Volkswagen Car-Net, 2014

For the Paris Motor Show, ART+COM Studios designed an interactive exhibit to introduce Car-Net. Volkswagen’s Car-Net is an online mobile service that delivers current in-vehicle information appropriate to specific situations and offers easy access to the car from a distance.

Visitors to the exhibit can experience the many-featured Car-Net in a playful way. They participate in an entertaining skill-based game — the Car-Net Parcours — by controlling a token and receiving information about Car-Net services on their own smart phones. Along the route players encounter everyday situations that can be solved using the appropriate Car-Net service. Finding, for example, the cheapest petrol station in the area when the tank needs refilling, or quickly finding out where the car is parked using the mobile app. Players first select one of three Car-Net categories when starting the game, then the course, featuring a total of five tasks, each presenting a Car-Net service, begins.

The interactive exhibit is striking even from a distance due to its special design — as soon as a Car-Net service is offered, an icon representing that service is mechatronically moved up and made visible. This quasi three-dimensional icon is composed of two icon parts that are combined using sophisticated mechatronics. In addition to this unusual display, the exhibit includes a digital track along which players’ tokens move. Visitors interact with the exhibit by making swivel gestures with their smartphones.

The exhibit was engineered and realised by MKT.