Fixed Ops Journal - December 2020 - F18

FIXED OPS JOURNAL

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Glasses help M-B techs fix problems faster
MARK ELIAS

foj@autonews.com

ervice techs at a West Coast Mercedes-Benz dealership were
puzzled. They were trying to solve why sensors in a vehicle were
picking up engine misfires, but the diagnostic data wasn't.
Wearing Mercedes-Benz's new HoloLens 2 glasses, a tech inadvertently touched the driveshaft, causing it to move. Scott Saxton, a
Mercedes-Benz USA field service engineer sitting in his Portland, Ore.,
office and watching the video feed from the tech's glasses, reported
what he saw. The tech checked the driveshaft and discovered a worn
support loop, which had caused vibrations that misfired a sensor.
" With HoloLens 2, we could see the driveshaft moving, " Saxton says. " I
could see it shouldn't have moved that far. "
Saxton and the tech were able to solve the problem more quickly than
by going back-and-forth through email.
" You always lose something in that [email] communication, " he says.
The collaboration among Mercedes-Benz, Microsoft HoloLens 2 and
Dynamics 365 software allows Saxton to help diagnose issues at any Mercedes dealership in his 12-state, 2-million-mile Northwest service region.
The high-tech glasses simplify the back-and-forth between Mercedes-Benz's 383 U.S. dealerships and a group of expert service advisers

Now more than ever,
keep vehicles
clean and protected.

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PAGE 18

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DECEMBER 2020

Mercedes is pushing the envelope
in features the glasses offer.

Seeing is believing

HoloLens 2 glasses are in use at all 383 U.S. Mercedes-Benz
dealerships. A pair of glasses costs about $10,000, which
covers hardware and licensing for 4 years, according to several
dealers. Using the glasses:
 Cuts time to resolve challenges, which increases
technicians' productivity and efficiency.
 Enhances customers' experience, with quicker repairs.
 Maintains collaboration between remote experts and on-site
techs.
 Reduces the need for service-related travel.
 Requires a robust Internet in the service department.

such as Saxton. Though not the first auto manufacturer to implement
augmented-reality glasses - Porsche finished the rollout of its similar
Tech Live Look program this year, and Toyota is working with Microsoft
to develop its own version - Mercedes is pushing the envelope both in
features the glasses offer and number of dealerships using the devices.
Mercedes would not divulge the cost of a pair of glasses, but several
dealers said they paid just over $10,000, which covers hardware and licensing for four years.
With the Mercedes-Benz Virtual Remote Support system, Saxton and
his colleagues can help troubleshoot, offer technical guidance and even
display 3D images and schematics on the glasses for challenging maintenance issues. What used to take days or weeks, through trial and error,
can often be accomplished in a matter of hours, Mercedes says.
" This is a massive shift in the way we do business, helping us to serve
our customers more quickly and is especially timely with the new realities of COVID-19 and our desire to keep employees safe, " says Christian
Treiber, vice president of customer services at Mercedes-Benz USA.
Saxton tells of the first time a tech put on the HoloLens 2 glasses with
1080p resolution. " The technician was commenting on how weird it felt,
and I suggested he pick up the shop towels on the floor in the background, " Saxton says. The tech was surprised he could see the towels.
Edgar Campana, a centralized diagnostic technician at MercedesBenz of Coral Gables in Florida, used the HoloLens 2 during pilot testing. There were initial issues, but they were mostly due to the service
department's now-fixed balky Internet.
Campana and his shop foreman currently are the only ones who use
the HoloLens 2. The service tech turns the problem over to Campana's
team, allowing the tech to move to the next job.
Campana's team diagnoses the problem, submits findings to MBUSA
and typically receives possible solutions within a day.
The regional experts can send diagrams showing the proper layout, for
example, talk a tech through a process or even pop up an arrow for a
difficult-to-locate part.
" We can make our decision a lot faster, " Saxton says. " The dealers like
that they have that accessibility to me, versus the old way, which may
have taken three days before I could get to the dealership. It makes me
more productive, it makes the dealership more productive, and it ultimately helps the customers. " 

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Fixed Ops Journal - December 2020

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