Serious Labs

Serious Labs
Information
Industry	Virtual reality training simulators
Founded	2005 (as 3D Interactive Inc.)
Headquarters	Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Notable Personnel	Jim Colvin (former CEO), Wade Carson, Lyle Edwards (chairman, 2024)
Products	MEWP VR simulator, crane simulators (with ITI), MELT VR commercial truck driving simulator (cancelled)

Serious Labs (Serious Labs Inc.) is a Canadian developer of virtual reality training simulators for heavy-equipment operators, based in Edmonton, Alberta. It was established in 2005 as 3D Interactive Inc. (3DI), which made 3-D modelling and simulation software for heavy-equipment training, and took the Serious Labs name in 2012 when new leadership and investment moved it toward game-based and VR training. Its main product was a motion-based VR simulator for mobile elevating work platforms (MEWPs), developed first with United Rentals and later approved by the International Powered Access Federation (IPAF) for operator licence renewals.

In January 2024 the company transferred its industrial VR simulator business, including staff, simulator hardware and subscription revenue, to Serious Industrial Motion Simulators Inc. (SIMS). It kept only its MELT VR commercial truck driving simulator project, and Emissions Reduction Alberta lists that project as terminated in 2024.

Reviewed 13 October 2026. Checked every claim against the 16 cited sources (KHL, RER, UploadVR, Construction Dive, BetaKit, Equipment Journal, Journal of Commerce, Construction Equipment, International Rental News, ERA, SIMS site). About review dates.

History

3D Interactive and the move to VR

The company began in 2005 as 3D Interactive Inc. In 2012 new executive leadership, new investment and new technology turned it toward game-based and VR training, and it rebranded as Serious Labs. That year it was introduced to Jim Dorris, then the new vice president of health, safety and environment at United Rentals, the start of its work with the rental company. Equipment Journal reported that the company's early simulators were seat-and-screen systems before it moved to immersive VR, and that its software designers came from a video game background.

Its first immersive simulator recreated an aerial work platform (AWP), and United Rentals helped develop an AWP simulation for its training programme. Rental Equipment Register reported that the AWP VR simulator was developed with United Rentals' United Academy and won a silver award in that magazine's Innovative Product Awards. UploadVR reported that Serious Labs had earlier built United Rentals a blended simulator that combined a VR display with physical control panels. On 4 April 2017 the simulator, entered as the "VRSL: AWP Trainer", won the Innovative Technology prize at the International Awards for Powered Access (IAPAs) in London. The judges said it brought to the access industry technology previously limited to military and aerospace use, and CEO Jim Colvin called the award "a validation for our decision to go hard into virtual reality".

Funding and expansion (2017-2019)

In August 2017 Serious Labs announced a Series A round, its first financing round, led by United Rentals and Brick and Mortar Ventures, a San Francisco construction-technology venture firm. UploadVR and Construction Dive reported the round as $5 million, with more than $3.5 million in product development contracts; the Canadian outlet BetaKit reported it as $6.4 million, with more than $4.4 million in contracts. At the time its VR products covered cranes, aerial work platforms and snubbing, alongside training apps for phones, tablets and laptops. The new money and contracts were to fund simulators for further crane models, forklifts, backhoes and skid steers. Its customers were mainly in construction, mining, plant maintenance and oil and gas.

In March 2018, at the IPAF Summit in Miami, the company launched its Aerial Virtual Reality Training Simulator, which added scissor lift modules to its existing boom lift modules to form a full MEWP training package. Scissor lift maker Skyjack advised on the scenarios, and Nationwide Platforms, a UK division of Loxam Group, co-developed the scissor lift scenarios; its operations director spent almost a year test marketing the simulator with Nationwide customers in the United Kingdom. By May 2018 the company had 45 employees and planned a counterbalance and rough-terrain forklift simulator, then a skid steer and a front-end loader, all on a common motion base.

The crane work came through Industrial Training International (ITI), a US training and instructional design company whose president and CEO, Zack Parnell, approached Serious Labs in 2016 to develop a suite of crane simulators. By March 2019 seven crane simulation courses covering tower, overhead and mobile cranes were complete, ITI was using the simulator at three North American training centres (one in Sherwood Park, near Edmonton), and 10 to 20 courses were expected by the end of 2020.

Licence renewals and driving simulator (2021-2022)

In October 2021 IPAF approved the MEWP simulator for renewing Powered Access Licence (PAL) cards. Serious Labs said it was the first time heavy-equipment operators could renew a licence on a simulator without touching a real machine. The renewal test is a VR replica of the IPAF 3a/3b practical test, with a pre-use machine check and a practical course based on ISO 18878, and it was validated in eight months of trials with operators who had at least three years of experience and a valid PAL card. At the 2022 IAPAs, held in London on 10 March 2022, Serious Labs won the Digital Development Award for its "VR simulator PAL Card conversion".

In April 2021 the company announced a VR commercial truck driving simulator for Canada's Mandatory Entry Level Training (MELT) standard for Class 1 and Class 2 drivers, which requires more than 100 hours of training, including 76.5 hours of in-cab driving. The project was announced with $1 million from the Government of Alberta and $2 million from Emissions Reduction Alberta, with the Alberta Motor Transport Association supplying data and guidance; commercial deployment was then estimated for 2024. Serious Labs estimated that blending VR with in-vehicle training would cut greenhouse gas emissions per trained driver by 80 percent. The same announcement listed United Rentals, Bechtel, Dow, Syncrude, the US Department of Energy, Singapore International Airlines, British Airways, Rapid Access, Loxam, Riwal and Nationwide Platforms among its clients.

Sale of the industrial division (2024)

In January 2024 Serious Labs and Serious Industrial Motion Simulators Inc. completed a transaction that moved the industrial VR simulator assets and operations, including employees, simulator hardware and software-as-a-service revenue tied to the MEWP simulator and other VR products, to SIMS. Terms were not disclosed. Shareholders attending a special meeting of Serious Labs approved the deal unanimously, and its secured lenders also consented. Rental Equipment Register described SIMS as a private equity-backed company headquartered in Edmonton (International Rental News called it US-based), with Terry Allen as president and CEO and former Serious Labs CEO Jim Colvin as executive chairman.

The MELT VR project stayed with Serious Labs, and chairman Lyle Edwards said the company would look for strategic partners for it. Emissions Reduction Alberta's project page lists ERA funding of $207,000 against a total project value of $4,590,000, and states that the project was cancelled and the funding relationship terminated in 2024. ERA said it was not aware of any further work on the technology since then. SIMS continues to sell motion-based VR simulators for MEWP, forklift and crane operators.

Products

Product	Introduced	Notes
Aerial work platform VR simulator	By April 2017	Developed with United Rentals' United Academy; IAPA Innovative Technology winner, 2017
Crane simulators	Development from 2016	Built with ITI; tower, overhead and mobile crane courses; motion platform with operator chair
Aerial Virtual Reality Training Simulator (MEWP)	March 2018	18 scissor lift and 16 articulating boom lift scenarios; motion base; subscription, lease or rental
PAL card renewal on the MEWP simulator	October 2021	IPAF-approved VR replica of the 3a/3b practical test
MELT VR commercial truck driving simulator	Announced April 2021	Not released; project terminated in 2024

Simulator design

The 2018 MEWP kit included a VR headset, Oculus Touch controllers used to calibrate the headset, scissor lift controls, a safety cage and a motion base. It ran on a cloud-based system, needed an internet connection and a standard 15-amp outlet, and had a footprint of 2 ft 8 in by 2 ft 8 in, or 4 ft by 8 ft fully set up. The scenarios grow harder in steps and isolate driving, lifting, platform positioning and operating; Serious Labs said a module took a novice about 1 hour 15 minutes and an experienced operator about 45 minutes, and that the metrics recorded showed each operator's strengths and weaknesses. Serious Labs said the simulator let operators meet IPAF and ANSI training requirements and that the scenarios mapped one to one onto certification assessments. Equipment Journal described the AWP simulator as using an Oculus Rift headset, a laptop and OEM controls, with D-Box actuators in the basket to simulate movement and contact.

Serious Labs also presented the motion base as a comfort feature. Wade Carson, then director of business development, said it "eliminates the nausea which is felt in other VR products that are on the market today", a company claim rather than an independent measurement. The later MELT project also planned updates to the motion system and motion cueing to reduce nausea linked to VR. See Simulator sickness and Motion simulator for the general background.

See also

• Enterprise VR
• Motion simulator
• EON Reality
• Haptics