Buick virtually clones tough roads to test digital vehicles for quality, reliability

Virtual Buick on virtual road

Buick is becoming more and more innovative by the day – yes, that’s probably something you thought we’d never say. Recently, Buick teamed up with the Istanbul native Mine (Mee-NAY) Tasc, a team of engineers that created an innovative road scanner that makes a micro-detailed 3D digital representation of some of the toughest real-world road surfaces.

The technology allows Buick to drive equally detailed digital Buick vehicles on the digital roads to test for quality and reliability.

“Just like a photo scanner, we can scan the surface of a road to create a three-dimensional digital representation,” said Tasci. The scanner works with cameras and a laser to determine a 3D model of a road surface down to 1mm of fidelity.

“An interesting application of this new technology involves a road leading to Mexico’s Cerro del Cubilete shrine,” Buick said in a statement. “It’s a twisting, rocky path that winds its way up toward one of the most important religious shrines in Mexico. Each day, pilgrims from throughout Mexico are jostled and bumped as they traverse the stone road of Cubilete.”

Click through to see a video of the technology in action.

– By: Zain Haq