Now making its way to the states, Ford's two-way, handsfree electronic headset, known as See What I See (SWIS), is available to all Ford dealer technicians to help get customers back on the road faster.
Currently being used in Canada, South Africa, UK, Puerto Rico, Taiwan, and Australia, the SWIS is a global program that uses remote viewing technology to allow for both visual and audio communication between the dealership technicians and team members at the Ford Technical Assistance Center (TAC) in Dearborn, Mich.
According to a press release from Ford, the technology uses remote assistance software that allows the technical assistance team to see what the dealership tech is seeing while they work on the vehicle in real time. SWIS’s augmented reality capability allows TAC team members to display modified or enhanced images on the headset for the dealer technicians to view.
“The remote technology is designed to assist the technicians as they’re working on vehicles – with the goal of increasing efficiency and decreasing downtime for customers,” said David Green, Ford general service equipment program specialist, in the press release. “This technology modernizes and simplifies our operations, benefiting everyone involved.”
SWIS is at-present designed for diagnostic assistance. However, Ford is working to expand its services such as for specific use cases (e.g., HVAC concerns), mobile services, remote training opportunities, and more.
So far 1,200 headsets have been activated in the U.S. with reports of over 350 SWIS calls already to TAC in the last 90 days, Ford stated. The company is expecting all U.S.-based dealers to have SWIS by November 2022.
