To celebrate the production of 135,000 Jeep Renegades, FCA has released a virtual factory visit tool via Google Maps.

WHILE THE JEEP RENEGADE has yet to arrive Down Under, it’s racking up some impressive sales and awards in Europe. To celebrate the production of 135,000 units at its Melfi factory in Basilicata, Italy, FCA has released a virtual factory visit tool via Google Maps.

By searching for “SATA – Società Automobilistica Tecnologie Avanzate S.p.A. – FCA Italy” or just “FCA SATA Melfi” on Google Maps, visitors can explore the entire production cycle of one of the “most advanced automotive plants in Europe”, where almost 8000 employees and 968 robots produce the Jeep Renegade and FIAT 500X.

According to Jeep, to make the experience as immersive as possible, a total of 3924 pictures were taken over the course of three days. Stitched together using a “special algorithm”, which creates an immersive 360-degree horizontal and 290-degree vertical environment, these images are used to offer 327 different panoramic viewpoints, each of which consists of 12 HD photos.

Users thus have the possibility of “moving” inside the plant and exploring the details that interest them – with the same intuitive dynamic offered by Google Street View – as they travel through the factory’s four productive units: stamping, body-in-white, painting and assembly. They also have the option of in-depth investigation of certain processes via seven 30-second video clips.

What do you think, would you like to see car makers release more of this sort of stuff to help buyers get a better understanding of what goes into making a new car?