Volvo is using Google's virtual reality project Google Cardboard to let people take a virtual test drive in its XC90 model at the Los Angeles auto show. Potential car buyers can download a Volvo Reality app and insert their phone into the Google Cardboard "headset," whereupon they'll be immersed in a driving experience complete with the sights and sounds of the open road.

Themed around a weekend escape, the test-drive experience begins in an open field, heads high up into the mountains, and culminates in a look at a star-filled sky. It was filmed in Vancouver by VFX and virtual reality specialists Framestore. Digital agency R/GA came up with the Volvo Reality concept and led design, technical development and implementation. See how it was all done in this Behind The Scenes film.

Google Cardboard -- positioned as a "low cost" virtual reality alternative to the likes of Oculus Rift, using smartphones and a headset fashioned from cardboard -- is also being used by John Lewis in the U.K. as part of its Monty the Penguin campaign.