Volvo Cars and Varjo launch world-first mixed reality application for car development

The Volvo Car Group is pointing the way to the future of automotive development: The Swedish premium manufacturer has now joined forces with Varjo, a Finnish manufacturer of high-quality augmented reality headsets, for the first mixed-reality approach for evaluating prototypes, designs and active ones This collaboration is being supported by the Volvo Cars Tech Fund, which invests in Varjo: the Group's venture capital fund promotes promising startups in the technology sector.
With the new concept of Volvo and Varjo, the real and virtual worlds are merging: the virtual reality headset seamlessly complements virtual elements and even complete functions while driving a real car. Both the driver and the vehicle sensors perceived these enhancements as real, something that no other carmaker has ever achieved.

The Varjo XR-1 headset, launched today, delivers unprecedented levels of photorealistic mixed or virtual reality in high definition. This dramatically shortens automotive development times by allowing features and design features to be evaluated virtually instantly. Compared to its predecessor, the XR-1 headset has high-resolution cameras and enables the display of mixed reality. Volvo engineers and engineers can drive future cars and test all functions in a simulation environment - many years before the vehicles hit the market.