News / March 2024
· Legacy project
Mercedes-Benz USA’s CEO test-drives Fab Cars
In March 2024 the lab installed the finished Fab Cars, a virtual reality showroom and test drive, and Mercedes-Benz USA President and CEO Dimitris Psillakis took it for a drive.
The story
Why it matters: Fab Cars set out to show that the showroom, the configurator and the test drive can all happen without a dealership, or a physical car. Having Mercedes-Benz USA’s CEO in the driver’s seat put that idea in front of the people who sell the cars.
What we built:
- A car configurator in Unreal Engine: paint, interior and trim change in the headset, with every car spawned from one custom blueprint.
- Four VR drives through desert, city, seaside and fantasy worlds, with every terrain built procedurally in Houdini.
- A physical prototype: you sit in a Mercedes seat wearing a VR headset, with a game steering wheel and pedals.
- An LED screen component, so the people around the driver see the drive too.
Who made it: Directed by Candace Reckinger, then director of the lab. Jordan Halsey was technical and art director, Shaoyu Su programming lead, Stephanie Ng lead developer and Coby Palivathukal producer. The project sponsor was Naser Water, owner of Trophy Automotive.
How we got here: Fab Cars ran from 2021 to 2023 as a multi-year research project at the USC School of Cinematic Arts’ Immersive Media Lab, the lab that became the Ganek Immersive Studio. The final installation followed in March 2024.
Go deeper: The Fab Cars project page · Fab Cars on jordanhalsey.com
March 2024
The test drive + the worlds
