The Advancement of Virtual Reality in Automotive Market Research: Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

Virtual Reality (VR) can play a key role in automotive marketing research, lowering costs and shortening the time to launch a new product. However, few VR applications support automotive customers’ experiences during the early stages of product design. This study aims to identify and characterize into attributes the challenges and opportunities for the application of Virtual Reality in car clinics through a systematic review of the literature and patents. We searched PatentScout, ScienceDirect, Springer, and IEEEXplore for studies published between the databases’ inception and July 2020. Of the 77,383 patents and 336,785 articles identified, 72 and 13 were eligible, respectively. We discovered that patents are strongly concentrated by a few inventors, that the United States has the most records, and that the most prevalent applications relate to devices for automatically reading responders’ emotions in virtual environments. The articles revealed sixteen categories of challenges and opportunities: cost, location to customers, flexibility in interactions, model transportation, depth perception, haptic perception, motion, movement perception/physical collision, color and texture, sound feedback, product interaction/manipulation, visual–spatial, graphic quality, intuitiveness, cybersecurity, and cybersickness. Virtual Reality may be used for automotive marketing research but key factors such as hardware and software specification, stimulus quality, and survey objectives must be considered.

1. Introduction

Virtual Reality (VR) has been one of the trendiest technologies in the Industry 4.0 scenario. VR is defined as “a computer-generated digital environment that can be experienced and interacted with as if it were real” [1].

As a result of the decreasing cost of hardware and software, as well as the wide range of applications, VR technology has economic promise, and companies are investigating innovative approaches. Immersive technology usage is increasing in a variety of fields, including education [2], healthcare [3,4], and construction [5].

Regarding the automobile market, the growth of VR applications is expected to be exponential in the coming years [6]. Automakers are using VR technology in manufacturing analysis [7], product development, dealer training, ergonomics evaluation, and customer engagement, among other applications.

Automakers conduct experiments with end consumers to learn about their opinions, preferences, and propensity for future purchases. These surveys, known as car clinics, deliver detailed customer feedback and insights to Marketing, Engineering, and Design departments [8].

Car clinics take place in a salon, where automakers display four to eight competing brands and models to customers. Assessments can be quantitative, in which enormous amounts of data are collected via questionnaires, or qualitative, in which customers are encouraged to express impressions based on close observation. The qualitative method is carried out in a small focus group, with a facilitator who leads participants in gathering answers on the study aim. Respondents may experience the vehicle’s external and interior design, as well as compare content, at static automobile clinics. Participants are chosen based on a profile, which is often related to purchasing intentions.

Surveys are generally conducted using static full-scale physical models of the end product being studied to provide respondents with a closer approach to the final product. Vehicle size and appearance are key factors influencing customer product demands and purchasing decisions; thus, customer perception of in-scale items is critical for study in the automobile industry.

Prototypes are utilized for cars in the development phase, whereas production vehicles might be used for comparison. Such prototypes are built using specific manufacturing methods and need a large amount of labor from a skilled team. This comes at a high cost and requires careful planning during the automotive product development process.

Despite the numerous contemporary Virtual Reality applications in the automotive sector, there are still few VR applications that support the experiences of end automobile customers during the early product development phase. Ref. [9] identified various VR applications in the automobile industry, but they only investigated employees who are current or likely automaker users, not end automotive customers. Ref. [10] observed that the automotive industry exposes its products to customers in a virtual environment but not during the product production phase. In the pre-purchase phase, automotive apps use Virtual Reality or augmented reality, such as advertising personalization based on face expression, car visualization, virtual racing tracking experience, and virtual tour of the car. The authors also noted that automotive organizations may use virtual technologies to improve consumer experiences in-store or on-premises. Despite research indicating the value of Virtual Reality with customers in the automotive industry, Virtual Reality with consumers has been restricted in the product development phase.

Customers are more demanding and thirstier for new products, and market volume potential, fragmented automotive marketplaces, and other reasons have raised pressure on automakers to improve time to market with more accurate product definition. Virtual Reality is important in marketing research since it reduces expenses and improves product development timing. Furthermore, VR applications may avoid costly stimulus rework and the need for specialist resources on standby mode during automobile clinics, which are frequently necessary in the event of property damage.

To date, no investigation of scientific and technological knowledge bases has been undertaken on employing Virtual Reality for automotive market research. Ref. [11] reviewed the literature on this subject, but they only examined scientific research articles and did not look at patent filings. These prospective studies are relevant for scientific and technical mapping since the utilization of patent sources of information combines the scope of technology management and innovation activities, constituting competitive tools used in the appraisal of technological potential [12,13]. Furthermore, patents can contribute to the identification of people active in the field and support the decision making of public and private institutions. The mapping made through scientific literature reveals the same possibilities. Furthermore, by analyzing scientific publications, it is possible to examine the state of the art in this technology, in addition to projecting probable trends and participating in the identification of new development research [14].

Thus, this study aims to identify and characterize into attributes the challenges and opportunities for the application of Virtual Reality in car clinics through a systematic review of literature and patents.

The following is how this document is structured. Section 2 describes materials and methods adopted. Section 3 details and examines the findings. Section 4 provide a discussion over the findings. Finally, Section 5 presents our conclusions and recommendations for further research.

2. Materials and Methods

This systematic review followed the PRISMA guidelines [15] and the method described in [16] was used, which encompasses seven steps: Planning, Scoping, Searching, Assessing, Synthetizing, Analyzing, and Writing.

2.1. Planning

During the Planning step, the knowledge bases that will be explored are defined. The search for document patents was undertaken in the PatentScout database, while the search for research articles was conducted in the scientific databases ScienceDirect, Springer, and IEEEXplore.

The databases must be evaluated according to some essential criteria for a search focusing on patents. Paid access tools, such as PatentScout, present as differentiators their speed in retrieving the information sought, their ability to analyze a large amount of data in a simplified and efficient way, the use of statistical tools, and promoting the generation of information through graphics and maps, among others, allowing analysis [17]. The efficiency of this database can be directly related to the high cost of obtaining their license [18]. PatentScout has a wide-ranging database with several search options (general or advanced search) in different search fields. The recovery of documents can be made, besides keywords and Boolean operators, from the International Patent Classification (IPC) and the classifications elaborated by the database itself. ScienceDirect, Springer, and IEEEXplore were chosen because they are reliable and multidisciplinary scientific databases of international scope with comprehensive coverage of citation indexing, allowing the best data from scientific publications.

2.2. Scoping

Defining the scope results in appropriately formulated research questions. A brainstorming session was held with an interdisciplinary focus group comprised of five experts on product development in the automobile industry and Virtual Reality, which selected two pertinent research questions to this systematic review address, namely:

Q1: How has Virtual Reality (VR) supported market research in the automotive industry?

Q2: What are the most recent advancements, challenges, and opportunities in the use of Virtual Reality for automotive market research?

2.3. Searching

The Searching step involves exploring the database specified in the Planning step using a specific string based on the questions stated in the Scope step.

The search strategy was developed by a specialist in Virtual Reality-based market of automotive business. This researcher identified candidate search terms by looking at words in the titles, abstracts, and keywords sections of two known relevant publications. Then, the prospective search phrases were peer-reviewed by five additional members of our team with expertise using Virtual Reality for product design in the automobile sector, yielding the following final search string used to search the PatentScout database: (“Virtual Reality” OR “virtual environment” OR “artificial environment”) AND (automotive OR auto OR car OR “Virtual Reality”) AND (“marketing research” OR “market research” OR “human research” OR “people research”).

A similar search strategy was used for article retrieval, with minor adjustments to fit the search engine requirements of each scientific database: (“Virtual Reality” OR “virtual environment” OR “artificial environment”) AND (“marketing research” OR “market research” OR “people research” OR “human research”) AND document title with (automotive OR auto OR car OR “Virtual Reality”).

The search was carried out on 10 July 2020 with the initial screening resulting in 77,383 patents and 336,785 articles.

2.4. Assessing

The Assessing step employs inclusion and exclusion criteria filters to narrow down the number of documents discovered during the Searching step that are relevant to the research questions. The documents retrieved during the Searching step were subjected to the following exclusion criteria:

• E1: Exclude the documents not written in English language;
• E2: Exclude documents that did not include the terms “Virtual Reality”, “automotive,” “auto”, or “car” in the Title field;
• E3: Exclude documents that did not contain the terms “marketing research” “market research” “human research” or “people research”;
• E4: Exclude documents that did not contain the terms “marketing research” “market research” “human research” or “people research”;

The findings of the Assessing step condensed the search to 375 documents.

2.5. Synthetizing and Analyzing

At this point, the retrieved documents are merged with project-related elements. The documents were submitted to a single screening in which a reviewer with experience in the automotive industry and Virtual Reality technology reviewed each document in order to find relevant articles related to the research questions defined in the Scope step. The documents were chosen based on an examination of their Title and Abstract fields as well as their connection to the project’s purpose:

• Business application for automobiles.
• Human behavior in a virtual environment.
• Feasibility of application in marketing research.
• Virtual Reality research involving end users.

The Synthetizing yielded the selection of 72 patents and 13 scientific articles for further analysis.

These documents were exported to Microsoft Excel, where spreadsheets and graphics were subsequently created to analyze them.

The flow from Searching to Synthetizing of the Systematic Review is represented in Figure 1.

3. Results

The patents were analyzed through their registration data source, inventors, subjective trends, technological advances, challenges, and opportunities. Articles were analyzed with a focus on identifying challenges, opportunities, and advances that can be applied to VR in automotive market research. Results of the patents and articles are exposed, and the two research questions are answered. A discussion on all the challenges and opportunities is performed.

3.1. Patent Mapping

The search identified 72 patent documents, of which only 37 are active. We analyzed the patent publication number, title, abstract, active, assignee, inventors, priority date, publication date, file date, publication source, and first claim.

Figure 2 illustrates the trend in patent publications from 1995 to 2020. The first registration patent granted by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has the subject of a computer system allowing a consumer to purchase packaged goods at home. From 2019 to 2020, results show a slight decrease in the publications concerning the year before. It is worth mentioning that publications may have been left out of the results because of the 18-month patent confidentiality period.

We found patents active from 2009 until 2020, reaching the highest value in 2018, with nine documents.

Regarding the publication source that contributes the most to the number of publications in prospective patent documents, the distribution of active patents worldwide is highly concentrated (Figure 3). The results showed that only four countries are responsible for the most significant interest and domain in the technology investigated in this study: The United States of America, Japan, India, and Chinese Taipei. Additionally, the United States has a significantly higher number of patents active than the other countries. In the segment of patents not active, we can also identify publication sources in the WIPO and European Patent Office, organizations representing multiple countries, as long as the Netherlands and South Korea.

Regarding the patent inventor group, we identified 31 different inventor groups for the 72 patents. We found a high concentration of patents with a small group of inventors since only four different inventors’ groups filled 46% of patents. The I4 group has four publications and represents 6% of the total publications, I3 has six publications representing 8%, I2 has eleven publications with 15% of the total while I1, with the most quantity of publications, achieves the value of 12 documents and represents 17% of the total publications. The other 54% patents can be grouped in inventors’ groups with fewer than four publications each (Figure 4).

Concerning active patents, six different inventors’ groups correspond to 54% of the patents, with the United States owning five groups. The remaining 49% of the documents are applicable by different inventor’s groups with a single application by a group.

The patents could be grouped by application, and the authors divided them into four different categories: Virtual store, Customer profile, Advertisement, and Automatic Feedback. Virtual stores are patents related to the application of Virtual Reality in stores. Customer profiles are patents using Virtual Reality to identify the consumer profile, their intents of purchasing, etc. Advertisements are patents that use VR to advertise products/processes to the public, and Automatic Feedback are patents related to the automatic interpretation of the user of VR through their changes in body positions, pupil changes, facial reactions, brainwaves, etc. In terms of classification by application, from 2009 to 2020, we identified patents related to virtual store applications in five patents from the United States and one from Chinese Taipei. Chinese Taipei, India, and Japan have one classification in customer profile, while the United States has ten documents. Concerning advertisement, only Japan and the United States are represented in the Confidentiality Period with this classification with two and four applications, respectively.

Automatic feedback in VR classification has only the United States of America represented by patents with 17 items.

The analysis of the title and abstract of the active documents revealed that 17 documents correlate with apparatus to automatically read participants’ reactions in a VR environment, such as their gestures, sounds, eye movements, or neurological signs. As Figure 4 illustrates, the automatic identification and analysis of the participants’ reactions is a subject that has been growing among the years on the patent side. As an example, US Patent 9,886,981 defines a device that determines neurofeedback significance corresponding to stimulus material and then modifies the stimulus material using neuro-feedback significance measures [19].

Understanding customer profile applies to 13 documents such as US patent 9,881,310 that creates an eliciting system that may embody a method for collecting market research data by eliciting customer input through an interactive competitive game format [20].

Six patent applications related to VR are classified as advertising. For example, in US patent 8,335,716, characteristics associated with multimedia advertisements are obtained in real time and advertisement slots are offered with information on advertisement slot characteristics. They may be selected, purchased, exchanged, and analyzed by advertisers’ corporations and firms [19].

Six patents are related to applications in virtual stores, such as the one presented in US patent 8,341,022 where the invention is a Virtual Reality system that includes an instrumented device used to present a virtual shopping environment to a simulation participant [21].

Over the years, the most spread and stable application is the application on understanding customer profile, with publications from 2009 to recent years of the study. The advertisement application and virtual store are also stable and spread over the years but less frequently than customer profiles. Application on automatic feedback shows the biggest average and a growing profile.

It is important to remember that the counting of the last two years may be affected due to the 18-month patent confidentiality period (Figure 5).

The patent study provided clarity that Virtual Reality used to automatically identify and analyze participants’ reactions, such as eye pupil variation or neuro responses, is a recent advance of Virtual Reality with opportunities for automotive marketing research application as raised in Q2 (What are the most recent advancements, challenges, and opportunities in the use of Virtual Reality for automotive market research?) from the previous section.

3.2. Scientific Mapping

Search in the Web of Science, ScienceDirect, and IEEExplore knowledge databases identified 13 articles that may provide the identification of challenges, opportunities, and advances that can be applied to VR in automotive market research.

Table 1. List of selected studies.

Reference	Title	Publication Year
[9]	Future directions for the development of virtual reality within an automotive manufacturer	2016
[22]	Interaction techniques for virtual reality-based automotive design reviews	2017
[23]	Early prototype assessment of a new virtual system for training procedural skills of automotive service operators: LARTE tool	2015
[24]	VR Processes in the Automotive Industry	2015
[25]	Opportunities and constraints of virtual reality application in international and domestic car companies of Malaysia	2012
[26]	Design and Implementation of a Complex Virtual Reality System for Product Design with Active Participation of End User	2016
[27]	How 3D Virtual Reality Stores Can Shape Consumer Purchase Decisions: The Roles of Informativeness and Playfulness	2020
[28]	Understanding the use of Virtual Reality in Marketing: A text mining-based review	2019
[10]	Virtual and augmented reality: Advancing research in consumer marketing	2020
[29]	Virtual Reality as a Marketing Tool	2019
[30]	Implementation Issues of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality: A Survey	2018
[31]	A user study trends in augmented reality and virtual reality research: A qualitative study with the past three years of the ISMAR and IEEE	2012
[32]	A study on the use of an immersive virtual reality store to investigate consumer perceptions and purchase behavior toward non-standard fruits and vegetables	2017

shows these selected articles.

We analyzed these 13 studies facing the research questions presented in Section 2.2. Those two questions are addressed separately in the following subsections.

Q1: How has Virtual Reality (VR) supporting market research in the automotive industry?

The analyzed articles are applied in different fields of knowledge and application since the searching criteria were focused on the automotive business and VR’s applicability in market research. In addition to some papers being researched in multiple areas, three different fields of application can be identified with specific articles: (a) Automotive—related to VR applicability in the automotive business, (b) Retailing—related to VR applicability on selling environments such as virtual stores, supermarket, commercial transactions, or similar, and (c) Advertising—the use of Virtual Reality for product advertising via websites. There are papers that have been investigated in a variety of fields rather than just one.

Several uses of VR in the automotive industry have been discovered in the literature, including: (a) technical design review [9,22,24,26], where automaker employees apply VR to study design evaluations among others; (b) manufacturing feasibility analysis [9], where VR is used to understand early in the development process if parts can be assembled and/or transported without issues, etc.; (c) driving simulations and habits [9,24] where automaker employees virtually simulate driving habits, driving vehicle performance, driver distractions analysis, etc.; (d) training [9,23] where training on car service, maintenance procedures, assembly process, dealers employees interaction with new vehicles, etc. and (e) ergonomics [9,24] where automaker employees understand if the vehicle is ergonomically performing in relation to end users’ requirements or if automakers employees can manufacturer the vehicle in an ergonomic way, preventing them from injury during their day-to-day work.

Since the area of research of this article is the automotive marketing research performed with end users, it is crucial to understand the type of users who were researched in the articles selected through the systematic literature review as long as they identify learnings that can apply to product development.

All studies on the retailing and advertising fields were conducted with end users, whilst those in the automotive field of application were based on input from automaker employees. There are limited mentions of VR tools applications with end automobile customers in the various application articles. For example, Virtual Reality is applied to a few procedures involving customers, although it is unclear whether the authors mean that applications are conducted by the end customer or by skilled automakers representatives mimicking client behavior [9].

In the retailing application field, research has mostly concentrated on understanding consumer behavior in virtual worlds and the corresponding purchase inclinations. The research was mostly conducted through the purchase of minor goods such as fruit [32] or supermarket items. A comparable application is used with automotive users during the pre-purchase process, mostly to allow customers to virtually select vehicle choices or models [10].

Since cars have a significant cost for their buyers, the study attempted to understand the various degrees of VR application based on the product cost. Marketing research applications and studies on more expensive things such as furniture [27] and even pricey products such as houses [10,28] can be found in the literature but not for product development applications.

In the articles selected for our study, we discovered various forms of analysis. We grouped them as follows: (a) VR improvements refer to research conducted in an application or environment where Virtual Reality is already being used, with the goal of improving its performance, such as switching the Virtual Reality application from non-immersive to immersive; (b) comprises investigations based on a survey of the literature and incorporates knowledge from various articles, studies, and fields; (c) A × B comparison, where the authors develop a correlation of several immersive virtual environments or an immersive environment compared to a physical one. The immersive virtual environment is a perception of physically being there in a non-physical setting; the final sort of classification is based on (d) surveys of Virtual Reality users. Their knowledge and experiences are gathered through the use of specific questionnaires. For example, surveys are conducted with automakers experts on present VR applications and their anticipated future in several business domains. Figure 6 illustrates the analysis type distribution.

Table 2. Field of application.

		Field of Application
		Automotive	Multiple	Retailing	Advertisement
Users	Experts	6
	End Users			2	1
Analysis Type	VR Improvements	1
	Systematic Review		4
	A × B Comparison	3		2	1
	Survey	2

illustrates the connection between the field of application and users as well as the type of analysis. The articles related to the automotive industry use experts inside the sector in the studies, while the articles from the other field of applications were based on final users. Half of the automotive articles and all the retailing and advertisement articles were related to A × B comparison, and all the articles classified as multiple fields of application were based on a systematic literature review.

Ref. [10] observed that VR has the most potential for application in the marketing domains of product design and aesthetics, advertising, shopper marketing, multichannel retailing, social interactions, and co-creation of products and experiences, but features such as haptics and motions require additional research.

Q2: What are the most recent advancements, challenges, and opportunities in the use of Virtual Reality for automotive market research?

Virtual Reality is recognized as a potential medium for analyzing customer wishes and purchases. It is also acknowledged as a method used in market research to reduce costs, timing, and challenges such as physical property relocation required for the research [9].

Virtual Reality enables trials that would be impossible to do in physical study [33], such as research with large numbers of participants on rapidly decaying fresh products or research in multiple surroundings, such as alternative store setups.

The following sections highlight the challenges and opportunities afforded by VR in the automotive industry and marketing research. These inputs, based on a set of papers, address the Q2 question, providing a database for VR suitability in automobile marketing research. Limitations and opportunities are not limited to the automotive industry and may have an impact on market research utilization at various levels depending on the research purpose.

One of the issues identified in the literature is a lack of depth perception, which primarily affects small distances [24], and users complain about the inability of one eye to focus as well as the other. One suggestion for reducing this problem is to employ a rich environment with shadows and background texture and high-quality colors. The use of multisensory technology, such as haptic feedback, may give immersive feedback that solves the depth perception problem [24]. One of the most commonly highlighted concerns in the simulation done by engineers and designers was the quality of images or pictures [27]. According to [10], the field of view and the resolution of the visual display are key aspects for user immersion and are required for marketing research.

Color and texture issues were observed during design review evaluations, compromising user analysis [9]. Surface quality issues such as roughness and the lack of or discontinuous surfaces that do not provide the visual feeling of a vehicle in front of the user [26] also impacted immersion in the analysis.

A lack of haptic input can also have a negative impact on the VR analysis. As long as reach perception is sought in VR environments’ automobile engineering tasks, there should be no weight, torque, or force [24].

With VR, there is a problem with motion tracking. An ergonomics examination discovered a lack of hand motion monitoring, difficulties, and an uncomfortable body motion tracker suit [9]. Motion tracking and gesture recognition can be combined to enhance the VR experience [26]. Some VR equipment takes little training to use [23,26], and body motion vests might be uncomfortable [24]. In some areas, a lack of VR training may limit its implementation [25]. When immersive elements such as gesture detection and an immersive walk are used, user virtual immersion is increased [26].

VR navigation can produce a variety of immersion effects. Ref. [22] investigated the use of several solution concepts for 3D navigation with VR based on speech, gesture, and touch-based input modalities. Its research compared a spoken menu on the screen, a haptic interaction simulation of a virtual touchscreen, a head tracking system, a schematic 2D map in top views similar to Google Maps, and a touch screen. The study’s findings confirm that touch screens and head tracking technologies provide the highest overall quality in these areas.

Lack of physical collision [24] as well as sound and vibration feedback in some tests [9] caused the VR application to behave similarly to physical evaluation. Lack of sound feedback [24] was noted as a constraint in manufacturing feasibility studies, which are primarily connected to machinery movement or manual procedures that require operator response in addition to visual and haptic feedback. In rare circumstances, olfactory simulations are also required for assessing the air quality within the car.

Concerns such as a lack of skilled individuals to install VR, the time it takes to become proficient, and a lack of VR knowledge were also recognized as issues with VR. For some businesses, the cost of software and hardware is a barrier [25,30].

As long as it can investigate distracting capabilities through the inquiry in the course, virtual context, such as a drivable scene to be evaluated in a realistic virtual world, gives a more substantial user immersion [9]. Ref. [27] also emphasized the impact of the backdrop context, where users may be presented with many repetitive cues and be more willing to overlook VR shortcomings such as graphic quality.

As a VR opportunity, the time it uses to develop a virtual prototype is minimal and can enhance the overall review process; virtual prototypes can be generated earlier than physical property, improving development schedule. The main advantages of using VR in the Malaysian automobile sector were reduced rework and improved manufacturing quality [25]. Physical prototypes are challenging to handle and move [9,25].

One of the broadest opportunities for the usage of VR is cost savings. It also lowers the costs of delivering physical prototypes [9]. Virtual prototypes demand no storage space and are less expensive to build. Virtual assets decrease rework, save money, and boost productivity [25]. A VR network may improve virtual training and surveys by eliminating the requirement for user travel [9], hence improving application timing and costs.

The difficulties of recruiting survey respondents are also addressed in the research. Some research used a different recruitment approach between the comparisons. One example is the concern over combining face-to-face and online survey selection processes in the same study [27]. Some studies were conducted with respondents who may not have had the consumer target profile for the product under consideration, and in some circumstances, the quantity of participants may not have been statistically representative for the decisions that were required [30]. One of the three questionnaires evaluating automotive experience has a sample size of 240 interviews, while the other two have only 11 respondents. All four studies in the A × B comparison study had a sample size greater than 142 participants; however, two have participants aged 18 to 22 years old, which may not represent the related population.

In marketing research, visual–spatial clues and graphic quality are critical [27]. Both challenges introduce participants to products with which they are familiar in the real world. The relevance of these challenges varies depending on the virtual research equipment. Graphic quality was discovered to be more noticeable by participants in a 2D display and 3D online environment than in a 3D Virtual Reality environment [27].

According to [26], visual–spatial information is critical for customers to engage in virtual experiences, and the display of 3D VR notably boosted participants’ awareness of visual–spatial information and helped participants correctly associate with product accuracy.

Product manipulation improves perceived informativeness by enabling customers to process information selectively and focus on key information, hence boosting customer perception or product understanding. This engagement can be achieved by allowing control devices to mimic more realistic activities, such as physically examining items and feeling their textures [27]. Immersive walking and gesture recognition increase product desirability and improve the virtual experience.

Small-product studies show that Virtual Reality devices with product manipulation capabilities produce greater customer feedback in association with the physical environment than platforms without manipulation. One of the challenges is the movement constraint that characterizes the Virtual Reality technology, as few devices include a lightweight wireless feature that allows users to freely move as they would in the real world [30].

To engage clients in the virtual environment, it is critical to allow them to interact with the products in the same way that they would interact in the real world. Mimicking physical activities in Virtual Reality, such as placing things in a basket or pushing a shopping cart in a virtual store, have the potential to boost customer engagement in the virtual environment.

Age may influence customer approval of the use of Virtual Reality. According to one study, groups between the ages of 15 and 45 have a more favorable response to the usage of Virtual Reality in field exploration than groups between the ages of 45 and 60 [29].

Cybersickness challenges was mentioned by a limited number of individuals [29] must be considered as long well as the current cybersecurity vulnerability of Virtual Reality [30]. Due to Virtual Reality hardware constraints (such as sensor placement), the dedicated physical setting needed in some applications might also provide a hurdle to marketing research [30].

In marketing research, the intuitiveness of the VR system is also noted as something that must be addressed. If the system is not simple, it may necessitate one to two days of practice for inexperienced users [26].

According to a survey conducted in Malaysian automakers, the top five challenges to the adoption of Virtual Reality in the automotive sector are a lack of skilled individuals, time to become expert, a lack of information about VR, software cost, and hardware cost [25]. The prioritization of these challenges varies by region, and it has been observed that software and hardware costs can have a substantial influence on non-global automakers.

According to [28], one of the most important technologies is gaze tracking (eye tracking), which can provide additional insights to regular surveys by evaluating dimensions such as satisfaction, brand preference, or enjoyment. Ref. [10] also emphasized the four primary categories of data to be acquired from VR systems to evaluate their effectiveness: objective, digital, neurophysiological, and self-reported data. These findings in the scientific papers are consistent with the patent analysis that revealed autonomous body movement and neural reaction recognition as a recent advancement of Virtual Reality with opportunities for automotive marketing research application.

4. Discussion

Depending on the survey purpose, this knowledge about challenges and opportunities can be employed at various levels for car clinics. Since the clinic’s goal is to determine style acceptability for customers, the most critical features in car clinics concern the stimuli being visually as realistic as possible with a production vehicle.

This study’s articles revealed several challenges and opportunities that can be implemented to an immersive car clinic. Based on our experience with car clinics, the relevant sixteen items are presented in

Table 3. Challenge and opportunities identified.

Items		Relationship
		Product	Environment
(1) cost	Opportunity		x
(2) proximity to customers			x
(3) flexibility in interactions		x
(4) model transportation´s avoidance			x
(5) depth perception	Challenges	x
(6) haptic perception		x	x
(7) motion perception			x
(8) physical collision/movement perception			x
(9) color and texture definition		x
(10) sound feedback			x
(11) interaction/manipulation			x
(12) visual spatial		x
(13) graphic quality		x
(14) intuitiveness			x
(15) cybersecurity			x
(16) cybersickness			x

. Some of the items directly have a relationship with the product being evaluated in the clinic, and some are related to the clinic itself or its environment in a way to provide the customers with the immersive experience required for a clinic.

Visual–spatial and graphic quality are the most important challenges in an automobile clinic. External design and vehicle size are important factors in consumer decisions in the automotive business, and visual–spatial and graphic quality are strongly associated. The visual–spatial and graphic quality must be addressed for effective Virtual Reality application in a car clinic.

Graphic quality might be sensitive to this sort of assessment, since automotive marketing research focuses on vehicle design, and a sufficient final quality stimulus must be employed in car clinics so customers can provide relevant input. Customers prefer to focus on the flaws of the stimuli rather than the stimuli themselves, which may compromise the clinic’s goals. When stimuli lack the quality and craftsmanship required to deliver the same final appearance as a production car, this issue is also noticed in the physical clinic. A strategy might be to select the suitable VR devices, as well as relevant skills on the crew that develops the virtual stimuli. A pre-event technical team evaluation, which is also undertaken to support physical research, can uncover these difficulties and fix them within an appropriate time frame.

The graphic quality, as well as the associated VR hardware and software, must be defined so that consumers do not lose fluidity. If this challenge is not addressed, respondents may have the feeling that they are watching a 1930s movie, with visual motions that are not at the pace required by the brain to give the user the idea that they are in a real world.

Cybersecurity, product manipulation/interaction, depth perception, and color and texture all have the potential to cause significant effects on immersive car clinic applications. Due to product confidentiality, car clinics in the automotive industry are held in a secure setting; the virtual clinic likewise demands limiting access. Cybersecurity must be carefully considered. Now there is software that can minimize the threat of illegal access during survey.

In terms of manipulation and interaction in a virtual car clinic, customers should be able to roam around the item on their own, achieving the higher perceived amount of information required between product and customer. This would reduce any adverse effects on virtual product manipulation and engagement. A hybrid reality, which can give some level of physical manipulation and interactions connected with a virtual process, could also be a remedy to this challenge.

Environments that allow customers to wander around the virtual asset, which simulates the same experience as a conventional car clinic with a physical asset, should strengthen the association. To decide how realistic this experience should be, a balancing between the needs of a larger VR area and the advantage of customers being more immersed in the clinic should be undertaken.

Many simulation opportunities, such as opening a door or manipulating mirrors, may be accomplished virtually, but these do necessitate refinement in Virtual Reality stimuli and potentially more robust equipment to process such data without losing customers’ feeling of movement. Another advantage of Virtual Reality is the opportunity to conduct the clinic in a considerably more appealing atmosphere than is afforded by physical survey. VR can provide the buyer the impression that they are in a friendlier location, such as a park, vast showroom, open atmosphere, and so on. This approach is challenging and costly to implement in a physical car clinic, especially when confidentiality and security considerations are addressed.

Customers prefer not to come too close to the car when depth perception concerns are most apparent; therefore, that may not be an issue in market research for exterior design testing experimentation. Customers may be bothered by vehicle interior feedback because most customer interfaces and verifications are performed at close proximity to the stimuli. The specification of the Head-Mounted Display (HMD) may also lessen depth perception concerns, so it is critical to determine the best hardware depending on the intended survey outcome.

Different textures and colors are presented with small samples or 2D images in physical stimuli, rather than in a vehicle environment, because this would considerably increase the complexity of stimuli to be done. Virtual Reality enhances the opportunity to test various colors and textures in the vehicle surroundings. Through sensors, current VR technology may provide visual texture and basic haptic experience. This difficulty may be readily overcome by combining virtual and actual surroundings. Small physical samples of color and texture taken outside of the virtual environment can be used in the same manner as physical clinics are now operated without the need for several pricey physical stimuli. This can be utilized if VR gear is not available or to lower the expense of virtual vehicle clinics.

Some difficulties should have a significant impact on car clinics. Customers, for example, must be immersed in a virtual setting comparable to what they would be in the real world for vehicle clinics. On that basis, the intuitiveness of the VR equipment, cybersickness, haptic, and physical collisions should all be considered.

Concerns about intuitiveness in immersive car clinics can be alleviated by selecting appropriate VR devices and delivering consumer instruction prior to the survey. Respondents can experience cybersickness, which is most seen after lengthy periods of use. Car clinics are normally accomplished in a couple hours with some interruptions, such as coffee breaks. These pauses can be timed in a way that minimizes cybersickness; similarly, paying attention to participants’ well-being allows for schedule changes.

Customers’ immersion in the event would be enhanced via haptic feedback and physical collision. Most interactions with prototypes at car clinics are directed by hand–eye coordination, allowing a customer’s eyesight to complement hand movement and touch; haptic sensor gloves might support this perception in a virtual environment. Another option is to utilize a hybrid technology, also known as mixed reality, in some parts of the automotive industry, which combines Virtual Reality with a simple physical asset that customers can touch.

The challenges associated with motion perception, sound feedback, and the physical environment necessitated by VR hardware should be of little concern in car clinics. Clinics are held in workshops that require space for four to eight vehicles, which is far greater than what VR hardware requires. Since physical prototypes seldom give sound feedback, it is usual in traditional car clinics to instruct participants not to evaluate particular stimulus performance, such as door shutting sound or similar, due to manufacturing and material limitations. However, if sound is a characteristic to be assessed, having hand gloves with multisensor and audio connections might improve the survey.

5. Conclusions

The automobile sector has been under pressure to reduce time to market and increase product definition accuracy. Virtual Reality is a powerful tool to engage with customers from the early stages of product development through after-sales support. The application of Virtual Reality in car clinics might be a cost-saving measure and shorten cycle time in the automotive industry.

Technology research greatly contributes to identifying opportunities and challenges in employing Virtual Reality in car clinics through scientific and technological knowledge.

According to the patents that were examined, there is no obvious trend on Virtual Reality applications to marketing research. In terms of the origin of active patented technology, there is a concentration in developed countries, with the United States and Japan dominating. A few inventors’ organizations monopolize active patents, with six different inventors’ groups corresponding to 54% of the patents, with the United States owning five groups. We observed that patents could be classified into four sorts of applications: automatic feedback, customer profile, advertisement, and virtual stores, with automatic feedback being the most prominent throughout the years and potentially valuable in virtual car clinics as one of the application advancements.

The primary advantages of employing Virtual Reality in car clinics are the lowering of development expenses and the reduction of time. Several physical prototypes, such as ergonomic prototypes, have been shown in studies to be replaced by virtual prototypes with cost savings and improved time analyses. VR also allows for the investigation of vehicle differentiation (variety, alternatives, and content) with a single stimulus and clinic encounter, allowing for greater flexibility in interactions.

Customers are also prevented from harming physical prototypes during car clinics, which is a recurring occurrence that jeopardizes the survey. Virtual Reality also eliminates the need to transport confidential physical stimuli from the fabrication shop to a showroom. The avoidance of these difficulties lowers the expenses of the car clinic. These opportunities are connected to model transportation avoidance and customer proximity.

Aside from the employment of Virtual Reality in the automotive industry, we found few applications of end automotive customers in the early product development phase in the literature. This might be explained by the key challenges mentioned before, such as a shortage of skilled workers in the market and high hardware and software costs. This scenario may change because of the growth of VR-capable professionals in recent years, as well as the decreasing costs of software and hardware.

Another possible explanation for the scarce literature on Virtual Reality applications in car clinics is the automotive industry’s secrecy around product development and marketing research. Automakers may be exploring and possibly implementing Virtual Reality alternatives, but data are not yet publicly available. The paucity of virtual market research studies with products with similar price to vehicles may not give the confidence to implement this technology in car clinics.

The automotive business has a variety of challenges and possibilities. There is no one-size-fits-all approach for implementing Virtual Reality methodology. The findings show that depending on the marketing research goals, the challenges highlighted in a wider variety than the opportunities may be prevented or managed by simple measures.

For most car clinics, a combination of Virtual Reality and low-cost physical prototypes tends to be the most cost-effective approach. Following that, there are challenges and opportunities, as well as strategic suggestions, on how to employ Virtual Reality technology for automotive applications, which are likely to be applicable in other domains.

The following sixteen attributes resulted from a review of the literature on the opportunities and challenges of using VR for automotive market research. Opportunities include (1) cost, (2) proximity to customers, (3) flexibility in interactions, and (4) model transportation’s avoidance, and challenges include (5) depth perception, (6) haptic perception, (7) motion perception, (8) physical collision/ movement perception, (9) color and texture definition, (10) sound feedback, (11) product interaction/manipulation, (12) visual–spatial, (13) graphic quality, (14) intuitiveness, (15) cybersecurity, and (16) cybersickness.

Even though VR is presently being used in car clinics, our study found that there is still a knowledge gap on this application. As a result, we conclude that Virtual Reality in car clinics might be employed, but factors such as hardware and software specification, stimulus quality, research aims, and hybrid reality suitability, among others, must be properly accounted for.

Beyond the automotive clinic, this research also provides more clarity in opportunities of VR technology application in the early phase of product development, helping to prematurely detect problems and allow for solutions to be the applied before the most expensive phases of the product development. The conclusions of this research may be applied to automotive and non-automotive areas where a physical stimulus is still in use, improving the effectiveness of the industry through its reduction on costs and new product and processes implementation timing.

We suggest further research to better understand the correlation of Virtual Reality in car clinics research compared to physical research.