Glasses help M-B techs fix problems faster

Service techs at a West Coast Mercedes-Benz dealership were puzzled. They were trying to solve why sensors in a vehicle were picking up engine misfires, but the diagnostic data wasn't.

Wearing Mercedes-Benz's new HoloLens 2 glasses, a tech inadvertently touched the driveshaft, causing it to move. Scott Saxton, a Mercedes-Benz USA field service engineer sitting in his Portland, Ore., office and watching the video feed from the tech's glasses, reported what he saw. The tech checked the driveshaft and discovered a worn support loop, which had caused vibrations that misfired a sensor.

"With HoloLens 2, we could see the driveshaft moving," Saxton says. "I could see it shouldn't have moved that far."

Saxton and the tech were able to solve the problem more quickly than by going back-and-forth through email.

"You always lose something in that [email] communication," he says.

The collaboration among Mercedes-Benz, Microsoft HoloLens 2 and Dynamics 365 software allows Saxton to help diagnose issues at any Mercedes dealership in his 12-state, 2-million-mile Northwest service region.

The high-tech glasses simplify the back-and-forth between Mercedes-Benz's 383 U.S. dealerships and a group of expert service advisers such as Saxton. Though not the first auto manufacturer to implement augmented-reality glasses — Porsche finished the rollout of its similar Tech Live Look program this year, and Toyota is working with Microsoft to develop its own version — Mercedes is pushing the envelope both in features the glasses offer and number of dealerships using the devices.

Mercedes would not divulge the cost of a pair of glasses, but several dealers said they paid just over $10,000, which covers hardware and licensing for four years.

With the Mercedes-Benz Virtual Remote Support system, Saxton and his colleagues can help troubleshoot, offer technical guidance and even display 3D images and schematics on the glasses for challenging maintenance issues. What used to take days or weeks, through trial and error, can often be accomplished in a matter of hours, Mercedes says.

"This is a massive shift in the way we do business, helping us to serve our customers more quickly and is especially timely with the new realities of COVID-19 and our desire to keep employees safe," says Christian Treiber, vice president of customer services at Mercedes-Benz USA.

Saxton tells of the first time a tech put on the HoloLens 2 glasses with 1080p resolution. "The technician was commenting on how weird it felt, and I suggested he pick up the shop towels on the floor in the background," Saxton says. The tech was surprised he could see the towels.

Edgar Campana, a centralized diagnostic technician at Mercedes-Benz of Coral Gables in Florida, used the HoloLens 2 during pilot testing. There were initial issues, but they were mostly due to the service department's now-fixed balky Internet.

Campana and his shop foreman currently are the only ones who use the HoloLens 2. The service tech turns the problem over to Campana's team, allowing the tech to move to the next job.

Campana's team diagnoses the problem, submits findings to MBUSA and typically receives possible solutions within a day.

The regional experts can send diagrams showing the proper layout, for example, talk a tech through a process or even pop up an arrow for a difficult-to-locate part.

"We can make our decision a lot faster," Saxton says. "The dealers like that they have that accessibility to me, versus the old way, which may have taken three days before I could get to the dealership. It makes me more productive, it makes the dealership more productive, and it ultimately helps the customers."