All 14 current configurations of the Hyundai Sonata that rolled off the assembly line in a manufacturing plant in Montgomery, Ala., were given a little more attention.
Each version of the four-door sedan was shepherded into a little room, where it lounged for three days as software pattern recognition scanners slowly traced every contour, car part, and digital display on the vehicle.
Engineers and designers in Hyundai Motor Co.’s owner manual department at the automaker’s global headquarters in South Korea then set out to create videos and pictures to match the 3-D-tracked areas.
Debut
The painstaking effort was Hyundai’s first foray into augmented reality, and the resulting app—called the Hyundai Virtual Guide—debuted last week at the Connected Car Expo, a new offshoot that preceded the L.A. Auto Show, which opened to the public from Nov. 20 to 29.
“We’ve been working on this for two years—it’s a huge undertaking,” Hyundai Motor America spokesperson Miles Johnson said during a demo on a second floor ballroom at the JW Marriott Los Angeles. “It’s very innovative, and we think it fits our brand.”
The Fountain Valley-based Hyundai unit sold 725,718 cars and SUVs in the U.S. last year, up 0.7% from 2013, according to market researcher Autodata Corp. in New Jersey.
The app, which will be available on iOS and Android mobile devices in coming weeks, features 82 how-to videos, more than 50 informational guides, and six 3-D overlay images that appear when users scan certain areas of the vehicle.
Filter
Johnson demonstrated one aspect of the app’s utility by scanning his Samsung smartphone across the air filter under the hood.
A blue pop-up image of the filter appeared on the display and provided step-by-step instructions on removing it and installing a new one.
A scan over the oil tank brings up an image of a dipstick and a quick tutorial on checking oil level, compete with the swishing sound of wiping the stick down.
The idea, according to Johnson, is to help customers navigate an increasingly component-packed vehicle while also addressing the major gripes facing new car owners, such as Bluetooth pairing and clock settings.
Hyundai compiled a list of insights on consumer complaints and preferences from the influential JD Power IQS, or initial quality ratings, reports.
“Most people are afraid to even open the hood,” Johnson said. “With this (app), it takes some of that guess work out of it.”
The app takes all that displayed data and video from the cloud, so it can provide a limitless amount of information, and perhaps just as important for consumers, won’t take up more storage on a mobile device.
Expect Hyundai dealerships to showcase the app’s features—others include climate control, tire pressure prompts, and installing a baby seat—in the later stages of the sales process. It will serve as a supplement to the 700-page owner’s manual, according to Johnson.
“Let’s say it takes you four hours to buy a car, and when you’re all done you don’t want to spend another hour learning about these new features like smart cruise control, blind spot protection, and Bluetooth,” he said. “There’s so much in these cars nowadays, you’ll never have enough time at the dealership.”
Vehicle technology is playing an increasingly important role in the auto industry as consumers seek the same experience in their cars as they do on their smartphones and tablets. The ongoing shift can be seen at select BMW and General Motors dealerships that have implemented “genius bars” akin to the customer service centers in Apple stores.
The latest Hyundai initiative highlights the potential advantages of melding two business cultures across the Pacific.
“The Koreans love all these videos, animation, all this technology stuff,” Johnson said. “And the Americans are saying, ‘If you want to improve IQS scores, teach people how to use this stuff.’ ”
