Red Line Restorations website
based in Black Rock, Connecticut.
These are the people that actually restored this car
and they put these pictures up so they could sell it.
The NFT people though cropped it in Photoshop
and 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 to describe some of this stuff
without making it sound like a scam.
I'm willing to give almost any idea the benefit
of the doubt, but it doesn't help
that the NFT community is full of scammers.
Just Google "NFT scam" and you'll find
a few dozen articles about who's been ripped off right now.
A flaw in the OpenSea markets NFT transfer process
has cost users, millions of dollars.
A recent Ozzy Osborne themed NFT launch
was hijacked with a fake Discord server
to defraud investors.
A fake NFT collection called the "Big Daddy Ape Club,"
pre-sold $1.3 million worth of tokens
then never delivered the NFTs
and 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 to assume everyone is a scammer
until proven otherwise."
This does not sound like the incredible
technological game changer we were promised.
Even the solutions to these problems cause problems.
A dude in New York had $2.3 million
worth of "Bored Ape" NFT stolen.
Why is it?
It's all apes.
So OpenSea immediately suspended trading
of the stolen apes, but they're not really
supposed to even be able to do that
because the whole point of NFTs and crypto
is deregulated unprotected assets.
None of this is very reassuring
if the idea is to eventually turn important stuff
like car titles into NFTs.
And I haven't even mentioned the environmental issue here.
NFTs are at least partially responsible
for the millions of tons of carbon dioxide emissions
generated by the cryptocurrencies used to buy
and sell them.
For a car industry that is actively trying to decouple
itself from carbon emissions, this isn't a great look.
According to cryptoart.wtf, an NFT called "Space Cat"
has the same carbon footprint as an EU residents
electricity usage for two months.
And it's a GIF of a cat in a space shuttle.
The emissions are due to the fact that NFTs
are largely bought and sold with marketplaces
like Nifty Gateway and Super Rare
that use the cryptocurrency Ethereum.
Ethereum, like most major cryptocurrencies
is built on a system called "proof of work"
that is incredibly energy hungry.
Although Ethereum I will say is more efficient than Bitcoin.
In fact, the process is energy inefficient on purpose.
The idea is that using up inordinate amounts of electricity
and the ensuing bills makes it less profitable
for someone to mine it.
And as a side effect Ethereum uses about as much electricity
as the entire country of Libya.
The greenhouse gas thing is a generally acknowledged problem
in the crypto community.
And there are multiple strategies being pursued to
keep blockchain secure in ways
that aren't as hard on the planet.
So I'll give them some credit there.
Ethereum in particular has promised to migrate
to a less energy intensive form of blockchain.
The problem now is that people have been waiting for years
for Ethereum to make the change.
And some of them are sceptical it ever will.
Time will tell.
The bottom line here is that the Metaverse has potential,
but it comes with aspects we should be sceptical of.
It makes complete sense that car companies
would be investing in the technology's future.
But if the tech has any future,
it has to be more than a cash grab.
So props to BMW and Hyundai for investigating
the practical implications
and boo to the countless marketing departments
minting NFTs as fast as they can upload a JPEG.
Most of the benefits of the Metaverse
are still theoretical.
Attracting investors with promises that your product
can be anything may sound enticing.
Especially in the context of an emerging technology.
But in my experience, creative constraints and a focus
on a singular goal, are what really lead to breakthroughs.
Meanwhile, by its very nature,
crypto has become a haven for scams and a notable polluter.
The future of this tech may very well still be awesome.
But as consumers and collectors, it's worth staying wary
until the promises become reality.
- [Voice Over] Inside your car, there is a creep
unlike anything you've ever heard before.
But be warned, it can be 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 that lurks within the boost.
(monster growling)
Donut Media presents
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Really, that cheap, huh?
That's so much cheaper than $30.
- Woo, all right, man, we learned a lot today didn't we?
That was a, that was a fun one.
Metaverse this, crypto that, minting, funging,
non-funging, Paris Hilton going 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 something
with 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 that you haven't talked to
since like 2011, you know?
See how they're doing?
Do that, I'm gonna do that.
Okay, be kind, see you next time.