There are many, many, many wonderful things about visiting an actual car dealership: the aesthetics, the smell, the couches, the people, the cars. What if you could experience those without ever having to leave your house, like the agoraphobic recluse that you are deep down? Enter the virtual reality showroom.
Vroom, a company which will sell you a car using the magic of the internet, is now using the HTC Vive virtual reality headset to sell you a car using, well, that.
The idea is that you put the headset on and then you’re instantly translated to a fantastical world of imagination, where computers will point out various features and technology bits. Select the car you want, and you can take it on a virtual test drive. Pick a car, any car, buy it, and then Vroom will deliver it to your house. Vroom maintains that with this, the “VR showroom allows our customers to virtually test-drive 10 cars in 10 minutes, rather than spending 10 hours at dealerships.”
Vroom is also possibly (?) maintaining that with this, you’ll never need to step foot in an actual dealership or go for an actual test drive, because the singularity has already consumed us all, and you can’t surrender your humanity when it’s been taken from your existence before you can even give it up.
I dunno. I like getting my grubby, mystery grease-infested hands all over a dealership’s test car before actually making any decisions. Leaving my clammy palm sweat on the steering wheel for the next person to confront is half the fun.