What is Mercedes-Benz Virtual Remote Support?
- Mercedes-Benz Virtual Remote Support, created by Mercedes-Benz USA in collaboration with Microsoft, is the first mixed reality automotive maintenance support system.
- The service allows technicians working onsite at any of MBUSA’s 383 authorized dealerships to collaborate with Mercedes-Benz specialists anywhere in the world to solve complex maintenance issues often within minutes and hours as compared to days.
- Leveraging Microsoft HoloLens 2 and Dynamics 365 Remote Assist technology, dealership technicians share real-time views and sounds of the vehicle with Mercedes-Benz specialists working remotely who are able to provide valuable insight and technological guidance without ever leaving their office.
Why is Mercedes-Benz Virtual Remote Support Important?
- This is a massive paradigm shift in technology and maintenance support, not just for Mercedes-Benz, but for the automotive industry as a whole.
- Modern vehicles have become increasingly advanced over the past decade. Automobiles powered by 10 million lines of software code in 2010 are now built with more than 100 million lines of code.
- This is significantly more lines of software code than the Space Shuttle, an F-35 fighter jet and a pacemaker combined.
- This increased functionality supports an enhanced customer experience but has also increased the maintenance complexity.
- Today, due to COVID-19, dealers are also servicing vehicles at a time when social distancing is pertinent to employee safety and health.
- Mercedes-Benz Virtual Remote Support helps dealers and technicians master the complexity of these vehicles, while at the same time keeping employees safe by eliminating travel and onsite visits.
What are the Benefits of Mercedes-Benz Virtual Remote Support?
- Enhanced Customer Experience: Customers experience faster turnaround times for maintenance issues which leads to increased satisfaction.
- Greater Efficiency & Productivity: Decreases the time it takes to resolve maintenance questions increasing the productivity and efficiency of dealer technicians.
- COVID-19 Employee Safety: In times of COVID-19, it creates a remote work environment without eliminating the important collaboration between remote and onsite technical experts.
- Sustainability: Reduces the environmental impact of service-related travel.
How does Mercedes-Benz Virtual Remote Support work?
- An onsite technician, wearing a HoloLens 2 headset and leveraging Dynamics 365 Remote Assist, shares their view of the vehicle and the potential issue with a remote Mercedes-Benz specialist.
- The onsite technician and remote specialist, while collaborating to troubleshoot a case, can display 3D images and holograms, share and annotate the visual information, view and add documents, insert arrows, circles and use other tools. Multiple remote specialists can also be added to the same call.
When did Mercedes-Benz Virtual Remote Support launch?
- Mercedes-Benz Virtual Remote Support officially launched across the Mercedes-Benz USA dealer network in August 2020, following a successful pilot program.
- The pilot program, which was conducted between January and March 2020, included 13 Mercedes-Benz dealerships across Mercedes-Benz USA’s footprint.
SOURCE: Mercedes-Benz USA
