Car brands like General Motors’ Hummer have had a strenuous relationship with Call of Duty publisher Activision over the last couple of years, but it seems that the tides are turning. After a long-lived and ultimately failed lawsuit, the Hummer brand has now begun employing former and current Call of Duty personnel to help develop their in-car artificial intelligence and user interface.
General Motors (GMC) is not the only car company to do this, with other car brands like Cadillac and Toyota also joining the fold. The trend seems to be for the use of game develop expertise in both in-car artificial intelligence technology, and also interface design for modern digital car menus.
Why do cars need 'menus'? Well, it's 2021, who wouldn't want to be able to do exactly the same s**t, just on a confusing as f**k car screen? Seems to be a lot of people, and with the increasing importance of electric cars, we are gradually seeing more and more AI and computerized systems integrated into the latest car models. If you are a rich pr**k, then awesome, if not...eh.
But, Call of Duty Hummer? WTF is this?
We struggled a little bit to figure out why people were talking so much about ‘Call of Duty Hummer’ and it turns out that there has been a bit of a bizarre series of events surrounding the Activision and car brands. Activision has a bit of a Hummer History, it seems, and we were pretty curious indeed!
Turns out that Activision has been a bit naughty (a few years ago). Allegedly, of course. Humvee's maker AM General sued Activision in 2017, saying that Call of Duty had been using Humvee-likenesses in various titles without proper licensing agreements between the two companies - oops!
Activision, obviously, denied the claims. They used the classic (imagine a Texan accent) “I GOT MY FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS”, and apparently that was enough for the judge to rule the video game publisher not guilty of trademark infringement. What makes this super interesting is that military equipment is apparently protected under the first amendment of the US constitution. 'MERICA!
The weird thing is, other companies have been successfully sued under this guise. Again: Oops! Anyway, this suit was settled in April of 2020, and now it has been revealed that companies like Hummer and Cadillac have turned around and got themselves involved with the video game industry – instead of just suing the buggers.
Game programmers from development studios that create games like the bitterly disappointing Cyberpunk 2077, the pretty fantastic Forza Horizon 4 and, yes, Call of Duty, have been working with car companies to help develop their in-car systems. For example, Cadillac will feature some pretty sweet game-designer lased tech in their 2023 Cadillac Lyriq.
This is all pretty cool, but it is pretty funny that after such companies have attempted lawsuits against Activision for infringements, and now developers are turning around and (crude masturbation joke alert) giving the buggers a good ol' Call of Duty Hummer. Sounds fun!
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