Google Cardboard finds a home with Volvo, virtually test drive a new car today

Let’s be honest, when Google first announced Cardboard, we were all just a little bit confused. Turns out that the little bundle of actual cardboard, magnets and an elastic band morph into a 3D viewer with virtual reality head gear aspirations.

Some months later, Volvo has embraced cardboard. They’ve released an app called Volvo Reality, free in the Google Play Store, that is designed to take you inside their XC90 SUV. Better yet, you can take this set of wheels on a test drive, or two, if only in the virtual setting.

Volvo Reality places you in the driver’s seat of the XC90 and shows you what it would be like to drive in several different environments, and at differing times of the day. Calming music accompanies your experience, though, more than just a few of us might have preferred some high revving engine noises to get the heart racing.

As the price of the XC90 limits it from landing in every driveway around the globe, so too is the Volvo Reality app limited in who will get to use it. For now, users of just a small subset of Android devices can install the app, namely, the Nexus 4 and higher Nexus devices, the Moto X, Samsung Galaxy S4 and S5 and, strangely enough, the Galaxy Nexus. On the bright side, the real XC90 is destined for Android Auto in the dashboard.

If you are looking to, er, test drive the Volvo XC90 SUV today, head on into the Google Play Store and grab Volvo Reality for free. And remember, there are a few good options out there to build the Google Cardboard viewer for cheap, if you do not have it already.

What do you say, is Volvo on to something here – are you more likely to go for a real test drive after taking a car for a virtual spin around the block?