Porsche’s Mission E Augmented Reality App

In the old days, like last year, you actually had to go to a car show to see and experience concept vehicles. Today, there’s an app for that.

To get more exposure for their first ever electric sports car, the Porsche brand developed an app in collaboration with Google. The app is free to use and will allow you to experience and test drive Porsche’s Mission E sports car. We expect to see the real thing on the road before the end of this decade.

Imagine yourself in a Mission E

If you’re among those who can’t wait for Porsche’s all-electric sports car, you can play around with the features in the Google augmented reality app to see the car in various colors and get a glimpse under the hood.

Choose your color and virtually place the vehicle in your own driveway to get a feel for what it’ll be like to own a Mission E. Of course, that view will only be available through your smartphone for now. But for many, that’s enough to build anticipation for the real thing.

You can even get a visual walk-around of the vehicle through your phone. Just point and walk to see what the car looks like on the inside (through x-ray view) or out.

By the time this vehicle debuts, you can already know exactly what it feels like to see it in your own driveway. Apps like this, and BMW’s i8 app, are truly revolutionizing the way we shop for cars.

Test drive the new Porsche Mission E

With the interactive driving mode, you can get a feel for what it’s like behind the wheel of a Mission E. Sure, this isn’t exactly like the real thing, but it’s a good stand-in to get you by until you can get your hands on your own.

You can also view animations that illustrate the sports car’s aerodynamics and get an x-ray view of the battery components and internal drive.

The Mission E augmented reality app allows people to get to know the complex technical aspects of the electric sports car while fostering an emotional attachment. It’s all about immersing yourself in Porsche’s technology of tomorrow.

Porsche and augmented reality

This isn’t the first augmented reality app Porsche has designed, but it is the first being used to market a new vehicle. The luxury vehicle brand is already using augmented reality technology to help technicians across the United States diagnose and repair Porsche vehicles. With the help of internet-connected smart glasses, technicians can search for service documents and chat with brand experts all while performing work on the vehicle. Connected through high-resolution video, the technician and brand expert can see the precise area of the vehicle in question.

Built around ODG R-7 glasses and Atheer’s AiR Enterprise software, Porsche’s augmented reality repair technologies have helped many technicians provide better and faster service to their customers. This, in turn, is good for the brand image.

The future of augmented reality for auto

We’re in the early stages of seeing this type of technology used for service and marketing, and we can expect to see many more brands adopt augmented reality in the near future.

It makes sense that we’re first seeing luxury brands adopt virtual technologies. As the technology becomes more affordable and widespread, we should expect to see it become more of a mainstream thing.

For now, augmented reality serves as a way to get people pumped for luxury car introductions – even years before they hit the market.

What do you think about the new app? Would you use augmented reality to make a car-buying decision?