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How Lamborghini Plans to Take Over Virtual Reality with Samsung

In terms of consumer electronics, it's probably already safe to assume that 2015 will remain in history as the year of virtual reality. VR can put on quite a show and it looks like Lamborghini wants a hefty slice of this.
Lamborghini virtual test drive 1 photo
Photo: screenshot from Youtube
For now, the Raging Bull has teamed up with Samsung to give Geneva Motor Show visitors a digital experience that aims to make them "feel as if they are really driving the Lamborghini supercar, immersed in the sounds, colors and images as if it were the real thing."

What Lamborghini has done in Geneva was to place a Samsung VR gear inside one of their four-wheeled creations, allowing attenders to mix the seat of an actual Lamborghini with special 3D audio and video. Nevertheless, one might wonder why the physical experience came from the cabin of an Aventador while the virtual ride was provided by a Huracan.

The answer is simple - for the moment, it doesn't really matter. The VR technology is still being polished, so the people over in Sant'Agata Bolognese were just testing the binary waters during the Swiss event.

If you're a major carmaker, especially one that relies on emotions to sell, you simply can't overlook the benefits of virtual reality, so expect the car world to embrace the 3D stuff further and further in the future. So we can only applaud Lamborghini for starting work so early.

Virtual Reality headsets: commercial history basically started in 2012

It all started back in 2012, when the Kickstarter platform users raised enough money to fund something called "Oculus Rift", which promised "the first truly immersive virtual reality headset for video games".

Fast-forwarding to 2015, Oculus Rift is no longer a start-up, having been acquired by Facebook and working to heavily update its VR headset. The competition seems to be growing by the day.

Apart form the aforementioned Samsung VR, which improves on the Oculus Rift headset by adding a Note 4 smartphone, we also have players such as Sony (offering the Morpheus), or HTC (with the Vive).

Virtual reality will undoubtedly make its way to the masses and games will be far from representing the only benefit. Imagine, for instance, that you could test drive a Lamborghini, or any supercar, for that matter, at the click of a button.

Do you really want something like this in your car life?

Sure, a virtual test drive will never replace the real deal, at least not soon enough to be worth discussing it here, but we're pretty sure you wouldn't mind comparing what Lamborghini, Ferrari and McLaren have to offer, all while spending one or two hours in the comfort of your living room.

"Comfort" may not seem like a suitable work to use when describing the urge to get behind the wheel of a supercar, but it's a key notion when it comes to VR headsets - driving simulators that offer a multi-sensorial experience have been on the market for years, but their cost and complexity keeps many enthusiasts from enjoying the experience.

After all, this phase could very well serve as an augmentation for the moment when you'll actually take one of their machines out on the open road.

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About the author: Andrei Tutu
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In his quest to bring you the most impressive automotive creations, Andrei relies on learning as a superpower. There's quite a bit of room in the garage that is this aficionado's heart, so factory-condition classics and widebody contraptions with turbos poking through the hood can peacefully coexist.
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