Introducing Mixed Reality Test Drives
to Understand What Your Car Can
(and Cannot) Do

A Project between Porsche and NXRT

STARTUP AUTOBAHN powered by Plug and Play

4 min readAug 13, 2021

EDITOR: ALINA BIERMANN

More than 90% of all traffic accidents are still caused by human error. Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) can remedy the situation and increase safety and efficiency on the road — if one knows how to use them properly. To offer customers the opportunity to experience ADAS in a virtual test drive, Porsche has teamed up with mixed reality company NXRT.

Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) play a pivotal role in preventing road accidents. They warn against potential threats along the way (i.e. pedestrian avoidance, lane correction, blind spot detection, emergency braking, etc.), provide information to the driver and relieve them of tedious tasks, such as parking.

To be able to fully leverage the benefits of ADAS systems, consumers need to be accurately instructed on how to use such assistance technology when purchasing a car. Insufficient knowledge could otherwise result in drivers not taking full advantage of the ADAS system or lead to overreliance on the technology in unsafe conditions.

While critical to traffic safety, studies suggest that most drivers still rely on self-information, trial-and-error, and the owner’s manual for information about their car’s ADAS system, rather than the dealership. Given the increasing number of functions that sales personnel must remember and the lack of opportunities to test ADAS at the point of sale, it is often difficult to explain ADAS in an understandable and complete manner.

Porsche has kicked off a pilot collaboration with Vienna-based startup NXRT to develop and test a solution, which allows sales personnel to properly demonstrate all safety features of the vehicle of interest and enable potential customers to try out the functionalities in a safe and controlled environment.

The Project

NXRT’s goal is to increase security in the mobility sector using the potential of virtual worlds to create spatial computing applications for sales, training and engineering, making it a perfect match for Porsche.

Together, the sportscar manufacturer and NXRT created a mixed
reality test drive system for a new, interactive, and educational
customer journey within dealerships. The solution enables Porsche customers to conduct a virtual test drive in a real car seated on small turntables to experience and thus better understand new vehicle technologies such as advanced driver assistance systems. Using NXRT’s mixed-reality glasses, the potential customer can use the real steering wheel, acceleration and brake pedals to steer the vehicle through a virtual world displayed onto the windshield.

Porsche offered valuable insights into upcoming vehicle features currently under development and the process of educating customers about new vehicle technologies. The Porsche team further arranged early user tests to incorporate customer feedback into product improvements. NXRT was responsible for translating the ideas and feedback into lines of code and a high-resolution virtual experience.

Outcome & Future Outlook

The first version of the new driving simulation was tested on over 30 Porsche experts with different backgrounds and knowledge in engineering, vehicle sales, sales training and even simulator racing.

People were impressed with how the fusion of sensor technology with a mixed reality approach can bring a real driving experience to a stationary vehicle. The testers agreed that the solution could greatly benefit sales managers by making it easier for them to explain new vehicle assistance systems in the sales process.

Following the positive initial feedback, Porsche continues to explore the solution and assesses how the product could benefit car dealerships.

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our sincere thanks to Volker Siedler (Porsche), Johanna Elisa Stoeber (Porsche) and Lukas Stranger (NXRT).

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