A designer's creativity lies in how effectively they can visualise their concepts. AutoVRse, a Bengaluru-based start-up has literally made this happen with their Virtual Reality-powered showroom, where all you have to do is wear that VR glasses to 'see, touch and feel' a car — in the comfort of their office space.
The idea of AutoVRse came into being after a bunch of millennials decided that they wanted to do something groundbreaking with their lives. After graduating from BITS Pilani, they were comfortably placed in different companies, and soon enough, they fell into what one would call the mundane rhythm of life. After one and half years of monotony, they decided to call it quits to follow their dream. "We wanted to do something extraordinary and realised that we couldn’t lead a laid-back life and felt that at least we should try something new," says 25-year-old Anuj Gupta, who is the Business Lead of the VR startup.
Seeing it their way
With less than two years of work experience, none of them knew where to begin. So they decided to take some time off to zero in on the technology they wanted to work with, "We started looking at newer possibilities and by the end of 2013 we were researching VR and at that time it was at its nascent stage and we compared the technology with others like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and blockchain," says Anuj.
They soon realised the immense possibilities that VR held for the automotive industry. This marked the end of their hibernation and soon one of them proposed the idea to a chief designer in TATA Motors, "I had suggested the idea of VR in automotive and one of my friends at TATA motors was excited about the idea. He, in turn, proposed the idea to his chief designer and he suggested that we try it out," says Anuj.
Auto-matically simple
AutoVRse was formally born in 2016 and they started building a tool for designers to import all their 3D models into VR, "Our first idea was to help designers, engineers companies to visualise 3D models in VR," Anuj says. Their automotive showroom will help designers visualise both the interior as well the exterior of a car, have a 360° view, get inside it and optimise the seating and the colour of the car — by just slipping on VR glasses. Currently, the team has five core members and five employees who work on designing, developing and sales.
Why a lot of car and automobile makers will love the concept is because it offers more scalability at the design stage, "The design part is often the toughest, as they have to physically build the car models and companies spent crores of money on this process. In this case, VR can help the designers build the model in a way that you can never experience on a computer screen," Anuj adds.
More than just cars
However, over the course of the year, the start-up has diversified their customer base and has entered the service sector as well, "We started with designing tools initially, but our marketing team decided to take the technology directly to its customers and we have used VR in customer-end sectors like home appliances and retail as well," he explains.
They are currently working on a communication prototype that can simulate the environment of a boardroom meeting for long distance communication, "This is still at the development stage and with this product we hope to revolutionise how corporates communicate," Anuj says. Talk about foresight, huh?
