In any industry, the implementation of modern technologies is one of the key reasons for its success in competitive markets. The automotive industry is one which is greatly witnessing a period of change and growth. The reason is the introduction of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) in the industry which have brought benefits in various applications including training, manufacturing, designing, factory planning, prototyping, assembling, maintenance, sales support, driving assistance, and more. AR is revolutionizing the automotive industry by offering innovative products such as heads-up displays (HUDs) that presents information such as weather forecast, navigation, driving conditions, collision warnings, vehicle speed, and more to the driver to make driving a safe and enjoyable experience. Besides offering solutions to end users, AR also helps manufacturers to create augmented models, process improvement, training modules, and much more. VR is a technology that allows users to see, interact, move, and get immersed in a 3D environment. It is greatly helping in bringing cost and time reduction and quality upgradation in the development of products.
Despite being new, the automotive AR and VR market has a great future. There are enough reasons to believe that market growth will shoot up in the coming years. The advent of connectivity technological advancements increased the need for augmented and virtual reality-based solutions, and cost-efficient benefits of augmented and virtual reality-based solutions are the factors driving the growth of the industry. As per Allied Market Research, the automotive AR and VR market is likely to reach $673,602.2 million by 2025 from $213.0 million in 2017, thus growing at a CAGR of 175.7% from 2018 to 2025.
Many auto companies and technology firms are investing in AR and VR to help consumers achieve an easier and safer driving experience and expand in the market. Lyft Inc., a transportation network company acquired Blue Vision Labs, a collaborative augmented reality company with the aim of boosting self-driving car plans. Phiar, a leading machine learning and augmented reality company recently raised $3 million for developing an AR navigation app for drivers. Automotive manufacturer Toyota launched an AR app that enables customers to explore the inner structure of the company’s C-HR model.
Lyft Buys Blue Vision
In October ’18, Lyft purchased Blue Vision for a sum of $72 million with the aim of taking the development of self-driving vehicles to a more advanced level. The latter works in collaboration with the former’s Level 5 autonomous car division. Lyft leverages Blue Vision’s technology in order to use smartphone-grade cameras to create interactive augmented reality layers. The technology would be used by automotive vehicles to have a better perception of the world around it. While announcing the buyout, Luc Vincent, VP of Autonomous Technology at Lyft said that the technology used by Blue Vision is so advanced is that it can obtain informative 3D maps of entire cities using an only car-mounted camera phone. The maps help cars to grasp where it is located, what is there in its surrounding, and what action is to be taken next.
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Phiar Creates AR navigation App for Drivers
In November 2018, Phiar raised $3 million to develop a computer vision and deep learning navigation app for smartphones with the aim of helping people reach their destination quickly and safely. Unlike the previous apps where users look away from the road to understand instructions, the new app presents the real-world augmented with a convenient painted path to the driver. Ivy Li, Co-founder, and CTO at Phiar said that their aim is to make drivers see the real world instead of a 2D rendering of it. She also said that the experience with the app is unique due to the live AR path overlays facilitated by the super-efficient computer vision and deep learning artificial intelligence (AI). Scott Beechuk, Partner at Norwest Venture Partners said, “Phiar’s platform is robust enough to support self-driving cars but lightweight enough to run on a smartphone. The experience is going to change the way people perceive, navigate and enjoy the world.”
Toyota Introduces AR App to Help Explore its Car
In collaboration with Brandwidth, a fully integrated digital agency, Toyota unveiled an augmented reality iPad application with the aim of helping users to explore the interior of its C-HR model. Called the Toyota Hybrid AR application, the software makes use of AR and objective recognition software to overlay the hybrid car’s workings on to physical vehicles. The app is said to be initially used in showrooms, shopping centers, and trade shows. The app allows customers to see the way the car’s energy is used and the way the drivetrain works in various drive states. It also enables customers to receive information on several important features such as the hybrid’s motor, battery, and fuel tank.
Through AR and VR are fast driving the automotive manufacturing industry, we are just seeing a little of what it holds for the industry.