GATSCAR, Volkswagen's Serious Game for Automotive Mechatronics
GATSCAR is a browser-based serious game that Volkswagen presented in March 2011 to supplement training for automotive mechatronics apprentices. Its own web address no longer loads.
Updated
What GATSCAR is
Volkswagen presented GATSCAR on March 4, 2011, at the Serious Games Conference in Hanover. The conference was held for the fifth time as part of CeBIT and focused on the German serious games industry, with sessions on content, management, technology, science and politics.
GATSCAR was built as a tool for mechatronics engineer apprenticeships. The player follows a central character, Jack, through a digital car workshop and a world of racing and friendship. Meetings with characters such as Dennis at the old garage of Jack's father, Mia at the Racing Club Bar and a dealer's point of sale lead into content on turbochargers and transmissions. Players can also win a new club record in a race. In plain terms the game mixed a strategy game with car racing.
The research project behind it, AVILUS, stands for Applied Virtual technologies in product and production life-cycle. In September 2011 Volkswagen expanded its web platform for a separate Scirocco design app, with a gallery for shared designs and a prize draw, and the platform also offered GATSCAR as an online learning game.
What it taught
The learning modules covered a flow simulation for exhaust-gas turbochargers, the force profile in the dual-clutch gearbox (DSG) and a module on circuit diagrams. Volkswagen used the game as an extra medium for education and training in service and workshop work, giving complex technical content a playful form with high practical relevance.
Fred Kappler, Director of Genuine Parts and Service at the Volkswagen Group, said that the aim was to win young people for Volkswagen's products and technology by making learning content enjoyable. The game mainly supplemented existing mechatronics course content, and technology enthusiasts, students of technical subjects and vocational teachers could also use it.
Volkswagen Services developed GATSCAR with support from the research project GATSCAR AVILUS, which the German federal government funded. It ran as a browser game on PCs only.
What is true today
News coverage from September 2011 named www.gatscar-game.com as the platform that hosted the online training game. That address no longer loads in November 2026. The Volkswagen press site named in the 2011 announcement now forwards to the Volkswagen newsroom.
No page was found that offers GATSCAR for play today, so its status is unconfirmed. Volkswagen's current training offers may use other formats.
Questions about GATSCAR
What was GATSCAR?
A Volkswagen browser game for mechatronics apprentices, presented in March 2011, built around a story with the character Jack and modules on turbochargers, transmissions and circuit diagrams.
Can GATSCAR be played now?
Not confirmed. The web address named in 2011 coverage no longer loads, and no other official page offering the game was found.
Who developed GATSCAR?
Volkswagen Services developed it, with support from the research project GATSCAR AVILUS funded by the German federal government.