VR Processes in the Automotive Industry

• Published in: Human-Computer Interaction: Users and Contexts pp. 208 - 217
• Main Authors: Lawson, Glyn, Salanitri, Davide, Waterfield, Brian
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 2015
• Series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science
• Subjects: Automotive Industry; Improve Depth Perception; Mixed Reality Training; Stakeholders; Vehicle Development Process
• ISBN: 331921005X; 9783319210056
• ISSN: 0302-9743; 1611-3349
• DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-21006-3_21

Virtual Reality (VR) has seen rapid developments in the past decades. Among the domains where VR has been applied, automotive has been a pioneer due to the possibility of cost and time reductions derived from the implementation of this technology. Examples of VR automotive applications include: (i) manufacturing workstation optimization; (ii) vehicle design; and (iii) assembly training. A review was conducted in order to understand opportunities and challenges in the application of VR in the automotive industry. This paper presents the review process, which encompasses interviews with stakeholders from an automotive manufacturer to understand their current processes and ambitions for VR use and a literature search of advancements in VR and empirical studies. A total of 11 stakeholders were interviewed. Recommendations are made to address the issues they reported, including: improve depth perception in VR technologies; use haptic feedback to improve manufacturing investigations; and provide virtual contexts for evaluations.