General28.11.2012

Jaguar Land Rover launch digital vehicle showroom

  •  Jaguar Land Rover’s Virtual Experience will allow customers to engage and interact with an almost life-size high resolution rendering of any Jaguar or Land Rover vehicle.
  •  Users can take 360-degree exterior and interior views, open doors, and start the ignition.
  •  System includes industry-first feature that allows users to trigger functions simply by pointing.
  •  Designed to be a highly portable system that can be used in showrooms or public spaces, including places where actual vehicles cannot be displayed.

Jaguar Land Rover has harnessed advanced digital technology to offer its customers virtual “hands-on” access to its model ranges, breaking free from the limitations that dictate what can be displayed in a conventional showroom. The system, Virtual Experience, is the most sophisticated yet produced for the motor industry, enabling interaction with an almost 1:1 scale representation of any Jaguar or Land Rover model.

Using a touchpad screen, the customer can select model, equipment grade and feature preferences, which Virtual Experience renders as an ultra-high resolution, real time 3D image and leveraging a ground breaking five million polygons.

The customer makes natural and intuitive movements or gestures to explore all aspects of the vehicle.

The technology may be sophisticated, but the equipment required to present the Virtual Experience is simple and portable. It requires a display screen and a laptop loaded with the system to operate. This means it can easily be set up in vehicle showrooms, public spaces, even the sides of buildings, bringing Land Rover and Jaguar models to locations where there might not be enough space or access for a vehicle.

Jaguar Land Rover’s technology department has led development of the system, moving on from an initial challenge set by company CEO Dr Ralf Speth in December last year. Working alongside marketing, design and engineering departments, and with external suppliers, the project was steadily refined to ensure that the technology deployed would co-ordinate perfectly with Jaguar Land Rover’s systems. The Virtual Experience was demonstrated publicly for the first time at the reveal of the all new Range Rover in September.

Virtual Experience featured on the Jaguar and Land Rover stands at the Paris motor show, supporting the launch of the new Jaguar F-TYPE and Range Rover. It is being further developed ultimately to present the entire Jaguar Land Rover model portfolio, in every variant.

Nathan Summers, Jaguar Land Rover Business Relationship Director, said: “Jaguar Land Rover offers customers an exceptional breadth of choice to tailor their vehicle. Virtual Experience presents customers with the opportunity to experience their personally designed vehicle in a very real environment.”

The introduction of Virtual Experience is a key element in Jaguar Land Rover’s wider digital strategy for its business that is making innovative use of mobile and on-line applications and tools. In the future Jaguar Land Rover plans to invest further in the technology to enable its customers to design and save their vehicle on a mobile device at home which can be presented to the Virtual Experience to start the process.

Summers continued: “Virtual Experience is an innovation and shows where we see the future of our technology development. We are putting the customer in control as well as seeking new ways to modernise and customise their experience when choosing their new Jaguar or Land Rover.”

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