Audi and Volkswagen are going digial
Everybody and their mothers is going digital, regardless of field or activity, and car makers have never been satisfied to be left behind when new technologies show up.
The German powerhouses of Volkswagen and Audi are only the latest companies to adopt digital devices and technologies not only in their cars – which has been happening for quite some time now – but in their showrooms now as well, what they call ‘digital showrooms’.
Volkswagen was actually the first carmaker to create a digital customer magazine app for the iPad back in 2010, and now they’ve announced that dealerships across the UK will be equipped with iPads which will feature a plethora of varied advanced web tools meant to create a link between the on- and off-line world. The company is of the opinion that the ‘digital showroom’ concept is capable of illustrating considerably more models, specs and equipment than it would be otherwise possible in a traditional brick-and-mortar building, and as far as that goes, they’re pretty right.
The firm is still a strong believer in personal interactions however, hence why they’re doing their best of marrying their online digital presence with the offline world.
This announcement from VW followed the recent opening of Audi’s first digital showroom in London, called Audi City, a place where you can see the entire model line-up via digital means as well have contact with a real-life dealer.
The interesting thing is that the models aren’t seen on a tiny iPad, on the contraire, they’re actually viewed in realistic 1:1 scale on huge screens.
It’s clear that these two approaches will have to meet up in the middle somewhere, but what is clear is the fact that the digital revolution will be sweeping car showrooms all across the globe with BMW and Lexus both having a tablet-equipped specialist on hand in their showrooms to assist customers.
