In the future, buying cars will start in virtual reality

The company’s Virtual Reality Content Machine (VRCM) takes CAD data and generates photo-realistic images and videos of vehicles. Customers can now generate their dream car at home with their smartphone, tablet or computer, and configure it the way they want in a new dimension. Then gigantic Powerwalls or video glasses allow them a submersive experience of their dream car at their dealer. With this new technology, car manufacturers can reduce the costs for visual content by around 50% in comparison with traditional methods. The software also allows them real-time market research which can flow directly into product development and more efficient up-selling.

Kubilay Topal, CEO, Rocket Data Intelligence, says: “We have not just succeeded in combining three industries: entertainment, automotive and Big Data. We have managed to digitise the photographer, camera man and lighting engineer. And we have distilled out the best settings, lighting setups and environments and added them scalably to a software package. Completely computer generated rendering in real time and this quality did not exist before in the automotive industry at this speed from CAD up to the completed visualisation. From now on the customer journey is a data journey. More than ever before, buyers’ paths to their dream cars start on the internet”, explains the 35-year-old.”

The Virtual Reality Content Machine represents the core of this technology. This novel software does not use the CPU for the rendering of visualisations, but draws on GPU Accelerated Rendering. This means: images will no longer be calculated with the main processor of a computer, but with powerful graphics processors. “This method is not only much faster, but simple to implement, especially for dealers. As far as hardware is concerned, all that is needed to use the VRCM is a gaming PC”, comments Topal.

The solution also provides entirely different benefits for the car manufacturer: data solutions also developed by Rocket Data Intelligence, which can be combined with the Virtual Reality Content Machine, automatically check the CAD vehicle data in advance for product correctness and for technical feasibility. In this way, they significantly reduce the lead time for the product visualisations. Together with the data which the new software extracts from customer behaviour during the configuration, the solutions supply information in real time which can be utilised in marketing and product development. This improves the efficiency and degree of automation in early stages of production.

This form of data acquisition and evaluation allows an early entry into the field of predictive analysis for forecasting customer behaviour. In combination with historical sales data, manufacturers could find out which equipment for which models was, and in future will be, in demand from which target groups, and also which are useful from the point of view of production and model planning for an efficient profit contribution strategy.

Together with other manufacturer information, car makers gain access to a novel form of intelligent data integration and processing. Topal says: “With our solution, car manufacturers can see directly which customer groups prefer what. This allows them to suggest configurations a similar customer might like, and to display these products directly and as an exact fit, which is almost like Amazon for the car industry”.