Since the completion of a national rollout earlier this year, U.S. Porsche dealer partners have had a new, high-tech tool in the workshop: augmented reality. A pioneering initiative in the industry, Porsche “Tech Live Look” uses smartglasses to let technicians connect remotely with experts hundreds of miles away when they encounter an unusually complicated situation.
With Field Technical Experts unable to currently visit dealerships in person, Tech Live Look enables a direct connection to “see what I see.” The number of sessions has more than tripled from February to March. Tech Live Look is now being used at least once a day on average - which is in line with its design specifically for the most difficult service scenarios – and the trend has continued in April.
“Tech Live Look has gained a new level of significance for us in the current situation,” said Doug House, Manager, Technical Support for Porsche Cars North America, Inc. (PCNA). “It accelerates the service on the vehicle and, most importantly, helps ensure customers’ mobility at a critical time.”
Specifically, Tech Live Look has proven to shorten service resolution time by up to 40%, and it can do much more than just provide real-time video capability. It allows the technical support team to take screenshots or send technical bulletins and instructions onto the projection surface of the glasses while the service technician is working on the vehicle. This type of information exchange is far more efficient than sending emails and photos, or explaining complex technical issues over the phone.
The U.S. team of experts receiving the calls is based in Atlanta where the PCNA headquarters are located, and amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Tech Live Look has also been used to connect with the Porsche HQ in Germany to further complex vehicle investigations.
The system uses industry-leading components: ODG (Osterhout Design Group) R-7 smartglasses and the AiR Enterprise™ software platform from Atheer, Inc. First announced as a pilot project in 2017, the national rollout of Tech Live Look was launched in 2018 and completed in January 2020.
