Published on the 24/11/2015 | Written by Newsdesk
New partnership promises holographic technology to configure and preview car choices in 3D before purchase…
With a new partnership, car maker Volvo is looking to use Microsoft’s HoloLens holographic computer to change the way in which customers check out their new wheels. However, it is very early days yet – but the collaboration is also likely to include autonomous driving technologies and the use of data generated from connected cars to create new services.
A HoloLens demonstration conducted at Microsoft’s Redmond HQ showed how mixed reality might be used by customers to configure cars in three dimensions. With the wearable HoloLens computer, holograms are mixed into the physical world.
Volvo NZ general manager Steve Kenchington explained the potential to enhance the car buying experience: “In future we may see consumers being able to try out new vehicle features in an augmented reality setting. While these options may include aesthetic changes such as colours and accessories, the technology also has the potential to allow us to show customers how the more advanced safety features inside the vehicle work to prevent accidents.”
Kenchington says HoloLens technology might also liberate dealers from more traditional sales environments and allow them to take a car configurator out on the road in small Pop-Up stores, shopping malls or on the high street, opening up new sales channels and introducing cars to a larger potential audience.
Note use of the words ‘might’ and ‘potential’; at present, these are options being explored by the companies concerned.
During the Redmond demonstration, users were able to experience Volvo’s new sedan and its latest autonomous driving technology in 3D before the car has even been built and launched.
The demonstration, the companies said in a press statement, ‘marks the beginning of longer term cooperation between Volvo and Microsoft that will embrace a range of new technologies which have implications for the automotive industry’.
That includes autonomous driving. Volvo has announced a programme called Drive-Me in which 100 self-driving and connected cars will be given to customers on roads around the Swedish city of Gothenburg by 2017. This will be the world’s largest autonomous driving experiment.
Other areas of cooperation are expected to include how information gathered by cars and their drivers can be used to enhance the driving experience and the possibility of using predictive analytics to improve safety.
