An asset prototype targeted to help car companies improve remote diagnostics and reducing the cost of having to send a level 3 support engineer onsite- by empowering car owners through an interactive, all-new-experience car manual app.
The objective of the asset is to empower car owners with the ability to diagnose and address high-level problems. It simulates an OBD-II scanning which connects to the car’s backend and throws out a more informative trouble code with video suggestions on how to address certain issues. It’s also design to connect to a cloud system where car companies can also do remote diagnostics of the car, opening up more opportunities for a connected user experience.
Also see AR Car Visualiser.
Project date: Aug 2018
AR and VR are on the precipe of rapid expansion as global revenues for the AR/VR market are projected to increase by at least 100%. Currently, AR is being used in multiple industries though still at it’s infancy. Examples of industries that uses AR are games, healthcare, education, tourism, marketing, manufacturing, retail, social media..etc. However, for AR to get mass market appeal, it needs to resonate not only to early adopters, but regular folks who just want to play some games or check their email.
Thus, taking advantage that most people own smart phones and riding the popularity wave of Pokemon Go, we wanted to explore using AR as a medium for enhance user experience where it can be used as part of an everyday lifestyle.
Currently, AR is being explored by 3 car companies- Hyundai, Mercedes and Audi. All 3 car companies are also exploring an interactive AR car manual via the user’s smartphone device, with Hyundai’s Virtual Guide app champions the others with accurate AR overlay mapping to the car. This is where we decided to take a step further by making our app a connected app, allowing car companies to cut cost and remotely diagnose mechanical issues of the user’s car. Currently there is no such app that connects consumers to the car companies/ expert in that way that is available in the market. As end-consumers are the easiest entry point into the market, it presents itself as a potential opportunity window.
As the team I lead is fairly small (2 engineers and myself), I took on more than just a role of a designer. I was a product manager and a project manager as well. While my experience with augmented reality is pretty green, I had just came from the gaming industry and working with familiar tools such as Autodesk Maya and Unity. Thus, the team had sufficient skill set to experiment and build a prototype that can demonstrate the solution’s potential and value.
Leading a team of 3 people (2 engineers and myself), I wore the hat of a product manager, project manager and designer. We explored several AR SDK tools such as ARKit, Vuforia and ARCore. We eventually settled on Vuforia as the software supports the creation of both marker-based and markerless AR and has several key features that make it one of the best for object recognition and 3D modeling. I mapped out the MVP feature requirements for the prototype that would simulate a car owner’s experience and demostrating the potential opportunities that we could exploit in the near future.
The prototype was completed within a span of 3 weeks (including market research, exploration and design) and was nominated as "Top innovative Concept in the industry" and was to be featured at Accenture's 2020 Innovation Summit.
Overall, the AR Interactive Car User Manual tool is a cutomisable asset that can be retrofitted for any industry and business needs. It serves the purpose of having an enhanced user experience with augmented reality using interactive information overlay. This helps eliminate the frustration and time in searching for the problems and specific components via a user manual booklet. It also empowers users and equips them with the basic knowledge on car maintenance while enabling the possibility to send the scanned diagnostics to the “experts” for better advice at lower cost.
Also see AR Car Visualiser.
