VR tech heading to an Audi showroom near you

John Carey dons VR goggles to steer an unreal wheel and X-ray an Audi's innards.

Soon, Audis virtually and literally will sell themselves. The German brand has big plans to turn virtual reality into a powerful sales tool.

Simple applications of the technology are ready to go to work in showrooms before the end of the year. Audi is also working to turn some very advanced VR visions into reality.

The most ambitious project revealed at a recent Audi Tech Day in Munich was the company's Virtual Training Car.

This A4 sedan, its boot crammed with electronics, demonstrates advanced safety features more effectively than any salesperson. This involves taking a drive, in a real car, while wearing bulky VR goggles.

Audi's demonstration is being staged in a very large and quite empty paved area just inside the perimeter of busy Munich Airport. Once the Oculus goggles are on, you're in a typical German street instead of on a bare expanse of asphalt 600m long and 300m wide.

The view is pixelated but it's a surprisingly convincing environment. After a short virtual slalom between traffic cones to get a feel for the car, we reverse direction on a virtual roundabout.

A bike rider enters the road some way ahead, then veers left on to the footpath and falls. Is he all right? It's impossible to not turn your head left to check. Meanwhile, a young mother with a stroller steps in front of the car from the right-hand side. It's a classic distraction accident about to happen...

But the real Audi's autonomous emergency braking is paying attention, not gawking. It beeps a warning, then slams on the brakes. The car stops before a single pixel of the virtual woman, or her child, is grazed. It's a powerfully realistic demonstration.

Audi already uses the virtual tech as a training aid for sales people.

The technology is in the prototype phase, so it's also more than a little weird — for example, it can render the car's interior quite accurately but not the people in it. So while the Audi technician in the passenger seat can be heard, she can't be seen. It's like talking to an invisible woman. It's also rather odd to feel the steering wheel in your hands, but not to see them there.

Martin Schulze Beerhorst, one of theVirtual Training Car program developers, says there's still much to do before it can start wowing customers.

The VR goggles need sharper resolution, he says, and there are even more complex technical problems to be ironed out. Audi already uses the virtual tech as a training aid for sales people.

Schulze Beerhorst is convinced it will become a potent tool for persuading customers to buy an Audi.

Before that day arrives, VR may have become an integral part of Audi's sales pitch. Another scheme, the Virtual Training Table, is three to four years from large-scale introduction but Audi is already planning a worldwide trial with selected dealers.

The set-up starts with a 1.4-metre touchscreen, which is the top of the table. Connected to it is a large TV screen mounted vertically on the wall behind. The touchscreen senses the presence and movement of model cars, at the same time as graphically displaying various road scenarios, including a parking lot at night and a clogged multi-lane road.

The monitor shows the driver's view as Audi's advanced LED and laser headlights, and its traffic jam, park and predictive efficiency assistants do their thing. Currently, the virtual demonstrations cover its A4, A5, A8, R8 and SQ7 models.

Audi will launch its campaign to transform dealerships with something a little simpler. The Audi VR Experience is a super-immersive update of the kind of car configurator commonly found on car maker websites.

In Munich, Audi demonstrated the next step. This needs an empty car-size space, as it allows the customer to walk around a virtual vehicle.

From late this year Audi plans to begin with a basic version of the VR Experience, in which the customer remains seated while checking interior colour combinations or optional wheels.

In Munich, Audi demonstrated the next step. This needs an empty car-size space, as it allows the customer to walk around a virtual vehicle. The fidelity of the computer-generated image is stunning, as it draws on the super-detailed data generated by engineers and designers. This makes it possible to X-ray the car's innards, simply by moving your head through the virtual outer panels.

According to digital retail solutions executive Marcus Kuehne, the brand will develop even more advanced versions of the VR Experience to demonstrate trademark Audi technologies such as quattro all-wheel-drive and e-tron hybrid.

"We don't want to replace the test drive," says Kuehne. "No technology would be good enough."

But, as the Virtual Training Car shows, VR has the potential to make a test drive more persuasive than ever.

In the meantime...

Audi will almost exterminate buttons, knobs, switches and sliders in its coming A8, due to go into production next year.

The sensory feedback from Audi's screen is uncannily realistic.

The big luxury sedan will feature advanced haptic touchscreen tech, which makes a button displayed on a glass screen feel as if it's a real button. The technology on display at the tech briefing in Munich was built into a concept car interior but Audi sources confirm a haptic touchscreen will be standard in the 2017 model A8.

The switch will bring a major reduction in button-clutter, for a cleaner-looking interior. The haptic touchscreen might even mean the beginning of the end for Audi's MMI rotary control, which is what drivers currently use to navigate menus shown on the car's central screen.

The sensory feedback from Audi's screen is uncannily realistic. Buttons feel just like buttons and sliding temperature adjustment controls feel notchy, like the real thing.

Will you be in line to take a virtual test drive? Tell us what you think in the comments below.