Shopping for a Fiat? Step into a virtual one in your home - CNET

Car dealerships can be a stressful.

Sure, it's a chance for you to get an up-close-and-personal look at your next potential ride, but then there are the salesmen to contend with. Maybe you just want to check out the vehicle in peace.

Augmented reality, which superimposes digital images on top of the real world, aims to cut out the dealership by giving you a virtual representation of a Fiat 500 that you can walk around, get inside and customize with different colors and rims -- all with a phone. The demonstration, shown off at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona, was created by consulting firm Accenture in partnership with Google, which has been working on the technology through its "Project Tango" initiative, and Fiat.

It's the latest example of augmented reality, which is in vogue thanks to the backing of heavy tech hitters such as Google and Microsoft. While Microsoft has its unique HoloLens headset, Google has opted to push this technology to phones, with the first Project Tango-enabled phone coming from Lenovo this summer in an effort to drive it mainstream. Unlike virtual reality, which completely immerses you in a world that surrounds you, augmented reality blends the digital and physical worlds together.

In the case of Fiat, you'll be able to pull up a full-scale Fiat 500 on the screen of your Project Tango device (because the phone isn't out yet, I used the tablet-sized Google development kit). The technology, which senses your motion and location, allows you to move your screen up and down to view the car at different angle.