Augmented reality glasses, robots expand techs' repair horizons

Every dealership service department knows the situation: A customer's vehicle has an unfamiliar or complicated problem that can't be promptly diagnosed and fixed.

The standard response: time-consuming examination of possibly outdated service manuals, potentially lengthy correspondence with the automaker, even a visit from a factory technician. All the while, the car or truck sits idle in the shop.

But new technologies are speeding the resolution of these problems. Service techs at some Audi and Porsche dealerships can call on a factory tech to join them, virtually.

Through the use of connected devices such as robots at Audi and augmented reality glasses at Porsche, the automakers' specialists enter the service bay via connected cameras and microphones. Their virtual aid means fewer in-person tech visits, shorter work turnarounds and more-satisfied customers.

"Our job is to get out there and support the dealer as quickly as possible," says Jamie Dennis, senior vice president of product quality and technical service at Audi of America.

With the Audi Robotic Telepresence, or ART, system, Dennis told Fixed Ops Journal, "we can be there in minutes to hours."

Audi's system was the first initiative by a North American automaker to connect dealership service bays directly with experts at the company's technical center.

Working with the robotic telepresence company VGo, Audi developed ART — a mobile robot equipped with microphones, cameras and a TV screen.

The system can connect with onboard diagnostic devices in vehicles. It enables experts at Audi's tech center in Auburn Hills, Mich., to see everything the dealership tech does, discuss diagnosis and repair options and link up with the vehicle for software updates.

Audi employs 89 ART robots across its dealership network. When it launched the system in 2014, the automaker was getting about 8,000 dealership calls a month to its service hotline. About 6 percent of those calls led to store visits from factory techs, which could take days to arrange.

By the end of 2017, such in-person visits had fallen by 30 percent, Audi says.

"It's like having an Audi engineer standing there with you," says Rick Fortnam, service manager at Audi Atlanta, which has used ART since 2015.

Fortnam says that with the system, complicated repairs that might previously have taken a week can be turned around in two or three days.

"We do 70 to 80 [service] appointments a day, and I can't give everyone a loaner," Fortnam says. "If ART can save me a day or two, I can turn that car two days faster and get another customer in."

Porsche's new Tech Live Look system equips dealership technicians with augmented reality glasses — complete with cameras and microphones — that connect them with service experts at Porsche Cars North America's headquarters in Atlanta. These experts can send updates, diagrams and instructions that techs can see using the glasses.

Augmented reality applications lay virtual images of diagrams or processes over real objects. They may soon enable service departments to train technicians using digital examples of problems they may encounter even before a vehicle drives up.Porsche tested the system, which it developed with the augmented reality company Atheer Inc., at nine of its North American dealerships last year. Porsche says the program cut by as much as 40 percent the time needed to resolve service problems at these dealerships,

Porsche says it will roll out the system across its North American retail network this year. The automaker declined to discuss the progress of Tech Live Look with Fixed Ops Journal, saying it is still refining the system.

Automotive suppliers also are working on new ways to connect service departments and automakers.

"We're trying to reduce the increasing complexity around service content," says Rob Butz, director of business development and technical information services at Bosch Automotive Service Solutions.

"We needed to make information more visual."

Bosch's Common Augmented Reality Platform uses computer-aided design drawings to generate 3-D versions of vehicle systems. The platform can guide a service technician through individual repair steps.

Bosch developed an augmented vehicle training application for Land Rover. The program allows techs to view 3-D mock-ups of wiring diagrams and other systems without having to disassemble components.

The German software developer Reflekt One, which worked with Bosch on the application, says Land Rover is using it only in Britain. Land Rover did not respond to requests for comment.

Microsoft's new HoloLens smart glasses are similar to Porsche's glasses. Butz says such devices can train dealership techs remotely, enabling them to prepare to fix vehicles before they arrive or to practice for a recall repair in the absence of needed parts.

"Somebody sitting here in my [Michigan] office can facilitate training to a dealership or training center in Oklahoma because of the remote capabilities we're now able to perform," Butz says.

He adds: "The practical applications for [augmented reality], and especially in training, are going to increase significantly over the next couple of years."