Driverless car finds its voice

BRAND :Skoda
BRAND OWNER :Skoda
CATEGORY :Automotive
REGION :Netherlands
DATE :Jan 2009 - Feb 2009

To promote its new Octavia model to Dutch consumers, Skoda wanted a campaign that rose above the blandness of car specifications and entered into the realm of entertainment.
Skoda came up with the idea of a remote controlled car, thus Octavia RC was born.

An Octavia car was parked in various locations around the Netherlands. There is a camera inside the car and one outside the car filming the outside of the vehicle. Both of the feeds are sent to a website, http://www.octaviarc.nl/.

Visitors to the website could not only select which camera view they wanted to watch, but also interact with the car and watch the reactions of passers by. Once users arrive at the live feed, they can see a number on their screen which represents a countdown of the number of people who have a turn to do something to the car before it is their turn.

Once their turn arrives, they have one minute to remotely manipulate a number of the car’s features, including the lights, the horn, the windscreen wipers, as well as a series of jingles that are played from a set of speakers installed behind the bumper, which make it sound as though that car is speaking.