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Cadillac's live virtual showroom is available in all 50 states
Cadillac's virtual showroom is now widely available, and it might have expanded just in time. The automaker has announced that Cadillac Live is available in all 50 states, and gives you a chance to check out the 2021 Escalade as well. Like before, you can get one-on-one video sessions with agents to take a look at vehicles, explore options and ask questions almost as if you were at a dealership. You still can't buy a car online, unfortunately, but it beats contorting your schedule to fit a dealer's hours.
Amazon's online Showroom shows you if different furniture goes together
Amazon is leaning further into the home furnishing market with Showroom, a feature on the website and app that lets you place items into a virtual living room and see how well they complement each other. You can tweak the look of the flooring and walls (presumably to make it look a little more like your own living room) and swap in and out items from Amazon's catalog, including the couch, chair, tables, lamp, rug and artwork. Naturally, Amazon's own Rivet and Stone & Beam brands are among the furniture options.
Hyundai offers virtual showroom on Amazon
If you have any cash left over from Prime Day, you might be considering a new car. Hyundai and Amazon have teamed up to offer a virtual showroom of the car maker's automobiles in the Amazon Vehicles section. You won't be able to order an Elantra with Alexa just yet, however. The new section only provides details for a variety of automobile models, with links to find local dealers.
Google's peculiar floating barge meets its maker
Remember Google's mysterious floating barge? Well, you probably won't for much longer, because it's met an untimely end. According to the Portland Press Herald, the search giant no longer has a use for the iconic four-story structure, so it's been sold to an anonymous "international barging company" and will be broken down for scrap. It's a rather damp end for the barge, which was set to become a high-tech showroom for inventions like Glass, self-driving cars and other top-secret inventions from Google's X lab, after it first appeared in Portland Harbor late last year. Google's yet to comment on why it's no longer interested in hosting tech-centric cocktail parties, but cost is likely the ultimate factor. It paid $400,000 in property taxes alone to moor the barge on the city's waterfront -- then there's also the small matter of retrofitting its 63 shipping containers into something that Californians would actually want to visit.
Tesla plans European expansion with service centers and showrooms
Tesla has a relatively tiny European presence with just a handful of showrooms, service hubs and Superchargers, but it's about to get a much larger foothold -- the EV maker has revealed that it will open more than 30 stores and service centers across Europe. There's no indication of just when and where these locations will open. It won't be hard to find Superchargers in the near future, however. Tesla still expects to place the fast recharging stations across most of Europe before the end of the year, making it practical to drive cross-continent in a Model S without any lengthy stopovers.
Google's mysterious San Francisco barge may host a modular showroom (video)
For roughly a week, San Franciscans have been speculating about a mysterious, Google-owned barge moored off Treasure Island. Is it a secret lab? A parking lot for autonomous cars? According to sources speaking to local TV station KPIX 5, the truth is slightly less exciting -- if still very strange. The containers onboard the ship are reportedly for a modular Google X showroom with a party deck for VIPs on top. The company could reassemble its venue anywhere in the world, letting it pitch technologies like Google Glass without having to rent a building... or find solid ground, for that matter. Just don't expect to pay a visit any time soon. The tipsters claim that the project is on hold for various reasons, including a need to comply with naval regulations. Google isn't commenting on the barge's true purpose; however, you're more than welcome to present alternative theories in the comments.
Audi dealership lets you gesticulate your way to a new car using Kinect and multitouch
If you're shopping for your dream wheels, but hate poring over brochures, Audi's got good news: you can now wave and touch to customize your prize ride. The experience starts at the Audi City showroom in London, where you kick off the process by choosing one of the German automaker's 36 models. Then, you can browse the vehicle on a 210-inch HD display with a Kinect to read your gestures as you swipe around to take the tour. From there, a 32-inch 3M multitouch display helps you customize your machine, even letting you use physical RFID-equipped cloth and paint samples to dial in the specs. Once your Teutonic buggy is just so, you can save everything on a USB key, print out a custom brochure and even share the enthralling details on Facebook or Twitter. The company hopes to add 20 similar stores around the world, and if you're near Picadilly Square you can try it out yourself -- just keep one hand on that non-virtual wallet. [Image credit: Wallpaper]
Tesla goes Big Apple with Chelsea showroom
It's a time of dire news for auto manufacturers, with losses widening, dealerships closing, and whole brands disappearing. Not so for Tesla, which despite all that bickering up top has managed to scrounge together the funds to open up a shop in Chelsea in western Manhattan, a swanky area full of art galleries and the beret-clad people who frequent them. No surprise, then, that Tesla has outfitted the walls of this new dealership with large prints of its very own manufacturing process -- probably not earning it much cred in the 'hood. Annual operating cost is estimated to be a cool $1.5 million, pocket change by GM and Toyota standards, but surely a little more significant for a small company like this. Tesla used the space to show off the 2010 Roadster, which we still don't have full details on, but have heard features slightly improved circuitry, a locking glove box, and WiFi to enable remote, wireless diagnostics. Surely a Tesla-branded application store of some sort can't be far behind.
