Audi turns to virtual reality for TT launch

As the third generation of the sports coupe arrives in showrooms across Europe, Audi is offering potential owners a novel way of taking it for a test-drive.

Audi has teamed up with Samsung and is using the electronic company's Gear VR headsets in its dealerships in order to create a more immersive way of exploring the car and its capabilities.

The Gear VR headset, which itself was developed in partnership with Oculus VR, turns content from a Galaxy Note 4 phablet into wraparound three-dimensional imagery that's always in focus. That's because it tracks head movements to continually reposition and tweak visuals.

The content isn't computer-generated either but film footage of the car being put through its paces around the track by a test driver. Putting on the headset will place the wearer in the passenger seat.

Audi claims that the partnership is a coup and, in terms of the Gear VR headset, it is -- it won't be going on sale until December yet every Audi dealership in the UK now has one on hand.

But as for using virtual reality technology for offering immersive test drives, Audi will have to line up behind Volvo. The Swedish company has already announced its own partnership with Google to offer visitors to the LA Auto Show a chance to take a three-dimensional test drive of its latest SUV, the XC90.