Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Cars
  3. News

Mechanics will use Bosch’s VR tech to learn how to fix the Ford Mustang Mach-E

Ronan Glon
By

The electric Mustang Mach-E due out by the end of 2020 is Ford’s most high-tech car to date, and the mechanics who will work on it will undergo a suitably futuristic training process. The company teamed up with Bosch to create a virtual reality-based training course to teach technicians how to keep the crossover in tip-top condition.

Recommended Videos

Instead of traveling to a workshop, mechanics will learn how the Mach-E’s electric powertrain is put together using an Oculus Quest headset programmed with instructions. Bosch and Ford placed a major focus on the high-voltage electrical system, which was developed specifically for the model and isn’t currently found in other cars. VR will teach technicians how to remove, diagnose, repair, and reinstall the lithium-ion battery pack, for example.

Related

This approach saves time and money. It eliminates the need for mechanics to spend a few days in a training center that’s often nowhere near their home, and it saves Ford the cost of shipping Mach-Es around the nation.

“The virtual reality training solution is about new technology that builds efficiency. By improving the diagnostic process, technicians are able to perform maintenance and make repairs faster and more easily,” explained Geoff Mee, Bosch’s director of operations, in a statement. Viewed in that light, it’s not difficult to imagine other car-related use cases for this technology, and Bosch and Ford are already looking at ways to expand it in several directions.

Ford hasn’t ruled out applying VR to other training programs in the future; the Mach-E will inaugurate the software, but other models (including non-electric ones) could benefit from it as well, and Ford has plenty of new cars in the pipeline to work with. We’ll see the next-generation F-150 and the first Bronco in decades before the end of 2020.

Meanwhile, Bosch is experimenting with ways to turn the training course into a game. The company told Digital Trends it’s developing an extension of the software that would allow mechanics to minimize themselves and “move around like a data pack” to diagnose problems and repair them. They’d score points for completing tasks in a timely, efficient manner, which is certainly a more relaxing way to learn than being timed by a stopwatch-wielding manager.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Ronan Glon
Ronan Glon
Contributor
Ronan Glon is an American automotive and tech journalist based in southern France. As a long-time contributor to Digital…
Fine, I’ll call the Mach-E a Mustang. But that giant screen has to go
Mustang Mach-E

At age 17, I seriously contemplated stuffing a computer into my Pontiac Grand Prix. I was a geek, all my pirated Deftones MP3s lived on a hard drive, and it seemed infinitely cooler than a CD changer. But I could never quite figure out how to make it look right. Sure, I could hide the guts in the trunk, but where would I put the screen? Just zip tie a touchscreen on the dash? Wouldn’t that look obnoxious? Even as a high-schooler in the era of AutoZone tape-on neon lights, this type of modification just seemed sloppy.

I scrapped my plan altogether. But 15 years later, it turns out my worries were ill-founded. As modern car designers have demonstrated, you can shove a gigantic screen just about anywhere.

Read more
2021 Tesla Model Y vs. 2021 Ford Mustang Mach E
Ford Mustang Mach E front view

If you're not convinced the automotive industry is changing, pause for a moment and consider the fact that Ford makes an electric crossover that it markets as part of the Mustang family, and positions as an alternative to a model made by Tesla. This comparison was unthinkable a decade ago, when the Mustang was all horsepower, all the time, and Tesla barely existed.

Ford pelted the Mustang Mach E into a segment of the new car market that's expected to grow exponentially during the early 2020s. One of its main rivals is the Tesla Model Y, which was announced earlier in 2019. Here is how these two electric people-movers compare in terms of design, technology, performance, and pricing. Keep in mind that neither model is currently in production,  so we haven't been able to drive either. The comparison is largely hypothetical.
Design and tech

Read more
Ford Mustang vs. Ford Mustang Mach E
The Ford Mustang takes on the electric crossover it inspired
2020 ford mustang vs 2021 mach e family photo

Whether you like it or not, Ford has started the process of turning the Mustang into a full family of models to capitalize on the nameplate's decades-old popularity. Called Mustang Mach E, the first off-shoot is an electric, four-door family-hauler that slots into the crossover segment. We're taking a look at how it stacks up against the coupe that inspired it.
Design and tech

The Mach E is Mustang-inspired, not Mustang-based, and the two models share no parts whatsoever. While the Mustang has historically been offered only as a coupe and as a convertible, the Mach E arrives as a tall, four-door crossover. The two models share a handful of styling cues such as swept-back headlights, a long hood, and triple-bar rear lights, but no one will ever mistake a Mustang for a Mach E, or vice versa. Nameplate aside, each model as its own identity.

Read more