Audi has long been a car manufacturer eager to incorporate new technology into its cars. Now the company is incorporating new technology into its dealerships as well as it begins launching a virtual reality (VR) experience at European dealerships.
The VR experience was developed with Intel, and was previously demonstrated at SIGGRAPH 2017. The experience allows customers to get a very realistic simulation of how their own personally configured car would look and feel.
“With the VR experience we have developed a full-fledged sales tool for Audi dealers. It offers our customers more information and certainty when making their purchasing decision, as well as a special excitement factor,” says Nils Wollny, Head of Digital Business Strategy/Customer Experience at AUDI AG. “With this, we are taking the next step in our strategy to combine digital innovation with the strengths of the bricks-and-mortar dealership.”
The VR experience allows customers to select and customise every option on a car, down to small details with a virtual Audi rendered in 360-degree 3D, complete with sound and lighting effects. The application even adjusts to various environments, times of day and lighting conditions. There are plans for future versions of the experience to offer demos of new features of Audi cars, such as variable light technologies that adjust themselves in response to growing darkness or poor visibility.
The VR experience is planned to be rolled out to dealerships in Germany, the UK and Spain, with other locations planned to follow. In most locations the experience will run on the Oculus Rift, using data models developed for VR by ZeroLight.
This is just the latest application of VR technology for Audi, who already use VR for training and technical development.
VRFocus will bring you further news on Audi’s VR technologies as it becomes available.
via Mint VR