Jalopnik: second life

Lancia to Launch Car in Second Life, Before First Life

Travis Hudson — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 16:00:00 EST

Hey Lancia, welcome to 2006! It's good to see you finally decided to approach and embrace Second Life, the virtual world game thing. The Italian Fiat subsidiary will be launching the Delta sedan in Second Life one day prior to its official unveiled at the Geneva Auto Show.

It will all go down during a press conference at "Lancia Village Island" in Second Life. The village is opening up for business today and will include a showroom, party room and more. I for one will not be at the Second Life Lancia press conference, mainly because the biggest draw to any press event is free booze and I'm not about to try to fake getting drunk online. Now that's lame. [Tech Digest]

Peugeot Wants Your Second Life

bwojdyla — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 11:30:00 EDT

I don't know about all of you out there in cyberlandia, but I have a life so full enough of whatnot that I can barely manage my first life, let alone a Second Life. Framing this in such a manner, you'll see that, after getting a come-on e-mail from Peugeot (after the jump), my downloading of the Second Life app, setting up an account, and then flying around in nerdspace to finally find the digital representation of this year's Peugeot Design competition is going way, way out of the way to provide you internet-based stupidness. I even got the free Peugeot racing getup for my insanely Nordic Avatar. I feel dirty now. I hope you're happy.

Coming to a Second Life Near You: Mazda to Launch Hakaze Concept in Cyberspace

Mike Spinelli — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 06:19:19 EST

Later this month, denizens of that placeless cyberplace, Second Life, will get a sneak preview of Mazda's Hakaze concept car, ahead of its debut in three dimensions at the Geneva show. Mazda's following the lead of Toyota's Scion, which has been running 3D campaigns in Second Life since August, 2006. Scion also plans to launch its xD and redesigned xB there (is there a "there"?), simultaneously with the cars' unveiling at the Chicago show this week. Mazda's created a place called Nagare Island, presumably as a venue in which to highlight its current design concepts. We just wonder if it'll be inhabited by sharp-elbowed French photographer avatars, just like Geneva. We'll see. – Mike Spinelli

Press Release:

Mazda Hakaze Design Concept to be Launched at Second LifeTM

Leverkusen, 06th February 2007. Mazda's latest concept car Mazda Hakaze will soon be driving through cyberspace on Nagare Island at Second LifeTM and Mazda Motor Europe wants you to join in the fun.

Mazda Hakaze expresses an exciting new design language called Nagare (pronounced na-ga-reh), created by Mazda's new global design director, Laurens van den Acker. It was designed at Mazda's European Design Centre near Frankfurt, Germany, and is the third concept to be shown this auto show season - following Mazda Nagare (shown at the LA Auto Show this past November) and Mazda Ryuga (shown at the Detroit Motor Show just one month ago).

"Nagare is about expressing motion, energy and beauty, in ways that people connect with, and Second Life is one of the Internet's best interactive venues," said van den Acker. "Of course we love the idea of giving people the chance to connect with and drive our latest concept - virtually, rather than in reality, of course."

In 2003, the US company LindenLab created Second LifeTM, a virtual 3-D continent that now has about 3 million inhabitants from around the globe. It is one of the fastest-growing "countries" in cyberspace and boasts an average of 15,000 users at any given moment. You can find more details at www.secondlife.com.

"Mazda Hakaze and Second Life are a perfect match," says Peter Birtwhistle, Chief Designer at Mazda Motor Europe. "Hakaze is a cool, compact crossover with roadster feel, and Nagare Island will be a great place for people to do a

virtual drive and just chill out with others. And there are several exciting surprises in store as well."

# # #

We invite you to join the exclusive press launch of the Mazda Hakaze in cyberspace on 15 February 2007, 17h00 CET, Nagare Island, Second LifeTM. (An advance reservation with your Second LifeTM user name, media name and contact information is required until 12 February 10h00 CET via
mazda-press@mazdaeur.com) Nagare Island and the Mazda Hakaze will be available to all residents of Second LifeTM later the same day, beginning at 18h30 CET.

Scion xD, Next-Gen xB Coming to Chicago, Virtual Reality

Mike Spinelli — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 08:15:01 EST

The guys at ScionLife recently got a look at the new Scion xD — the company's more sedan-like replacement for the xA — at some sort of no-photography event where alcohol was served. One of them sketched what he saw (above), despite being a few sheets toward the Tropic of Capricorn. It's the best we're getting until ~~someone breaks the embargo~~ the Chicago show next month, where Scion will introduce the xD, along with a redesigned xB. (Parent Toyota will also debut the 2008 Highlander and Highlander Hybrid in Chicago.) But simultaneously, Scion will debut its new models on Second Life, the hyped ~~reality replacement~~ 3D social-networking site. If our insurance premiums go up any more, we may just have to move there. – Mike Spinelli

2008 Scion xD Sketches [ScionLife]

Related:
Scion's New Release: xB 4.0 [internal]