Faraday Future’s Cars Aren’t on the Road Yet – But They’re Coming to Video Games

Samson Amore

Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He holds a degree in journalism from Emerson College and previously covered technology and entertainment for TheWrap and reported on the SoCal startup scene for the Los Angeles Business Journal. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter @Samsonamore.

Faraday Future’s Cars Aren’t on the Road Yet – But They’re Coming to Video Games
Photo Courtesy of Faraday and Gameloft

Faraday Future may not be close to releasing a car ready to zip down freeways, but it is porting a concept version of its electric car into a video game, hoping to convince more people to plunk down deposits of up to $5,000 to reserve a model of its flagship sedan, the FF 91.


Gardena-based Faraday announced this week that a digital version of its concept car – not the FF91, but an earlier prototype – will be added to a racing simulator game called “Asphalt 8,” made by French mobile game developer Gameloft. The FFZERO1 concept car will be available by December for fans to “drive” in the racing game. Faraday also plans to add its first upcoming production vehicle, the FF 91, at a later date.

Faraday fans have been waiting a long time for their cars to arrive. Some long-haulers may have been twiddling their thumbs for the last eight years—since the FF91 was announced. This new development isn’t exactly a step towards getting customers behind the wheel but it could lead to more cash, which could speed up production timelines. If Faraday’s marketing ploy works out, and people playing “Asphalt 8” are intrigued by the digital version of the car and have funds to pre-order a real one, Faraday could certainly use the cash.

“The FFZERO1 concept is an amplified version of the design and engineering philosophies that will underpin FF’s production vehicles, beginning with the FF 91 Futurist which is anticipated to start production later this year,” Faraday’s design director Page Beermann said in a statement Tuesday.

Sensor Tower notes “Asphalt 8” had 3.6 million global downloads in July and that Gameloft gained around $133,000 in revenue that month from in-app sales. The free to play game is available on both Android and iOS. According to Sensor Tower, “Asphalt 8” is the seventh-most downloaded mobile racing game in the world, and is most popular in countries including India, Brazil and Russia.

Faraday’s cars will be added to the current “Asphalt 8” game, and again in the newest upcoming addition to the franchise, “Asphalt 9: Legends.”

Faraday recently raised $52 million of a planned $600 million financing round to help the electric vehicle firm finally start delivering its cars, which CEO Carsten Brietfeld promised earlier this month will be arriving in driveways by the fourth quarter of 2022. In an Aug. 15 statement, Brietfeld said that production at Faraday’s FF iEFactory in Hanford is close to being up and running.

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Relativity Space Launches World’s First 3D-Printed Rocket, But Falls Short of Orbit

Samson Amore

Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He holds a degree in journalism from Emerson College and previously covered technology and entertainment for TheWrap and reported on the SoCal startup scene for the Los Angeles Business Journal. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter @Samsonamore.

Relativity Space Launches World’s First 3D-Printed Rocket, But Falls Short of Orbit
Photo: Relativity Space

The largest 3D-printed object to ever fly had liftoff yesterday as Long Beach-based Relativity Space launched its Terran 1 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Terran 1 lifted off from Cape Canaveral at around 7 p.m. PST March 22. It was Relativity’s third attempt at sending Terran 1 to the cosmos and the nighttime launch was quite a sight to behold. The clarity of the night sky was perfect to see the blue jets of flame cascading out of Terran 1’s nine Aeon 1 engines, all 3D-printed, as the rocket took off.

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What Is ‘Embodied Audio?’ And Can It Help Professional Sports Teams Fill Their Stadiums?

Samson Amore

Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He holds a degree in journalism from Emerson College and previously covered technology and entertainment for TheWrap and reported on the SoCal startup scene for the Los Angeles Business Journal. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter @Samsonamore.

What Is ‘Embodied Audio?’ And Can It Help Professional Sports Teams Fill Their Stadiums?
Photo: Edge Sound Research

In 2020, the Minnesota Twins experimented with a new technology that brought fans the ability to physically feel the sounds they were hearing in the stadium in the back of their seats as part of a new immersive way to experience baseball.

The tech was made by Riverside-based startup Edge Sound Research, which built a mobile lounge – basically, a small seating section equipped with its technology and on wheels to travel around the stadium – for Twins fans to experience what it calls “embodied audio” around Target field. It was a bid on the Twins’ part to keep fans more engaged during the game, and Edge Sound Research CEO Valtteri Salomaki said the Twins were impressed.

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https://twitter.com/samsonamore
samsonamore@dot.la

B Capital’s Howard Morgan On The Key To Early Stage Investing

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

B Capital’s Howard Morgan On The Key To Early Stage Investing
Provided by LAV

On this episode of the LA Venture podcast, B Capital Group General Partner and Chair Howard Morgan discusses his thoughts on early stage investing and the importance of company ownership.


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