Volvo, Microsoft team up for HoloLens showroom

In the very near future, your experience of a new car may expand well beyond going to a dealership and taking it for a test drive. In fact, if you own a HoloLens, you may not even have to step out of your living room.

At least that’s if the latest collaboration between Volvo and Microsoft is anything to go by. The two companies recently announced plans to jointly develop next generation automotive technologies including, but not limited to, use of the HoloLens platform.

Areas of future collaboration between the two companies could include autonomous driving technologies and the utilisation of data generated from connected cars to create new services.

During a demonstration at Microsoft’s global head offices in Redmond, Washington, journalists got to see how mixed reality might be used by customers to configure cars in three dimensions.

“HoloLens offers the freedom to create a bespoke experience which customers can steer themselves. Imagine using mixed reality to choose the type of car you want – to explore the colours, rims, or get a better understanding of the features, services and options available,” said Björn Annwall, Senior Vice President, Marketing, Sales and Service at Volvo Cars.

He added that HoloLens technology might also liberate dealers from more traditional sales environments and allow them to take a car configurator out on the road in small Pop-Up stores, shopping malls or on the high street, opening up new sales channels and introducing cars to a far larger potential audience.

At the HoloLens demonstration, participating journalists were also given a mixed reality preview of Volvo’s new S90 premium sedan, which will be unveiled in reality at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January.