Last week, I was in San Diego to drive the 2017 Hyundai Elantra; a really awesome car. But one thing that really caught my eye from Hyundai is Augmented Reality. Everyone knows what Virtual Reality is but Augmented Reality is something a little different and it's meant to really improve your everyday life. So Hyundai has put Augmented Reality in your car, kind of.
There's a new app coming to iOS and Android called Virtual Guide and it's supposed to replace your User Manual and replace that with your cellphone and Augmented Reality. The process of it is pretty simple. You turn on the app and you basically start pointing at your car and little things will pop up. Like for example, if you're looking at the engine bay, you'll see some things pop up like the engine oil and the coolant-- all these types of things. And the really cool thing with Augmented Reality is it can really show you what you're doing.
If you don't know how to check your oil, the Augmented Reality application will actually display how to remove the dipstick, clean it off, put it back in and read off your oil level. It's a really, really cool application. This does ot only work on the outside of the car, it also works on the inside. If you've ever wondered what all those hundreds of lights on your dashboard is, this app will help you and let you know.
The experience is pretty seamless, you basically open the app, select the car you have and point it at the car. It recognizes things using the camera and it works really seamlessly.
At launch, it will work for 2015 and 2016 Hyundai Sonata but eventually it will roll out to basically every single Hyundai vehicle they sell and hopefully we'll stop printing off those massive User Manuals that no one reads.
So that is Augmented Reality in a Hyundai car. It's pretty dope and I really, really did like using it.