Vehicle design has evolved a lot over recent decades. While designers have replaced their pencils with 3D modelling, engineers are testing future models long before the first physical prototypes see the light of day. How so? Thanks to CAVE (Cave Automatic Virtual Environment), a virtual reality platform that can be used to move around outside and inside a vehicle during its design phase. At the Titu Technical Centre in southern Romania, Dacia teams have tested the fully immersive experience. As such, they optimised interior modularity and spaciousness on the All-new Dacia Jogger. Here is their story.
While travelling back to the future like Marty McFly aboard Doc’s infamous DeLorean DMC-12 is still within the realm of science fiction, we can already live a little ahead of our own time thanks to the new technology offered by the automotive industry. Let us head to Titu, where engineers are already living embarking on extraordinary adventures, climbing aboard models... that do not yet exist. This small town located 45 minutes from Bucharest, home to just under 10,000 inhabitants, is certainly far from the Hollywood hills, but is nevertheless host to Renault Group’s second largest testing facility in the world. State-of-the-art technology, winding tracks, numerous test lines, even ‘torture’ chambers to test the resistance of materials, and... a CAVE – a Cave Automatic Virtual Environment. This is where Ionut, in charge of product ergonomics, takes us on a journey into parallel universe. A virtual journey to bring us closer to reality.