Ford’s Enhanced Virtual-Reality Lab Becomes Reality

Ford unveils its new Australian virtual-reality lab that allows vehicle designers to build a fullsize virtual car years before a customer gets behind the wheel.

The Ford immersive Vehicle Environment (FiVE) lab in Melbourne follows a comprehensive overhaul to update the lab’s hardware and software, including a move to new, photorealistic virtual-reality software and greatly expanded motion-tracking equipment equivalent to that used in the animation and gaming industry.

Peter Bunting, manager-Ford Asia Pacific Digital Innovation, says the automaker was one of the earliest adopters of this type of virtual reality in the development process.

“The quality of our new FiVE lab shows how far Ford is willing to go for craftsmanship and attention to detail when designing its vehicles,” Bunting says in a statement. “This technology is a crucial element in bringing high-quality vehicles to customers all over the world.”

The Virtual Reality Center launched in 2012 and the upgrade significantly expands the FiVE lab’s physical footprint. It now is large enough to amply “fit” an entire virtual car, allowing designers to perform walk-arounds and experience the virtual model much like a consumer would experience a car at a dealership.

“Sometimes you have to step back to gain that special perspective, as any car buyer knows well,” Bunting says. “The larger lab gives us the extra space we need to get the whole experience, from the interior details to the exterior styling.”

The new virtual-reality software renders the completely immersive virtual space in ultra-high definition – four times the resolution of HD. Upgraded computers and graphics cards help deliver a full low-latency stereoscopic 3-D experience to users through a virtual-reality headset, creating a virtual world with a level of realism previously unattainable in the lab.

Bunting says the FiVE lab allows virtual modeling with a whole new level of detail.

 “We can see through and inside the vehicle’s structure to really inspect how it all works together, from the overall architecture to the mechanical and electrical systems,” he says. “This lets us combine engineering issues with the aesthetic in one comprehensive setting.”

A new 4K-resolution display increases the level of detail at which engineers can inspect issues that arise during vehicle development. The movement of designers and engineers inspecting the virtual vehicles aligns with virtual movement, and the system allows Ford workers globally to analyze and inspect the same virtual vehicles with extreme visual fidelity in real time.

Ford’s global network of virtual-reality centers comprises primary FiVE labs in Melbourne and Dearborn, MI, and collaboration centers in Germany, China, India, Brazil and Mexico.

Already this year, the technology has been used to verify more than 150,000 details on more than 200 virtual vehicle prototypes built in the FiVE labs.

“Our One Ford plan is to develop vehicles with stronger global appeal,” Bunting says. “This technology helps achieve that goal by assisting our designers and engineers to collaborate in real time on an international scale – while also improving vehicle quality.”