Fixed Ops Journal - February 2018 - 40

FIXED OPS JOURNAL

Robots enable Audi dealership
technicians to communicate with
service experts at the automaker's
tech center.

VIRTUAL
FIXES
Augmented reality glasses, robots expand techs' repair horizons

ALEX KWANTEN
foj@autonews.com

very dealership service department
knows the situation: A customer's
vehicle has an unfamiliar or complicated problem that can't be
promptly diagnosed and fixed.
The standard response: time-consuming examination of possibly outdated service manuals, potentially lengthy correspondence with
the automaker, even a visit from a factory
technician. All the while, the car or truck sits
idle in the shop.
But new technologies are speeding the resolution of these problems. Service techs at
some Audi and Porsche dealerships can call
on a factory tech to join them, virtually.
Through the use of connected devices such
as robots at Audi and augmented reality glasses at Porsche, the automakers' specialists enter the service bay via connected cameras and
microphones. Their virtual aid means fewer
in-person tech visits, shorter work turnarounds and more-satisfied customers.
"Our job is to get out there and support the
dealer as quickly as possible," says Jamie Dennis, senior vice president of product quality
and technical service at Audi of America.
With the Audi Robotic Telepresence, or ART,
system, Dennis told Fixed Ops Journal, "we
can be there in minutes to hours."

PAGE 40

FEBRUARY 2018



"It's like having an
Audi engineer standing
there with you."
RICK FORTNAM, Audi Atlanta

Audi's system was the first initiative by a
North American automaker to connect dealership service bays directly with experts at the
company's technical center.
Working with the robotic telepresence company VGo, Audi developed ART - a mobile
robot equipped with microphones, cameras
and a TV screen.
The system can connect with onboard diagnostic devices in vehicles. It enables experts at
Audi's tech center in Auburn Hills, Mich., to
see everything the dealership tech does, discuss diagnosis and repair options and link up
with the vehicle for software updates.
Audi employs 89 ART robots across its dealership network. When it launched the system
in 2014, the automaker was getting about
8,000 dealership calls a month to its service
hotline. About 6 percent of those calls led to
store visits from factory techs, which could
take days to arrange.
By the end of 2017, such in-person visits had
fallen by 30 percent, Audi says.

"It's like having an Audi engineer standing
there with you," says Rick Fortnam, service
manager at Audi Atlanta, which has used ART
since 2015.
Fortnam says that with the system, complicated repairs that might previously have taken
a week can be turned around in two or three
days.
"We do 70 to 80 [service] appointments a
day, and I can't give everyone a loaner," Fortnam says. "If ART can save me a day or two, I
can turn that car two days faster and get another customer in."

Making a spectacle
Porsche's new Tech Live Look system equips
dealership technicians with augmented reality glasses - complete with cameras and microphones - that connect them with service
experts at Porsche Cars North America's
headquarters in Atlanta. These experts can
send updates, diagrams and instructions that
techs can see using the glasses.
Augmented reality applications lay virtual
images of diagrams or processes over real objects. They may soon enable service departments to train technicians using digital examples of problems they may encounter even
before a vehicle drives up.
see VIRTUAL, Page 41

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Fixed Ops Journal - February 2018