A Big-Screen Hit at DaimlerChrysler: Auto Testing Goes Virtual

With the aid of the latest technological gadgets and gizmos, the world’s No. 5 auto maker is deciding life-and-death issues such as where to locate a car’s cup holders and ashtray.

Such tasks for auto manufacturers might seem trivial at first glance, but ergonomics--the influence of design on efficiency and comfort--has become one of the primary safety considerations for those engineering the cars and trucks of tomorrow.

At DaimlerChrysler’s new Virtual Reality Center in this Stuttgart suburb, computer-assisted design, or CAD in the industry lingo, has invaded every stage of new-vehicle development and begun to phase out century-old traditions of auto making, everything from blueprints of new model concepts to crash-test dummies and prototypes.

“We still need to use dummies in final tests, but now we are able to reduce the costs of actual crash testing by first seeing the results through virtual reality,” said Thomas Jaeger, who is in charge of the technology’s applications at the auto maker’s top-secret development department. “We can reduce the number of hardware models by using digital mock-ups for much of the testing.”

At what engineers have dubbed the Powerwall, a 200-square-foot screen for virtual-reality projections, users need only a few keystrokes to simulate crashes at every angle and speed to study the effects on the vehicle and its occupants and make design revisions as needed. The movie theater-sized screen is also used together with a sensing glove to allow a new model’s designers to test the ease and efficiency of replacing parts such as spark plugs and lights.

Two other highlights of the $7.5-million center, which opened in late April, are the Cave, a cube open on one side that houses a driving simulator, and the Curved Screen, which is erected around another driver’s-seat model for trouble-shooting ergonomic features under simulated road and weather conditions.

“The cup holder is a big challenge,” Jaeger said, noting that hot coffee spilled because a driver has to reach too far or in an awkward position poses a significant safety hazard. “We have to test its placement as well as other instruments and equipment on the dashboard to maximize the ergonomics.”

One test carried out using the Curved Screen, with drivers selected randomly from surrounding communities, aims to measure the subjects’ ability to deal with stressful developments behind the wheel--for example, the simultaneous ringing of a mobile phone and the onset of a rainstorm.

The Virtual Reality Center is outfitted with equipment, much of it customized, from Mountain View, Calif.-based Silicon Graphics Inc. and the visual electronics firm TAN Projektionstechnologie in Dusseldorf, Germany, as well as with LightWave 3D animation software by San Antonio-based NewTek.

The center is thought to be the most advanced of its kind in the auto industry, DaimlerChrysler spokeswoman Annette Kliem said. The company’s U.S. archrivals are also employing virtual reality in design--General Motors Corp. in a dedicated studio at its Technical Center in Warren, Mich., and Ford Motor Co. through the use of holography and similar tools.

For its part, DaimlerChrysler expects to reap synergies from the first digital drawings to delivery of the first unit of a new model off the assembly line, Kliem said.

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Virtual-reality technology has been in use in the sales field for a few years already, with potential buyers able to look at cars in various colors and with selected optional equipment, Jaeger said.

Broader consumer applications of the technology are likely in the next year or two, but the center’s priorities are to reduce the number of prototypes needed by at least 20% and cut the time between concept and production by 30%, said Bharat Balasubramanian, director of development for Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz line.

Testing of actual prototypes will still be necessary to meet government certification standards, but the company can expect considerable cost saving by using the virtual cars for initial trial-and-error designing, the executive said.

“Aviation manufacturers are ahead of us, as they’ve used virtual mock-ups in such areas as wing-stress testing,” said Balasubramanian, referring to a measurement taken by bending an aircraft’s wings until they actually break away from the fuselage. “This is a test that is very expensive, and the results from virtual mock-ups are so close to the hardware testing that they are able to reduce the number of prototype tests needed for certification.”

The first models to benefit from the new technology are the nine Mercedes-Benz classes in production in nearby Untertuerkheim, but the designers in Germany expect their colleagues at Michigan-based Chrysler to take advantage of the center’s potential in the near future, Balasubramanian said.

Competitors could probably acquire the virtual-reality capabilities in less than a year, Balasubramanian conceded, but he insisted that his company is the industry leader in integrating the technology across the development spectrum.

No one is yet prepared to forecast a drop in sticker prices because of the virtual-reality applications, but the DaimlerChrysler developers say customers will benefit from improved safety and the comfort adjustments gleaned from the testing.

“Where we see the consumer advantage is if we can reduce development time, the final product will be delivered to the customer fresher,” Balasubramanian said, noting that each model can be steadily perfected throughout a production life that can run beyond 10 years.

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Carol J. Williams is The Times’ Berlin bureau chief.