How VR and AR are Transforming the Automobile Industry

The automotive industry has come a long way over the decades. Modern technology has allowed us to produce fuel-efficient, rapid acceleration and cost-effective vehicles that deliver greater comfort and infotainment from combustion engines to semi-autonomous electric vehicles. By and large, industries and organizations are largely hesitant of big change. However, the automobile industry is at the forefront of adopting change and technological transformation.

The automotive industry players, especially the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), face many challenges ranging from design and prototyping to enhancing safety measures, which impact the quality and profitability of products and services. These challenges can be resolved through pertinent technological interventions and augmented and virtual reality (AR and VR) can play a key role in addressing numerous challenges without costing a fortune.

As per a 2017 PWC report, 30% of automotive executives surveyed believed that their companies were making significant investments in AR technologies. The domains of new age technology is rapidly rising, with the US virtual reality market is estimated to reach USD 14,727.9 million in 2027 from USD 759.3 million in 2019, with an estimated CAGR of 45.1%.

Design and Prototyping

Ajay Torgal, Managing Director, Bengaluru, ATCS

Design and prototyping processes require immense collaboration of different engineers, analysts, testers and quality control specialists. The conventional method for prototyping includes physical trials, which are cumbersome, time-consuming, and a major drain on allocated resources. With AR and VR, design engineers can now collaborate and work from remote locations. Armed with statistics, data and other performance metrics of the mockup, design engineers can communicate with each other as team members across geographies and can simultaneously contribute to the same design and configuration. They can also implement modifications instantly right from their remote virtual laboratory. As the work is coordinated from closer to home virtual laboratories, the ease of working together is notched up significantly. Needless to say but if one has to state a crucial advantage of AR and VR, the word feasible would be an understatement.

Ford created “Ford’s Immersive Vehicle Environment” for its design engineers and analysts as a case-in-point. Also known as “FIVE”, the realistic environment is created in a special room where employees are equipped with sensors along with the motion-capture markers. In order to visualize the ideation concept, a mini prototype of the vehicle is constructed using a 3d printer.

The FIVE systems developed by Ford has helped the automaker to reduce employee injuries by 70% and ergonomic problems by 90%. Without AR and VR, the whole process of design and modification implementation would need to be executed on the physical model. The technology, therefore, allows for speedier production, is cost-effective and drastically reduces the engineering design flaws that usually creeps up later on.

Easing Decision Making for Purchaser

OEMs create a massive product line of automobiles with multiple variants to suit the budget and needs of various customer segments. Dealers experience space crunch to accommodate all unsold inventory and put each variant on display. The overhead costs are high and the unsold vehicles suffer a depreciation in a few months and years.

Consequently, buyers are left to their imagination. They have to rely on their intuition in order to gauge their liking for their specific model with customized features. There may only be a handful of high-quality pictures, videos and a persuasive sales pitch about a particular specification of a vehicle but none of them gives a realistic feel of the automobile to the buyer without the physical presence of the model.

However, with AR and VR, companies and dealers can now create an immersive experience for buyers, which will give them a near 100% realistic feel of the actual model which they are looking forward to purchasing. Customers can use the 3D configuration of automobiles to gauge their liking for a particular color, engine displacement, gear box, customized seats and infotainment systems before arriving at the exact specification to buy their vehicle. The technology allows for interaction with future purchases without the actual model. With both dealers and buyers benefiting with the technology, it is a win-win scenario.

Imparting Training and Upskilling

To err is to human; however, sometimes human errors end up costing much to be ignored. In the automobile industry, engineers and service technicians work on the physical model under meticulous supervision before they are well acquainted with all the nitty gritty details of a new model. Today, the training and upskilling process can be made extremely efficient and cost-effective through an immersive AR and VR environment, with no risk of damage, while offering service technicians the liberty to explore the new model. The virtual environment will also minimize occupational hazard and fatalities, ensuring a safer work environment. According to Fortune Business Insights, VR is expected to be used mostly for the training segment in the automotive industry.

UD Displays

OEMs invest immensely to make automobiles and driving safe. However, a momentary distraction due to viewing of secondary displays, such as mobile phones, can disturb the driver’s judgement and cause fatal accidents. HUD displays powered by AR and VR are able to project everything onto the front windshield. From the speed of other automobiles on the road, traffic signals, navigation arrows, adaptive cruise control to the lane-departure warning, someone coming in from the sideways, automobiles at the behind and their distance with yours, everything is projected on the windshield in sync with the line of sight to the driver. This creates a relaxed driving environment as attention is not needed to be diverted anywhere. The only requirement is a cheap power source and a GPS connection via mobile data.

A Brighter Future Lies Ahead

With the AR and VR market expected to grow at a CAGR of 175.7%, the technologies are producing great innovative solutions to handle the challenges of the automotive industry. It is only a matter of a decade where every participant in this industry, ranging from manufacturers, service technicians to buyers and drivers, will enjoy a better designing and buying experience.

Author: Ajay Torgal, Managing Director, Bengaluru, ATCS