Volkswagen Unveils Future iOS-Centric Augmented Reality Car Repair App

Ahead of the upcoming October 11 InsiderAR augmented reality conference in Munich, German automaker Volkswagen has unveiled an iOS-centric augmented reality service support app for its vehicles, reports The Next Web. Codenamed MARTA, which is short for Mobile Augmented Reality Technical Assistance, the application is designed to be used on Volkswagen’s XL1 concept car and walks technicians through each step of a repair or service, pointing out individual parts and displaying step-by-step instructions to service specific sections.


Using the previous approach, the service technician could only call up digital repair guidelines. For the XL1, these guidelines were supplemented by the MARTA augmented reality function which "labels" the individual parts and elements with text and shows work instructions clearly.

When MARTA is called up, the system lists all of the jobs to be performed along with the necessary equipment. Each work task to be performed begins with what is known as an initialisation. The vehicle's silhouette is shown in the display of the mobile end device, and it shows the employee the orientation to be taken in relation to the vehicle. If the silhouette and the camera image of the real vehicle agree, the initialisation is finished successfully. Then the individual context-dependent work steps are shown on the tablet. This gives the employee a new system for identifying work items quicker and more accurately.

Earlier this year, Volkswagen debuted the “iBeetle” with full iPhone integration and special badging, with the automotive maker claiming it was the first car in the world to have a "genuine integrative interface made for the iPhone that was coordinated with Apple." Apple also revealed its iOS in the Car feature alongside the unveiling of iOS 7 earlier this year, allowing for compatible car systems to interact with iOS, with support for the feature coming in 2014.

Related Roundup: Apple Vision Pro
Buyer's Guide: Vision Pro (Neutral)
Related Forum: Apple Vision Pro

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 12 New Features

Tuesday May 27, 2025 9:10 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of May 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone X ...
Whatsapp Feature

WhatsApp Teases Long-Awaited iPad App

Monday May 26, 2025 10:23 am PDT by
The popular messaging app WhatsApp has teased a long-awaited iPad app, which would be offered alongside its existing iPhone and Mac apps. The official WhatsApp account on X today reacted with an eyes emoji to a post saying that WhatsApp should release an iPad app. This could be a hint that Meta is gearing up to release WhatsApp for iPad, which has already been available for beta testing via...
WWDC 2025 Banner

WWDC is Just Two Weeks Away: Here Are the Biggest iOS 19 Rumors

Monday May 26, 2025 8:12 am PDT by
WWDC 2025 is just two weeks away as of today, with Apple's opening keynote scheduled for Monday, June 9 at 10 a.m. Pacific Time. During the keynote, Apple is expected to announce iOS 19, iPadOS 19, macOS 16, watchOS 12, tvOS 19, visionOS 3, and other software updates, along with new Apple Intelligence features. In some years, there are also hardware announcements at WWDC, but there are no...
HomePod With Screen Feature

Apple's Rumored Smart Home Hub Has Faced a Disappointing Setback

Monday May 26, 2025 7:18 am PDT by
Apple has scrapped some of the features that it had planned for its long-rumored smart home hub device, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. "I'm told that Apple has pulled some bolder features from the device that could reappear in subsequent models," wrote Gurman, in his Power On newsletter this week. However, he did not reveal any of the specific features that were pulled. Apple made...
top stories 2025 05 24

Top Stories: iPhone 17 Air Details, Apple's Smart Glasses, and More

Saturday May 24, 2025 6:00 am PDT by
WWDC is coming up quickly with a number of software announcements in store, but we're also looking further ahead to hardware launches like the iPhone 17 lineup and even Apple's smart glasses project. This week also saw big news with former Apple design guru Jony Ive joining forces with OpenAI to build future AI-driven devices, while Fortnite returned to the U.S. App Store for the first time...
iPhone Top Left Hole Punch Face ID Feature 2

Apple Rumored to Redesign the iPhone Every Year Through to 2027

Tuesday May 27, 2025 5:17 am PDT by
Apple is reportedly preparing to implement significant iPhone hardware redesigns each year for the next three generations. According leaks from the Chinese supply chain disclosed by Weibo user "Digital Chat Station," Apple plans to carry out a series of phased industrial design changes affecting different parts of the iPhone across three consecutive years: 2025, 2026, and 2027. The changes...
iCloud General Feature Redux

Apple Raises iCloud+ Prices in Three Countries

Monday May 26, 2025 1:45 pm PDT by
Apple recently raised prices for its iCloud+ plans in Brazil, Chile, and Peru, according to a support document updated last Thursday. The table below outlines the price changes in each country. Country Old Prices New Prices Brazil 50GB: R$ 4.90 200GB: R$ 14.90 2TB: R$ 49.90 6TB: R$ 149.90 12TB: R$ 299.90 50GB: R$ ...
Emergency SOS via Satellite iPhone YT

Report: Apple Planned to Offer Starlink-Like Home Internet Service

Tuesday May 27, 2025 7:08 am PDT by
Apple had plans to offer a Starlink-like satellite home internet service in collaboration with Boeing, The Information reports. Starting in 2015, Apple held discussions with Boeing about "Project Eagle," a plan to launch a service to provide wireless internet services to iPhones and homes. The companies would have launched thousands of satellites into orbit around the Earth to beam internet...

Top Rated Comments

NMBob Avatar
152 months ago
Huh?

"This gives the employee a new system for identifying work items quicker and more accurately."

So the mechanic now needs an iPad to identify which thing is the fan belt?? :eek: Or is this description just lost in translation?
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
CFreymarc Avatar
152 months ago
Knew this was coming..and it's only the beginning.

The beginning of this was the early 90's when this was demoed at a SigGraph conference. Issue is that most of the core technology Augmented Reality patents have expired and the CPU speed / power levels are here where it is workable on mobile devices.

A few AR apps have shipped mostly dealing with games. A big company like this using AR for a non-Entertainment use is a watershed event.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Corrosive vinyl Avatar
152 months ago
wow, this could be a tremendous breakthrough in thought for the D.I.Y. crowd. I am personally tired of having marked up paper manuals with grease, oil, and everything else making whats in the book even harder to see. I agree with you, steppanwolf. Chilton manual apps and Siri telling you step by step instructions would be a very awesome future. Imagine buying Chilton manuals on the app store. That with a diagnostic app would sell like gangbusters.

As for getting the iPad all dirty, use some Mechanix gloves and take them off to use the device. Even with taking the gloves off I feel it would still save time. edit: nice to know about smudges Curun.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TimeSquareDesi Avatar
152 months ago
K.I.T.T., engage turbo pursuit mode!

Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)