At the time of writing, the only way that technology can help or enhance the car buying experience is simply to provide a set of online or mobile-based tools to find cars for sale, get their history checked and provide specification and review information.
These tools are often taken for granted in today’s “switched-on” society, and they are something we have all come to expect, or dare I say it, rely upon. But given that technology never sleeps and is always evolving, what sorts of things could we expect for the future of car buying?
In this blog post, I will be discussing some ideas for future automotive purchasing technology that we are either likely to see in the near future, or what we would like to see!
Virtual reality showrooms
At present, if you want to go and buy a car you would have to visit a car dealer’s showroom to scrutinise the model in question. Part of the experience of buying a car is sitting down inside of it, and taking it out for a test drive.
One futuristic way of selling cars to people would be to open up virtual reality showrooms! In a nutshell, you would simply go to an empty room or booth and put on a virtual reality headset.
High-resolution computer imagery would give you an almost lifelike view of the car, allowing you to “walk around” it and inspect every detail of its exterior.
It would even allow you to sit down inside of the car and explore the cabin, although in reality you would just be sitting on one of the actual car seats in an otherwise empty room so that you can experience what it’s like sitting in the car.
Not only would this cut down on dealer costs (because it means they don’t have to order in any stock), but it allows you to explore the car without being pressured into buying it by some pushy car salespeople!
Test drive simulators
Another awesome way that we could use technology to check out our new car purchases is to use special test drive simulators! Have you ever been inside one of those roller-coaster simulators, where pneumatics push and pull the “box” that you are sitting inside?
A similar thing could be applied here, and coupled with a virtual reality headset you could test drive your next car to the limit, without having to go out on the road!
This all sounds very hi-tech and possibly far-fetched, but we are not far off using such technology; in fact, most of the technology already exists today, someone just has to make it all work together!
According to Graham from Saxton 4×4, such a system could be used not just for test driving brand new cars, but used ones too. It will probably be a while before we can take advantage of some systems because of the costs associated with buying and maintaining them, but they would certainly make trips to local car showrooms more fun and less stressful!
