At this year’s Mobile World Congress (MWC), Fiat Chrysler (FCA) has demoed how Project Tango-powered augmented reality (AR) software built by Accenture will help you buy a car in the near future.
Whereas currently our only methods of seeing how a car will look in your garage is to view pictures online or to look at the car in person, AR technology will soon become the third, and most likely, option for future car buyers.
One such use of the technology, demoed by FCA and Accenture at MWC, takes the technology developed by Google’s Project Tango – powered by the Irish chipmaker Movidius – and allows for the user to aim a device’s camera at a spot and generate a 3D image of their chosen car.
The idea being that they could wander around the ‘invisible’ car and see it from different angles, as well as being able to see how the interior of the car would look from whichever seat they choose.
With the first commercial Project Tango device expected to be available this summer, Accenture says it has worked with FCA to create an app that will allow its technology to be used by people buying cars from the manufacturer.
No date for its release has been given, however, as it still remains in a prototype stage but head of digital innovation for Accenture, Matteo Aliberti, said of its developmental process: “Project Tango is a new, unique technology that is set to become standard functionality in the next generation of mobile devices.
“Accenture has been experimenting with Project Tango and potential business uses for as long as it has been in development, creating a range of potential applications, including this one for the automotive industry.”
