The Jeep brand is introducing an innovative customer experience at its dealerships: starting today, consumers in selected markets in Europe can walk around and look inside the all-new Jeep Compass before it is physically available in the showroom, thanks to an augmented reality experience.
The Jeep Compass Visualiser is an innovative, easy-to use application that recreates the virtual car before the eyes of the customers in its real dimensions, allowing them to discover the new model and interact with it before its physical arrival in the dealer’s showroom.
The application was jointly developed with Accenture and its customer experience agency, Accenture Interactive, and is based on Tango – Google’s smartphone augmented reality technology, which gives mobile devices the ability to navigate the physical world similar to how we do as humans – and is optimized for the Lenovo Phab 2 Pro smartphone, the world’s first Tango-enabled consumer device.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and Accenture showcased a prototype of this application at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February 2016, providing a first glimpse of how augmented reality can revolutionize the consumers’ shopping experience by allowing them to view and interact with a full-scale virtual version of the car they are considering buying.
The Jeep Compass Visualiser is now available across Jeep showrooms in selected markets (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland) and will be available in most Jeep dealerships in Europe by end of this summer.
How does it work
The Jeep Compass Visualiser allows car buyers to hold a Tango-enabled device and view, walk around, look inside and configure a life-size virtual car. External colors and wheel options can be selected and interchanged. Doors can be opened to reveal a realistic and detailed interior, where changes to upholstery colors can be made with a tap on the device screen. As the car is viewed through the device, the virtual car moves in relation to how the user moves.
Customers visiting Jeep dealerships will be able to select their preferred Jeep Compass interior configuration with a choice of two interior colors – Urbex or Ski Grey – and materials – full leather or leather and cloth. The selections will appear in the augmented reality application allowing customers to visualize the choice in 3D, even though the vehicle is not physically present.
The partners involved: Google, Accenture and Lenovo
To deliver this innovative application, the Jeep brand collaborated with Google, Accenture and Lenovo – each providing its unique contribution to the creation of a unique tool capable of transforming the way customers experience a new product. At the core of the collaboration the importance of putting customers at the center.
Tango uses computer vision to enable the mobile device to detect its position in the world around and bridges the gap between the 2D digital and the 3D physical world. This allows the mobile device the ability to map the 360-degree environment around and to navigate the physical world similar to how people do.
Drawing on the experience of Accenture Interactive and its digital innovation team with the Tango technology, Accenture led the design of this innovative solution that transforms the decision making process when buying a car. The app uses the integrated sensor technology and motion tracking, area learning, and depth perception capabilities from Tango to generate the interaction. No GPS or internet connectivity is needed, once the app is installed, giving almost unlimited location capability when using the technology. It allows for an enhanced user experience tailored specifically for augmented reality.
Lenovo developed the Phab2 Pro – the world’s first Tango-enabled smartphone – to house the Tango technology in a consumer device and to make augmented reality accessible to as many people as possible. The Phab 2 Pro’s 6-inch+ screen, which features pin-sharp QHD resolution, offers a window for customers to experience the car in its life-size virtual dimensions.
Later this summer, when the all-new Compass will start arriving at the Jeep showrooms across Europe, customers will be able discover the full Compass range, comprising four different configurations – Sport, Longitude, Limited and Trailhawk- each coming with a specific content and powertrain option.
The all-new Compass represents a key addition to the Jeep portfolio and will deliver customers user friendly technology and a full array of active driver assist systems with Jeep legendary off-road capability, in a distinctive and contemporary design.