BMW Brings Augmented Reality To The Showroom

We've talked in the past about augmented reality making its way to showrooms, but BMW has finally released their version of the concept- specifically for their i3 and i8 models. Augmented reality is a way for a customer to "see" the car, even if the car isn't actually there. BMW's augmented reality technology is developed by Accenture and based off of Tango, which was developed by Google. The system will be rolled out across a number of BMW sales outlets as part of BMW Group's Future Retail program. 

There are number of advantages to Google's system. It has a better understanding of space, so the car isn't presented in an unrealistic way. It's a realistic form of augmented reality, even allowing customers to customize the vehicle's colours and specifications to see what it would look like in their exact choices- real time. It's a great way to add value to the customer experience and it allows customers to get a better idea of what they're getting into. The BMW i Visualiser app will be available on the app store for customers to use with Tango-enabled phones, and will also allow customers to save their experiences and share them online.