Inspiration
For the last 50 years, my family has been in the car business. The way my grandfather sold cars in the 60's is not much different from how my brother does it today. There had to be a better way.
What it does
DRIVR360 is a 24/7 360 dealership showroom that lets shoppers browse cars, learn more about models, and even purchase a vehicle without having to ever step foot in a dealership. We have taken the way people have shopped for cars for the last 100 years and simply brought it online.
How I built it
DRIVR360 is built with WebVR so that it is cross-device compatible. The 360 assets, created with a custom camera rig & post-processed, are hosted on AWS. HTML was used to add interactivity and embed other websites inside of the 360 experience so that you can pull in outside information including YouTube videos without having to navigate to other sites.
Challenges I ran into
The first challenge was capturing high-resolution 360 images. Readily available 360 cameras did not produce high enough resolution to feel real. Two custom camera rigs were developed that capture 70-100mp photos--about 3x what can be captured with off-the-shelf 360 cameras.
WebVR is relatively new and so cross-device and cross-browser compatibility testing also took considerable time.
Accomplishments that I'm proud of
-Improved resolution 400% from the first prototype -Successful testing on mobile, tablets, and desktop including Internet Explorer.
What I learned
There is still a lot of work to be done but the way people browse & shop for cars can be easier.
What's next for DRIVR360
The next step is a beta launch with a dealership or brand to test & let data drive the product road map.
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