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The car launch industry is still figuring out how to drive into the hightech future. There was a time, not too many months ago, when vehicle manufacturers could still wow the world with new reveals at motor shows and thrilling experiences at launch events.
Then the wheels came off when the Swiss government banned large events to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
Organisers of the Geneva Motor Show, expected to draw 600 000 people from 5 to 15 March, announced they were pulling the plug on the extravaganza.
While the likes of BMW and Mercedes-Benz went ahead with livestreamed versions of their events, it was rather makeshift.
Some carmakers said they would explore digital options, or merely issue press releases detailing their latest models. It took the industry almost three months to get back into cruise mode.
The result has been fascinating. Every major marquee has sought a different spin.
Ten days in the middle of this month was peak launch time for the SA motoring industry. It encapsulated the quest for the ideal virtual launch platform. In some cases, the medium also expressed the message.
So, on 9 June, Audi SA turned to Skype for Business to host its first online media meeting, at which it introduced its new Audi A6 Sedan range.
The following day, Ford Motor Company of Southern Africa took to Facebook to enter the utility vehicle sector with its first Figo Freestyle, a compact utility vehicle based on the Figo hatchback.
A week later, Volkswagen SA led the media on a merry dance to find its livestream for the launch of the new VW T-Roc. It turned out to be everywhere, from Facebook to Twitter to Instagram to VW SA’s own web site.
The big question is: do virtual platforms lend themselves to the launch of a product as physical as a vehicle? And does the virtual execution match up to the high-tech advances in the latest vehicles?
When virtual reality lags behind reality
The trick, it seems, is not to try too hard. VW caught up to BMW’s early-2018 gimmick of giving potential car buyers a virtual reality tour of the vehicle. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that January, the BMW X5 became the first car to be launched in virtual reality (VR) demonstrations.
The challenge with VR is that one must have a first-hand experience of this form of second-hand viewing.
VW SA product marketing manager Gina Handley put a brave face on it during the launch, saying: “We’re doing this through our market-leading dynamic virtual reality experience. Several of our dealerships have been equipped with this VR technology with the aim of creating a more immersive and engaging interaction with our vehicles.
“We have painstakingly rendered the T-Roc in vivid, lifelike 3D graphics which really come to life though the VR.”
Except that viewing someone else viewing a canned reality, represents the opposite of high-tech.
Which is a pity, as the T-Roc is a sporty and high-tech addition to VW’s T-SUV range,
No-nonsense tech
The week before, Ford kept it simple, going with a recorded test-drive and technical overview of the Figo Freestyle, while allowing interaction via conversation in the chat window on its Facebook page. It turns out that this is the kind of interactivity people actually want.
The vehicle matches up to this no-nonsense approach to high-tech, with each option in the range offering innovative features in keeping with price-tags. Audi, too, went for simplicity, with its executive team keeping a responsible social distance between each other in a studio, and taking turns to talk to camera as well as to PowerPoint presentations.
This approach contrasted dramatically with just how far ahead the A6 is in the high-tech department.
It is one of the few ranges that encapsulates the concept of digitalisation transforming the business world.
Two large displays that replace most of the buttons and controls of the previous model, says Audi, represent
Edited by
Thami Kwazi
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“a prime example of the end-to-end digitalisation which the A6 brings to the business class”.
The digital operating system allows personalisation of buttons, which can be placed where the driver wants them – as with smartphone apps. The user can also create up to 27 shortcuts for preferred vehicle functions and favourites.
The Audi virtual cockpit, a digital screen behind the steering wheel, has a high-resolution 12.3inch display, operated via multifunction buttons on the wheel.
A heads-up display projects relevant information on the windshield in the driver’s field of view.
The car includes voice control but, knowing how bad the vehicle industry has been with built-in voice, we reserve judgment until it is tried out in the real world.
The new A6 range includes up to 39 driver assistance systems. Five radar sensors, five cameras for visible light and an infrared camera for night vision assist, 12 ultrasonic sensors and a laser scanner bring this range closer than ever to the self-driving future.
Clearly, it’s a digital car for a new digital future.
The lessons learned from a week of launches is that, in the virtual world, gimmicks count for less than the practical reality.
Arthur Goldstuck is founder of World Wide Worx and editor-in-chief of
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