Digital Road
Digital Road is Ford Motor Company’s vision of the future. It’s a full virtual
experience of the future including an educational and enjoyable 3D driving
experience. It was used by Ford in their motor shows to quickly convey how
cool their cars for the future could be.
Players can select and drive their car around the streets of a typical
suburban area of America. Streets are wide, houses pretty and gardens well-
maintained – a picturesque place to learn to drive the cars of the future.
There are even people walking down the sidewalks!
Keyboard controlled, there was the option of putting code into a simulator –
or at least building the PC and monitor into an actual FORD concept car!
Players at the RoadShows could have sat in these cars and driven the program
using real-life controls as their interface.
There are no traditional ‘gamey’ goals as such and it therefore feels
different to many driving experiences. The main ‘goal’ is to experience FORD’s
cars of the future. It is a freeform, sandbox experience with a little
direction from the sexy robot lady who anthropomorphically embodies the car!
The project was funded by the Imagination Group, London, UK