When VR
lags behind reality
The trick,
it seems, is not to try too hard. VW caught up to BMW’s early-2018 gimmick of
giving potential car buyers a virtual reality tour of the vehicle. At the Consumer
Electronics Show in Las Vegas that January, the BMW X5 became the first car to
be launched in virtual-reality demonstrations.
The
challenge with VR, of course, is that one must have a first-hand experience of
this form of second-hand viewing.
VW SA product
marketing manager Gina Handley put a brave face on it during the launch,
saying: “We’re doing this through our market-leading dynamic virtual reality
experience. Several of our dealerships have been equipped with this VR
technology with the aim of creating a more immersive and engaging interaction
with our vehicles. We have painstakingly rendered the T-Roc in vivid lifelike
3D graphics which really come to life though the VR.”
Except that
viewing someone else viewing a canned reality represents the opposite of
high-tech. Which is a pity, as the T-Roc is a sporty and high-tech addition to
VW’s T-SUV range,
It comes standard with a Composition radio comprising an 8-inch colour touch screen. More significantly, it makes a breakthrough in its App-Connect function, which links smartphones to the radio system. The most painful aspect of such app-pairing technology is that one has to connect an Android or iOS phone to the car via USB cable in order to mirror apps on screen. The T-Roc introduces Wireless App-Connect, which takes away the irritation of cables. That goes nicely with a mobile inductive charging function that allows a phone to be charged merely by placing it in the appropriate spot.
No-nonsense
tech
The week
before, Ford kept it simple, going with a recorded test-drive and technical
overview of the Figo Freestyle, while allowing interaction via conversation in
the chat window on its Facebook page. When one is not too carried away with the
technology behind the technology, it turns out that this is the kind of
interactivity people actually want.
The vehicle
itself matches up to this no-nonsense approach to high-tech, with each option
in the range offering innovative features in keeping with price-tags. The lower-cost
Trend comes with Ford’s Device Dock, which includes Bluetooth, USB and Aux
connectivity. The Titanium series adds a reverse camera linked to a “floating”
6.5-inch colour display for the SYNC3 connectivity system. Sadly, it does not
live up to Ford’s claim of seamless connectivity, still requiring USB cables to
pair with Apple CarPlay or Android Auto.
Audi, too,
went for simplicity, with its executive team keeping a responsible social
distance between each other in a studio, and taking turns to talk to camera as
well as to PowerPoint presentations.
This straightforward
approach contrasted dramatically with just how far ahead the A6 is in the
high-tech department. It is one of the few ranges that encapsulates the concept
of digitalisation transforming the business world.
Two large
displays that replace most of the buttons and controls of the previous model,
says Audi, represent “a prime example of the end-to-end digitalisation which
the new A6 brings to the business class”
The digital
operating system supports allows personalisation of buttons, which can be
placed where the driver wants them –as with smartphone apps. The user can also create
up to 27 shortcuts for preferred vehicle functions and favorites.
The Audi virtual cockpit, a digital screen behind the steering wheel that replaces traditional dials, has a high-resolution 12.3-inch display, operated via multifunction buttons on the wheel. A heads-up display projects relevant information on the windshield, in the driver’s field of view. The car includes voice control but, knowing how appallingly bad the vehicle industry has been with built-in voice, we can reserve judgement on that one until it is tried out in the real world.
The new A6 range
includes up to 39 driver assistance systems, from adaptive cruise assist that
includes “bottleneck assist” and “traffic jam assist” to a “Tour assist”
package and crossing assist. Five radar sensors, five cameras for visible light
and an infrared camera for night vision assist, twelve ultrasonic sensors and a
laser scanner, bring this range closer than ever to the self-driving future.
Clearly,
it’s a digital car for a new digital future. However, the proof of
digitalisation will be in a transformed driving experience.
The lessons
learned from a week’s worth of launches is that, in the virtual world, gimmicks
count for less than the practical reality.
- Arthur Goldstuck
is founder of World Wide Worx and editor-in-chief of Gadget.co.za. Follow
him on Twitter and Instagram on @art2gee
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