Before Beepi launched in April 2014 as “one of the first ways to completely buy or sell a car online,” questions remained as to whether the general public was ready for this type of platform, says head of product Tyler Infelise.

“But, resoundingly, the answer was, ‘yes, they were,” Infelise said in a phone interview with Auto Remarketing on Wednesday.

“But there were certainly some aspects of the online transaction that were missing,” he said.  “And notably, getting a chance to see the car in person is something you get with Beepi when we deliver, and you can, of course, take advantage of our 10-day money-back guarantee if you don’t love the car. But we wanted to give an experience on our site and in our app that makes up for that first impression that you get when you can walk around that car or sit in the driver’s seat.”

Enter Beepi 360, which launched Tuesday. 

It is an interactive technology that gives Beepi browsers clear, 360-degree exterior and interior views of Beepi vehicles, the company says. The company’s blog post announcing Beepi 360 said it’s “our first step into incorporating full virtual reality.”

It is currently available on Beepi’s desktop website and its iOS app, and gives the buyer or seller a way to “see the tread on the tires or examine the grain of the leather seats,” the company said on its blog.

The two features of Beepi 360 are “Walk Around” and “Get Inside,” which as the names suggest, provide detailed views of the vehicle’s exterior and interior, respectively.

“These are just the first two,” Infelise said. “I think we’ll do a lot more to create this better-than-reality experience … I think this is something that people really wanted and it’s going to be really fun for them to play with and ultimately give them confidence in purchasing with us; that this car is going to look just like that in your driveway and you’re going to love it.”

So, what areas of the vehicle — inside or out — are buyers going to be most interested in checking out?

It might start with the view from the driver’s seat.

“They’re looking for that right feeling,” Infelise said. “Part of that comes with the curvature of the seats and the feel of the steering wheel, but also part of that comes with the layout of the car and visibility and things like that.”

As far as the exterior, given that shoppers often have differing preferences on the aesthetics of a vehicle — the shape, the curves, the lights, etc. — the Walk Around view can help them determine if the car matches up to what they like.

The images for Beepi 360 are generated at the time of inspection, which also includes a road test and functional/aesthetic examination of the car. That entire process takes about an hour-and-a-half to two hours, Infelise said.

Any vehicle undergoing Beepi’s inspection process from now on will include the Beepi 360 imaging, and a substantial portion of the existing inventory includes the imaging, as well, Infelise said.