Nissan is committed to redefining how cars are driven, powered, and integrated into society—a vision derived from the belief that the most exciting technology you own is right in your driveway. To communicate the benefits of Nissan Intelligent Mobility technologies for the Altima (such as rear automatic breaking, proPILOT assist, blind spot warnings, and more), the agency looked for an innovative way to put people in the middle of the action without any real threat or danger.

The team was face-to-face with a perennial product education challenge: you can talk about safety technology during a test drive, but you can’t really test it out (not safely, at any rate). So the team looked for a way to put Nissan’s advanced technology through its paces—without placing anyone in actual danger. The result was Tech Drive VR—a 360 ° experience that lets drivers experience and connect with the Altima’s advanced technologies.

With Tech Drive VR, Nissan allows the user to experience how it feels when technology saves the day. By using a 360 ° virtual reality experience, safety technology was demonstrated in ways no test drive ever could. The experience puts the user in the virtual driver’s seat, and this first-person perspective means that users not only see and hear dangerous close calls, but actually feel them. Using a custom-built 360 ° camera rig, people were dropped right into the action—behind the wheel and on the street—to give a genuine, interactive feel for how the Altima’s safety features work. To enhance authenticity, Tech Drive was shot live, in a real car, on real streets, with threats as close as they would be in real life.

Tech Drive VR has been accessible on VR headsets at over 300 Nissan dealerships and events as well as on Microsoft Xboxes. It’s an industry-first React360 beta that put the 360 ° test drive right in the target’s Facebook feed and other social media platforms. In its first 30 days, Tech Drive VR reached 100 million video impressions, with thousands of virtual test drives taken around the world. The VR experience also launched at dealerships and auto events around North America in December of 2018—including the LA Auto Show, Detroit Auto Show, Chicago Auto Show, New York Auto Show, Toronto Auto Show, and over 300 Nissan Dealerships.