Gaming Is Just the Beginning

Is in-car gaming really a new kind of in-car experience? SmashLabs' answer is that gaming isn't actually the point — it's simply the most demanding starting point for building a digital experience suited to the space of a car. From Renault Korea's Filante and its R:Rush game, through vehicle data and experience ecosystems, to the new kind of time that driving automation will create, what SmashLabs is mapping out goes beyond gaming: a car that becomes an entirely new digital medium.

By Sang Min Han _ han@autoelectronics.co.kr
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Related Article: Why Is Renault Building a Separate Digital Experience in Korea?




A rhythm game runs on the center display of a Renault Korea Filante. Notes drift across the screen, tapped in time to the beat — a format most people have seen before. Phones and consoles are already crowded with flashier versions of the same idea. Yet Renault Korea chose it, under the name R:Rush, for a nationwide tournament held across roughly 170 showrooms. Judging by the screen alone, there's nothing remarkable here.
We put that question to the company behind it: if the demo itself doesn't look especially groundbreaking, why does Renault treat SmashLabs as a partner worth building around? Niccolò Cappon, CEO of the Italian boutique game and technology studio, answered without hesitation.
"Fair point. And in many ways, that's exactly the point."
What's on the screen isn't the whole story.



Not a Game Company

Cappon defines SmashLabs not as a game studio but as "a company that builds digital experiences inside the car." Choosing games as the entry point wasn't about fun for its own sake.
"Games are just our entry point. They're the most immersive and, technically, the most demanding form of content there is."
Latency, input devices, immersion, user experience — a game forces you to solve all of it at once, he says. The company's original title is a music-based game called Smashworld: Beat Explorers. R:Rush adapts that existing game with a new visual identity and experience designed for Renault. What Renault actually wanted from SmashLabs, it turns out, wasn't a finished game at all. Cappon laid it out this way:
"It was both. But the idea came first. The game showed what was possible, while the bigger goal was exploring how a car could become an entertainment platform."
Starting from a standard game and layering on a brand experience inspired by Renault's identity and flagship models, the conversation naturally shifted from supplying content to building an experience.







The Car Screen Isn't Just a Bigger Phone

There's a misconception about the auto industry Cappon keeps coming back to.
"The biggest misconception is treating the in-car experience as just a smartphone app blown up on a bigger screen."
If a car simply mirrors a phone screen, there's no real reason for people to reach for the vehicle's system instead of the device already in their hand. The real opportunity, he argues, lies in content that actually draws on the car's data, its systems, and the unique environment of the vehicle itself.
Asked which data and sensors come first, Cappon didn't name any single item.
"It's not about one specific feature. What matters is whether you can build an experience that responds intelligently to the vehicle and its surroundings."
Since priorities and technical architectures differ from one manufacturer to another, SmashLabs' platform has to adapt accordingly. That is why the company is not focusing on standalone apps.
"Our goal isn't individual applications — it's an ecosystem of connected, high-quality experiences."
Consistency across content, design, and user experience, he says, is what creates lasting value for both manufacturers and users. Asked whether third-party developers might eventually join that ecosystem, he was careful in his answer — noting only that building content for vehicles remains technically complex and varies by manufacturer, and that lowering that complexity will matter more as the industry matures. There's no concrete plan yet to open the platform up.



Turning Waiting Time into Experience

Cappon wants to redefine the time people spend inside a car. Rather than leaping to some far-off vision of full autonomy, he started with something much more familiar — the ordinary time we already spend sitting in our cars.
"Time spent stopped to charge can become entertainment time. Waiting outside a school for your kid can become quality time with family. Passengers can share a multiplayer experience together, whether they're in the same car or in different ones."
What he's after isn't simply filling waiting time with content. It's building memories distinct from the trip itself, through play and connection.
"Success, for us, is simple: making an experience compelling enough that people don't want to get out of the car even after they've reached their destination."
There's a technical reason this window of time keeps expanding, too. Levels 3 and 4 of driving automation change the role of the occupant. As less attention goes to driving, more time opens up for digital content — and designing for that shift means rethinking duration, immersion, convenience, and accessibility all at once. It's no longer just about entertaining the back seat; the entire cabin becomes a space for new kinds of experience.
Asked what people will actually be doing inside their cars five years from now, his answer was plain: as driving automation keeps advancing, people will spend more of their in-car time playing, watching, working, resting, or simply staying connected with others — and that experience will keep adjusting to the vehicle's environment and the moment itself.



A New Digital Medium

For all the talk of games, Cappon's vision for the cabin isn't built entirely around them.
"Gaming is just one expression of what's possible in a car. I'm equally excited about combining entertainment, wellness, ambiance, and social interaction to create moments that are only possible in the cabin."
That could mean an experience that puts someone at ease while they charge, or one that brings a family together. It could be a new kind of space where an automotive brand builds a relationship with its customers unlike anything before. Cappon summed up the possibility he sees in the car this way:
"The car has the potential to become an entirely new digital medium."
The industry, he says, has only just begun to look at that possibility.
Back at the Filante's center display, R:Rush still looks like an ordinary rhythm game. But it's only the first visible result. SmashLabs is interested in a much larger opportunity: how people will use their time inside increasingly automated cars. The next battleground in the in-car experience may therefore be less about the screen itself than about who provides the content — and what people choose to do with their time.


 

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