German Car Techs Using Augmented Reality in the Service Bay

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The luxury automaker is changing the auto repair process by using augmented reality to fix cars. They have begun equipping their dealerships in the US with Microsoft HoloLens 2.

Using this enhanced technology, technicians at Mercedes-Benz are now able to use augmented reality to fix cars at a faster service speed and in a safer way.

Through the HoloLens 2 technology, Mercedes-Benz technicians can simply put on the AR headset which is powered by Dynamics 365 Remote Assist tech and see remote assistance in real-time from specialists all over the world including engineers at the Mercedes-Benz headquarters in Germany.

Porsche as well is tapping into augmented reality to fix cars at their dealerships. Starting with 189 dealerships in the US, Porsche will outfit their repair technicians with augmented reality glasses similar to the HoloLens. Technicians will be able to contact a specialist from Porsche's headquarters in Atlanta. Through the augmented reality called Tech Look Live, Porsche’s repair technicians and specialists can work together on a vehicle in real-time and remotely.
BMW is another luxury automaker that is providing their dealership technicians with augmented reality to fix cars. At all 347 dealerships, BMW has provided their technicians with TSARAVisian Smart Glasses that work similarly to the HoloLens.
Technicians will be able to directly contact and work with specialists from the BMW North America headquarters to repair vehicles remotely.

Just like HoloLens, these smart glasses also allow for overlaying and projecting instructions and information directly in the technician’s field of vision, so they can easily see their next steps for repair.
 

“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”​

— Confucius

I think most people have complexity bias. It helps them to avoid really simple decisions. The purpose of an automobile is to take a driver and passengers from A---->B. German car manufactures seem especially bent on taking the vehicle from A through the entire alphabet to get to B. Its like going from your thumb around your elbow to get to your index finger. 🤪
 

“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”​

— Confucius

I think most people have complexity bias. It helps them to avoid really simple decisions. The purpose of an automobile is to take a driver and passengers from A---->B. German car manufactures seem especially bent on taking the vehicle from A through the entire alphabet to get to B. Its like going from your thumb around your elbow to get to your index finger. 🤪
Exactly- it’s only anodyne FWD transport pods for me from now on!
 
When I retired the company was hooking all new equipment to the web so that each unit could call for service before the customer realized they had a problem, They also had a person on line monitoring you as you ran diagnostics. They would decide to send parts to you even though you had not asked for any based on the error codes they saw. For those of us that had 25 or 30 years experience it was hard to take orders from a guy that had training but had never been in the field doing real work. Before this started you usually had a day of troubleshooting and an hour of return shipping for the used part. After you had a half day of troubleshooting followed by returning parts that did not fix the issue followed by another half day of troubleshooting and returning more part followed by the factory guy saying "I dont know where to go from here let me know what you find"
 
Technology has come a long way since I bought my first car in 1978. Most of the new stuff and tech is better than back in the day. Cars seem to last about twice as long as they did.
 
The electrification of automobiles will effectively press Reset on the complexity. High time. The Germans lead the pack in the promotion of technology without enough consideration of reliability or future costs to owners.
 
They were just beginning to roll that out when I worked at BMW.
When was that? I recall watching an auto technology show on tv many years ago, that reported on BMW implementing this technology. I have wondered what ever became of it, as I have not heard anything more about it since.
 
I think it makes sense. If you can do a scan of a car and then show exactly what/how something goes, I can see it saving time and mishaps. The issue will be configuration control of so many different scans and car variants.
 

“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”​

— Confucius

I think most people have complexity bias. It helps them to avoid really simple decisions. The purpose of an automobile is to take a driver and passengers from A---->B. German car manufactures seem especially bent on taking the vehicle from A through the entire alphabet to get to B. Its like going from your thumb around your elbow to get to your index finger. 🤪
Perfectly said. Needless complexity. On my German car, they use 5 different fasteners to hold up a belly pan. Why??
 
When was that? I recall watching an auto technology show on tv many years ago, that reported on BMW implementing this technology. I have wondered what ever became of it, as I have not heard anything more about it since.
I worked there as a product specialist from 2016 to 2018. I spent a bit of time in the service lanes helping service advisors and technicians determine if a customer’s problem was due to a defect or whether it was due to user error. As a result I was able to keep up with the newer technology.
 
The electrification of automobiles will effectively press Reset on the complexity. High time. The Germans lead the pack in the promotion of technology without enough consideration of reliability or future costs to owners.
I wish that were true but I cant see it. The power train may appear to be less complex but the amount of sensors and electrical issues may get worse than they are now.
It will not decrease the amount of control modules and wiring in the car that are the cause of many problems we see today. Parts, specialty equipment and service info may become scarce for anyone but the dealers.
 
I wish that were true but I cant see it. The power train may appear to be less complex but the amount of sensors and electrical issues may get worse than they are now.
It will not decrease the amount of control modules and wiring in the car that are the cause of many problems we see today. Parts, specialty equipment and service info may become scarce for anyone but the dealers.
Significantly less moving pieces, no electronic thermostats, no pollution control systems, simple transmission if any, less dependence on owner to maintain for proper performance (no oil changes) I think this will be easier.
 
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