Using video game technology for things other than video games is a pretty common occurrence these days. Video game peripherals basically allow high priced tech to be sold at or below cost because companies like Microsoft and Sony are looking to make up the difference on software sales. The Kinect has already been used in medical science and by NASA along with the Oculus Rift in order to control robot arms. Now, Ford is using the Oculus Rift in order to help them design cars.
This is how the technology works. First, a designer over at Ford draws up the plans for a car, including how the car’s interior will look. That interior is mapped out in a digital space, and then automakers put on the Oculus Rift to explore the interior of the car from their office chairs. Multiple Rift units can connect to each other all at once across the internet, allowing different designers to make experience and manipulate the car’s interior all at once, allowing for all new innovations in collaborative long distance design. Car makers have been using computer aided design software for quite a while, but virtual reality design software is still a very new thing.
Source: Fast Company