In addition to the massive financial strain and badly-damaged reputation, the toughest part about Volkswagen's emissions scandal is the automaker must still push the envelope on infusing technology into its systems.
That could partly explain why the embattled automaker took to its website to mention that employees at its Wolfsburg plant are using 3D smart glasses as standard equipment following a successful three-month pilot phase. Although, Volkswagen doesn't name the glasses, the company's employees appear to be using Google Glass.
"Digitalization is becoming increasingly important in production," Reinhard de Vries, VW's head of plant logistics at Wolfsburg, said in a company press release. "The 3D smart glasses take cooperation between humans and systems to a new level."
How could a pair of 3D smart glasses benefit the automaker's plant employees? Well, according to Volkswagen, workers will "automatically receive all the information they need such as storage locations or part numbers directly in their field of vision," seemingly improving the way they are able to tend to specific areas of the vehicles.
The use of the 3D glasses is voluntary for now, with 30 employees in various areas of VW's plant currently utilizing them on windshields and driveshafts. Other departments of the plant, also plan on using the smart glasses.
While it's nice to see VW driving its technology into the future, it's hard to pinpoint how the automaker will continue to do so, while still having to complete its massive recall of making 11 faulty diesel vehicles comply with emissions regulations — a severe undertaking which is slated to begin in January and end in late 2016 with a projected cost of $6.5 billion.
