Over the past few decades, the trend within the automotive industry has been to separate the owner of a car from the operations associated with maintaining it and fixing it whenever something goes awry.

However, it seems that there may be hints of a reverse process, re-embracing the customer hands-on approach, as BMW revealed augmented reality glasses that turn anybody into a fast-thinking mechanic.

As the video posted below eloquently shows, when you wear said glasses, and designate a part that needs to be removed, they will then begin highlighting what needs to be taken apart in order to reach the problem component, also showing the correct way to go about doing it.

Written instructions are also displayed, and audible ones can be enabled too. In theory, you could be a total noob and instantly look like you know what you’re doing.

Animations will be also be implemented in order to show the user’s progress on the various separate tasks that need to be tackled. Check out the video below, if you think this is a bit too futuristic and doesn’t yet work.

Please note that it’s actually a very old video, first posted some six years ago, and we don’t really know how much progress has been made, if any, since then… (hence the poor quality).

By Andrei Nedelea

Story References: Daily Mail via BMWblog

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