When VR started to make real strides, Audi took no extra time to jump right into the action and find ways that the new virtual reality could help them sell some cars. After years of polishing it and testing their virtual dealerships, they finally have over 1,000 virtual locations inside of dealerships all around the world.
Lorenz Schweiger, Audi’s rep for VR strategy and head of the Business Innovation group, has explained that the headsets are proving growth in sales. All the consumer needs to do is strap on the headset, and they can look at life size models with different colors, different specs, and different details inside and out. It especially helpful when wanting to tryout different insides and compare.
Schweiger also spoke on the complexity of the newer models. He has said that he wants to fuse them together with older models so its not creating a whole new car virtually, but more just modifying it. With that being done lately, they have lost their touch with how specific and detailed they have been in the past.
They’ve had some good ideas to fix it, but they seem to never maintain the 90 FPS that consumers expect out of VR. When they are able to execute on 90 FPS, the image is crisp, great lighting, and even looking more real than past models.
It used to take 1-2 weeks to produce a single car in 90 FPS, but with a new 4D Pipeline solution, they have gotten it down to 20 minutes. What is more impressive about this is that the company has gotten into the vehicle files and figured out how to modify the vehicles without changing the whole thing and keeping it at 90 FPS.
It keeps showrooms with the newest specs available and the newest models to be shown at any given time. VR will continue to be a staple in the car selling industry for Audi, and hopefully many other dealers catch on with the success its producing.
