Car parked, engine off — the passenger leans over to the center screen and queues up an episode of "Dandadan." This is the new scene Crunchyroll is painting for in-car infotainment systems. The anime streaming service has recently started showing up on the Appning app platform, opening up a place for anime-watching that nobody really saw coming: the driver's seat.
Appning is already integrated into vehicles from more than 40 car brands, including BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen Group, Mini, Lotus, and SAIC Motor. According to Appning, BMW owners can already access Crunchyroll, with other brands set to follow. Crunchyroll also announced on LinkedIn that through Appning, the service will be available in connected vehicles across global markets including Asia, Australia, Europe, India, Latin America, and North America.
Interestingly enough, the one vehicle missing from the list is the Afeela 1 — the EV co-developed by Crunchyroll's own parent company Sony and Honda. The two companies pulled the plug on the project months ago, meaning the car never even hit the road to miss out on this new feature.
For safety reasons, in-car video streaming is typically restricted to when the vehicle is parked, with playback disabled while driving. That makes sense — getting distracted by an isekai power-fantasy anime while behind the wheel is clearly not a great idea. As for whether Taiwan is included in the Crunchyroll-Appning rollout, and when it might actually go live, there's been no official word yet.
