Mercedes-Benz develops remote support solution with Microsoft

Mercedes-Benz USA (MBUSA) has developed a virtual reality automotive maintenance support system with Microsoft. The system has been designed to allow onsite dealership technicians to work handsfree while sharing real-time audio and visuals of the vehicles being serviced with Mercedes-Benz technical specialists. 

According to the company, Mercedes-Benz authorized dealerships will be able to collaborate with specialists anywhere in the world to solve complex maintenance issues, often within minutes or hours (compared to days or even weeks).

“This is a massive shift in the way we do business… and is especially timely with the new realities of COVID-19 and our desire to keep employees safe,” said Christian Treiber, Vice President of Customer Services at MBUSA. 

“Today’s vehicles feature more than 100 million lines of software code. Through our partnership with Microsoft, we have a new paradigm for technology support and communication that helps our dealers and technicians master the complexity of these vehicles while eliminating travel time and onsite visits,” added Treiber. 

Leveraging Dynamics 365 Remote Assist, the remote specialist can see exactly what the technician is seeing at the dealership. Working in a mixed reality environment, it is an immersive experience where both can view intricate 3D images and holograms, see where changes need to be made, annotate the visual information, add documents, insert arrows, circles and more all to highlight areas on which to focus.

Mercedes-Benz Virtual Remote Support has been rolled out to all 383 dealerships across the U.S. and, according to MBUSA, this is “just the beginning”. 

Photo : Mercedes-Benz