Nissan and Toyota Enter The Metaverse —With Two Different Approaches

Tinkering with the Metaverse has become a trend among major brands and companies. This time, it has caught the attention of two of the largest automakers globally, Nissan and Toyota.

On April 22, Japanese automakers Nissan and Toyota announced their entry into the Metaverse to offer new virtual experiences to their users, organizing digital events and building virtual customer service offices.

According to the Japanese newspaper Nikkei Asia, both companies seek to innovate in the Metaverse, offering immersive exhibitions of their cars through the use of virtual reality (VR), all this thanks to their partnerships with the video game developer startup VRChat.

How Nissan and Toyota Approach The Metaverse

Nissan will focus on creating virtual reality rooms for its customers. In contrast, Toyota will focus on remote working environments, creating offices for its personnel, where they can discuss technical developments through the use of their avatars.

In other words, now, some of Toyota’s work meetings won’t be physical but in the Metaverse. According to a company representative, this new work area is opening up as a result of the problems caused by the coronavirus.

“As more people are working from home because of the coronavirus, we are offering young employees and others communication options within the company.”

For now, Nissan and Toyota did not officially inform in which Metaverse they will launch their new offices, so people will have to wait to find out whether they will opt for a centralized one like Meta’s or a decentralized one like Decentraland.

Automotive brands expand into the Digital World

Nissan and Toyota are not the first automotive brands or companies to innovate in this new trend of the Metaverse. Other companies, such as Volkswagen and Mercedes Benz, launched campaigns in early April to promote their entries into the Metaverse, awarding prizes such as the latest PS5 and advanced driving lessons at one of Volkswagen’s academies.

Bridget Harpur, marketing director for Volkswagen Passenger Vehicles, said that this “new universe” offered by the metaverse “made an exceptional impact on the consumer,” so they will likely continue to create new events and experiences for their user and fan base.

In addition, other luxury automakers such as Ferrari have yet to officially enter the Metaverse but are already dabbling in creating NFTs, hand in hand with blockchain companies such as Velas Network.

This means that, little by little most of the major automotive companies are betting on the technologies behind cryptocurrencies.