The Metaverse In Your Pocket

This writer stepped into the metaverse for a flying taxi ride at the recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. And roll, fold, flip – more nifty tech is coming up in the world of mobile phones.

- Nafisa Akabor

One of the most popular stands at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) Barcelona, Spain, this year was from South Korea’s SK Telecom, with its air taxi ride simulation using virtual reality (VR) headsets. Visitors queued up for hours to get on.

As you step into the front seat of the four-seater air taxi mock-up, you wonder: will you be able to last the whole ride; what if you end up with a headache and dizziness from the VR experience?

The ride was three minutes long, but once I was strapped in with a seat belt and VR headset, another passenger’s headset had to be configured at least three times. I felt anxious sitting around indefinitely with a VR headset, not being able to see the real world. “We’re experiencing technical difficulties,” said SK Telecom.

Once the four of us in the taxi were equipped with working VR headsets, our flight from a futuristic Busan took off. It involved our seats physically moving in the direction we flew with a vertical drop towards the end, to landing on a rooftop.

Not unfamiliar to VR, I got off feeling a bit disoriented. Would I test other VR experiences again? Absolutely. There’s only one way to follow this journey and see how it improves or if it ever takes off.

Stepping into the metaverse for a flying taxi ride was just one of many innovations on display at MWC Barcelona, which returned to full force since the pandemic.

According to the GSMA (which represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide), over 88,500 people attended from around the world with 56% coming from industries adjacent to the mobile ecosystem.