US aviation giant Boeing says that it is entering the ‘metaverse’ to allow for immersive 3-D engineering designs to be twinned with robots that speak to each other, while mechanics around the world will be linked by expensive HoloLens headsets, according to Reuters.

Cynics and critics have pointed out that Boeing has made similar pledges before how it was going to enter the digital revolution. But after suffering through its 737 MAX crisis combined with all the problems of its 787 Dreamliner, the company needs something drastic to improve its quality and safety issues.

“It’s about strengthening engineering,” Boeing’s chief engineer, Greg Hyslop, told Reuters in his first interview in nearly two years. “We are talking about changing the way we work across the entire company.”