My Audi ViTraC Experience with VR glasses

A VR glasses, an Audi, a large and empty space: There's a lot you can do there: Deceptively real scenarios in such a way that you can immerse yourself in the virtual reality. At first I did not believe that I could go along like this. After all, reality is not made up of pixels, but of living atoms.

So I'm entering a normal Audi. I thought. A look in the trunk reveals that this vehicle is specially prepared. A lot of technology, computing power and programs run from there. To be on the safe side, a well-versed instructor has been placed on the passenger side. When putting on the glasses, which has a cable on the back of the head, he helps me a little. My first feeling is reminiscent of a diving mask, which I put on. And somehow there is something true about it. I dive into a new world. Just me! My instructor can see what I see on a control monitor, but it's different. Because I've become part of virtuality.

When I look at the passenger seat with VR glasses, I'm a bit scared. My co-driver Audi has not programmed. Yikes! But I hear his voice, I know that he pays attention to everything and could intervene in an emergency. Safety first. All alone in the car, I would not quite have the full confidence in the new technology.

So it starts. I look around again: there are left parked cars, right is an ERWE market (hehe) and I should now drive to a traffic light, which shows red. This is probably the first check installed, whether I come with the VR environment plus Reallife (RL). Because I drive a real car, only that I do not see through the windshield. I'm projecting a world that also responds to me. In front of me is an empty space in the RL, but I see a small side street with shops. Pedestrians and cyclists cavort there.

task is: drive down the street, turn at the roundabout, drive back to the starting point. Stick to the traffic rules and do not build crap. Okay, if I were going to drive around now, nothing would have happened in the true sense. Because I stand - as I said - in an empty place and have no real obstacles. These are purely virtual.

For the game calves below us, Audi has built a small pylon route on the way. The spectators outside the car will surely wonder why I'm suddenly snaking. But for me it is virtually real. I drive briskly - as well as in the RL - Pylone on the right, pylons on the left, nice in the rhythm, so that my passenger should definitely be a bit dull in the stomach. Hehe. He is also not worried about what I am doing, because he sees everything on the control monitor while keeping an eye on the RL environment as well.

After the pylon route, I see pedestrians. But all behave quite "properly". Nobody causes concern. So I reach the roundabout and turn. This was necessary, because shortly thereafter, the locked RL terrain is provided with a fence. But I am in my virtual city. Drive neatly in the lane, do not touch any curbs, because it gets more and more real, I dive deep into the VR.Of course you are annoyed - as in real life - but somehow glad that you have not overworked him. He is now on the left side of the street and you look - while driving on - of course again. Would like to call him a few dirty words. Is distracted somehow. So you do not notice how suddenly the second danger becomes threatening.

Virtual Reality with VR glasses

Looking straight back to the street, I see - in the middle of the street - a father with a stroller. He is in the middle of my trail. Dodge is not possible. The moment of shock has already struck, I just want to initiate the emergency braking, because the Audi makes that itself. The emergency brake assistant (called Audi pre sense) worked. A luck. I breathe - as in real life, so real did I feel the situation - through. I'm even glad that nothing happened. The emergency braking was not so bad. I was also traveling at an adjusted speed - around 40km/h. This road would certainly have been better than Zone-30.

So I drive up again, see the father scold something (very real, but no sound) and come to the next traffic light. As in real life, I stop. I do not even care that "those from outside" think about why in the middle of an empty place at once (for the others) is groundless. Then I see the parked cars from earlier, I know that I can return to my parking lot. The ERWE market is still open. I think about my shopping list. But quickly I am again focused on the parking process and stand virtually on the street exactly parallel to the real line on the field.

These were a lot of interesting impressions, I have to process first. Above all, I'd like to know what it looks like when someone with VR glasses drives over an empty space and the road with their VR world really only exists for him. That's what it looks like. I filmed Stefan doing the same maneuver.

What's the experience with VR glasses in the Audi virtual experience?

Now, of course, it's one nice gimmick. I like something like that. It is also something completely different, if you are just sitting in a driving simulator, or if you are really moving and driving properly yourself. If I sit statically and in front of me runs a VR movie, I am rather bad. But when I experience RL and VR movements synchronously, I am doing quite fantastically. But most of all I was impressed by how real it felt that an accident was prevented.

And this is where the meaningfulness of this development comes in. Assistance systems can be demonstrated, are so much like a real situation, that you really breathe, if nothing happened. I can imagine that not only car dealers in a product training "learn" how one or the other assistance system works. But also learner drivers could be brought to a more frugal driving style with a kind of "confrontation therapy". For how is it in reality? Many drive so daringly, as if they are the "Highlander" and think that nothing will happen. Only when they have experienced a dangerous situation, they will (hopefully) become more thoughtful and drive more cautiously. So you could anticipate that. I would be very curious what traffic psychologists would say.

Another possible application would be feared rabbits. No, no fun. People who have not driven for a long time for a variety of reasons do not start up again because they are afraid. I've heard from different people several times, so that's not made up. A traffic training ground is very nice when it comes to driving a car. But these people usually have less problems with it.These situations could be simulated very well here and practice rules of conduct.

I would like to drive again on a closed circuit with the VR glasses. Happy with even more "action". But on public roads, I would not mind. This also applies to windowless automobiles. I would not like to have that only a projection indicates my environment. In any case, I'm curious to see what further progress in this direction will make for progress.

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