Inside virtual Ford
By GREG MIGLIORE 
 

Ford engineers climb into the CAVE to test the design of instrument layouts.Ford is taking a page from Hollywood filmmakers to speed the product-development process and bring cars to the market faster.

The automaker is using virtual design tools--similar to the technology used to generate moving images in The Polar Express, Shrek and other animated movies--to make the interiors of its cars more comfortable and help bring them to the market eight months to 14 months quicker than it did several years ago, and at a lower cost.

Automakers are notoriously reluctant to let anyone, (especially reporters) into their development chambers, but Ford recently let us check out--and play with--some of the design tools in what it calls the Immersive Virtual Review lab.

We arrived at the nondescript building nestled on Ford's campus in Dearborn, Mich., and were escorted inside. After a brief, classroom-style presentation on why this is important, we went inside the lab. It's kind of dark, like being back stage on a set somewhere in Southern California, and three stations were set up.

First up is the CAVE (Cave Automated Virtual Environment). Yes, it's actually called that, and it's a stand with a raised chair that simulates the interior of a car. We're handed Blues Brothers-style virtual-reality glasses and ascend to take a seat in the virtual world. Now, we're in a Ford Flex, surrounded by tall buildings on a street in downtown Anywhere, U.S.A. It's pretty real too. The point is to see how the Flex's interior works, without building a clay model or larger-sized mock-ups, which automakers call "bucks."

In the virtual world, you can check out the layout of the instrument panel, test visibility by gawking out the windows and in general see whether it's ergonomically friendly. It's like a video game, but for Ford, it's far from fun and games. Ford used this technology to make a critical change in the placement of the navigation screen in the Flex as it evolved from the original concept's interior to production.

After a few minutes inside the faux Flex, we get off the stand, tripping slightly down the small ladder as our eyes readjust to the room.

Next on the agenda is something Ford calls an open-volume station, and the idea is to get a more detailed feel for the interior. We take a seat inside a virtual Lincoln MKS. Again we're in a downtown setting, with cars and people entering the scene. In this session, we're fitted with a weighty headset that looks like the contraptions doctors use to stabilize people's vertebrae, and a leather, clawlike glove. Here there's more interaction, and we pound on the top of the virtual dashboard and reach out and grab the steering wheel. The focus is to design an interior that's comfortable for people of all sizes. This is where the participants are really more like guinea pigs, and Ford engineers use this to study what drivers can and can't reach. It saves time, because engineers can make the testers any size--a middle-aged guy can become a pregnant woman, for example.

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