Virtual reality drives the automotive industry into the future

Design the new car with an app, create virtual workplaces, or even travel through space while driving? Augmented or virtual reality makes it possible! Thanks to smartphones and modern apps, as well as so-called VR glasses, completely new possibilities can be created. Some innovations will await us, especially in the automotive industry.

“IT IS GOING TO CHANGE THE WAY WE USE TECHNOLOGY FOREVER.” – Tim Cook, Apple, November 2017

Augmented and Virtual Reality

More and more companies recognize the potential of Augmented & Virtual Reality. Because it’s future-oriented. What in reality only costs more effort, time and money can often easily be avoided by displaying certain things virtually. BMW shows this by means of 3D digitalisation for the assessment and design of workstations in cockpit pre-assembly. With the new BMW 3 Series model, planners had already worked out individual workstations in a virtual reality months before the start of car production. Time-consuming superstructures could be avoided and processes could be virtually assessed and rehearsed.

Travelling through space during the car journey

Passengers can look forward to exciting car rides. Audi, in cooperation with media giant Disney, developed a top-class entertainment program. The “Marvel’s Avengers: Rocket’s Rescue Run” virtual reality experience was presented at CES 2019 by the start-up holoride GmbH in Las Vegas, co-founded by Audi. Modern technology allows the real journey to become a space journey. The driving movements of the car are transferred in real time into interactive content and video games. If you slow down, accelerate or change direction in reality, then this also happens in the vastness of space.

More design options

Thanks to expanded and virtual reality, new possibilities are also opening up in sales. For example, customers can design the car to their own taste comfortably on their smartphone and then, thanks to enhanced reality, view their designed gem on the street. With the Mission E Augmented Reality App, the sports car manufacturer Porsche offers a virtual foretaste of its first purely electric sports car. Users can simulate different views and take a look under the bonett. A test drive in interactive driving mode is also possible thanks to Augmented Reality. Not only cars themselves, but also AR manuals and instruction manuals, such as the Mercedes “Ask Mercedes App“, will be on a completely new level in the future.

Safety on the streets

Augmented reality can play a major role in making driving safer. Until human errors are perhaps soon settled by self-driving cars, modern AR technology is already helping to reduce accidents. Thanks to the well-known “Head Up” displays, for example, visibility, road lanes and traffic lanes are highlighted and improved by 3D mapping and positioning technology. In this area, too, we will certainly have a lot to expect in the future.

source title image: iStock/ peopleimages