The AR tool will help with the construction of the car’s monocoque – the shell of the vehicle.
Augmented reality is being used for the first time to build a race car intended for use in competitive racing, according to a university.
Students at the University of Bath are using a new AR tool developed by technology company Rocketmakers in the project.
When complete, their vehicle will race in the 2019 Formula Student competition run by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
AR has previously been used in tests and demonstrations by car manufacturers but it is believed this is the first time the technology will be used to build a car intended for use in competitive racing.
The AR tool will help with the construction of the car’s shell, known as a monocoque, specifically with the application of carbon fibre laminates.
This process will be conducted over a week, with students from Team Bath Racing working in shifts to apply each pre-cut carbon fibre laminate in the correct location.
The Rocketmakers tool creates an AR version of the monocoque with the correct shape, location and orientation of each segment of laminate visible to the wearer during the application process.
It will be used through two Microsoft Hololens headsets, with computer assisted design (CAD) files that the students have developed.
Jack Harris, a student of mechanical with automotive engineering at the University of Bath, said: “After you’ve spent most of a year designing a car, the week-long process of carbon fibre layup is really nerve-racking.
“We’ve been talking to Rocketmakers for months to determine where the best use of AR technology would be for assisting car construction.
“Carbon fibre layup is definitely one of those jobs that, despite the high tech equipment we use for our design and testing, still relies mostly on hand-eye co-ordination.
“Having a tool to assist with the stressful, backbreaking process is really exciting.”
It is hoped that the tool will provide users with an improved work experience and accuracy rate than current methods.
Carbon fibre laminates are typically applied by robots in production vehicles.
Their application in small-scale production is considered one of the more physically and mentally demanding parts of building bespoke vehicles.
One misplaced carbon fibre segment can have large negative consequences for the integrity of the final result.
The Formula Student competition challenges student engineers to design, build and race a single-seat car in one year.
Richard Godfrey, chief executive of Rocketmakers, said: “It will be great knowing when we see the Team Bath Racing car zip around the track that our designers had a hand in making it one of the world’s first AR-assisted cars.”
NEW YORK (AP) — Tesla lost its crown as the world’s bestselling electric vehicle maker on Friday as a customer revolt over Elon Musk’s right-wing politics, expiring U.S. tax breaks for buyers and stiff overseas competition pushed sales down for a second year in a row.
Tesla said that it delivered 1.64 million vehicles in 2025, down 9% from a year earlier.
Chinese rival BYD, which sold 2.26 million vehicles last year, is now the biggest EV maker.
It's a stunning reversal for a car company whose rise once seemed unstoppable as it overtook traditional automakers with far more resources and helped make Musk the world's richest man.
For the fourth quarter, sales totaled 418,227, falling short of even the much reduced 440,000 target that analysts recently polled by FactSet had expected. Sales were hit hard by the expiration of a $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicle purchases that was phased out by the Trump administration at the end of September.
Tesla stock was down nearly 3% at $436.85 in afternoon trading Friday.
Even with multiple issues buffeting the company, investors are betting that Tesla CEO Musk can deliver on his ambitions to make Tesla a leader in robotaxi services and get consumers to embrace humanoid robots that can perform basic tasks in homes and offices. Reflecting that optimism, the stock finished 2025 with a gain of approximately 11%.
The latest quarter was the first with sales of stripped-down versions of the Model Y and Model 3 that Musk unveiled in early October as part of an effort to revive sales. The new Model Y costs just under $40,000 while customers can buy the cheaper Model 3 for under $37,000. Those versions are expected to help Tesla compete with Chinese models in Europe and Asia.
For fourth-quarter earnings coming out in late January, analysts are expecting the company to post a 3% drop in sales and a nearly 40% drop in earnings per share, according to FactSet. Analysts expect the downward trend in sales and profits to eventually reverse itself as 2026 rolls along.
Investors have largely shrugged off the falling numbers, choosing to focus on Musk's pivot to different parts of business. He has been saying the future of the company lies with its driverless robotaxis service, its energy storage business and building robots for the home and factory — and much less with car sales.
Tesla started rolling out its robotaxi service in Austin earlier this year, first with safety monitors in the cars to take over in case of trouble, then testing without them. The company hopes to roll out the service in several cities this year.
To do that successfully, it needs to take on rival Waymo, which has been operating autonomous taxis for years and has far more customers. It also will also have to contend with regulatory challenges. The company is under several federal safety investigations and other probes. In California, Tesla is at risk of temporarily losing its license to sell cars in the state after a judge there ruled it had misled customers about their safety.
“Regulatory is going to be a big issue,” said Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives, a well-known bull on the stock. “We're dealing with people's lives.”
Still, Ives said he expects Tesla's autonomous offerings will soon overcome any setbacks.
Musk has said he hopes software updates to his cars will enable hundreds of thousands of Tesla vehicles to operate autonomously with zero human intervention by the end of this year. The company is also planning to begin production of its AI-powered Cybercab with no steering wheel or pedals in 2026.
To keep Musk focused on the company, Tesla’s directors awarded Musk a potentially enormous new pay package that shareholders backed at the annual meeting in November.
Musk scored another huge windfall two weeks ago when the Delaware Supreme Court reversed a decision that deprived him of a $55 billion pay package that Tesla doled out in 2018.
This story has been corrected to show that BYD sold 2.26 million vehicles last year, not 2.26.
AP video journalist Mustakim Hasnath contributed to this report from London.
FILE - The Tesla logo is displayed at a Tesla dealership Thursday, Mar. 13, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)
