Revv Brings ADAS Education to Shops in Massachusetts
Sometimes it’s easier to learn with action. Revv ADAS' recent Driving Forward: ADAS & Repair Readiness Summit at ADAS Diagnostic Solutions in Auburn, Massachusetts, provided 40 collision repair professionals a day of hands-on learning.
Joel Adcock, director of strategic partnerships at Revv ADAS, said the United ADAS Collective holds the events to help shops get practical ideas they can implement right away. The United ADAS Collective, launched by Revv, is a national ADAS association that supports repair professionals. It provides an online community with ADAS specialists for members to ask questions and discuss ADAS challenges that members encounter in the shop. It also holds webinars, podcasts, and live events that share practical, in-person experience.
“The value of these events is getting shop leaders and technicians in the same room to talk openly about what they’re seeing, where they’re struggling, and what’s working. ADAS touches much more than calibration — it affects repair planning, diagnostics, documentation, and shop performance,” he said. “We also learn a lot by listening to the people doing this work every day.”
Autel Regional Sales Manager Kevin Oliver led a demonstration of how to properly perform ADAS calibration with help from ADAS Diagnostic Solutions technicians. He touched on the changes they’ve seen as technology has developed over the years.
“Early ADAS systems were very passive by nature,” Oliver said. “The most that they would do if they detected an object out of range or a detection of an object of concern is they would either sound a signal inside of the cabin, right? They would just get the driver's attention. They couldn't take action. We didn't have electronic steering then. We didn't have electronic braking then.”
Early ADAS machines had a close relationship with alignment. Oliver explained that every alignment angle is based off the center line and was crucially overlaid with ADAS as the physical and digital center lines of the vehicle needed to be 100% zero degrees true on true.
The system compensating for potential errors is important, as Oliver said 70% of calls they get for a failed calibration are due to environmental or technician error.
Oliver also discussed how modern ADAS systems use an infrared camera with a wheel target, which can compensate for uneven floors by creating an isolated 3D environment between it and the vehicle as it's sitting. The system compensating for potential errors is important, as Oliver said 70% of calls they get for a failed calibration are due to environmental or technician error.
“What if the system compensated for you? What if we didn't have to worry about it as technician?” he asked. “It doesn't mean that the condition isn't still there. It just means that we, through our engineering, decided to find a way to overcome those conditions and take care of it for you through technology.”
ADAS Diagnostic Solutions Director of Operations Mike Ambrosino and Owner Josh Fuller spoke to attendees about how they identified opportunities in ADAS, the services they offer, and how to stay in front of emerging technology.
“All the [ADAS] systems are complex. What we're trying to do here is try to eliminate down to the very basic geometry of ADAS,” Ambrosino said. “If we can get the geometry right and make sure all the angles are right and everything's working, the physics in the systems are going to take over and they're going to work. So, our goal is to make sure we know what the angles are, what they should be, get it right on the vehicle, so that we know that the car or the system is going to work the way they plan to do.”
Gary Machiros, owner of Applied Automotive Technology, discussed the diagnostic realities shop face on vehicles today. He also shared tips on how shops should properly document their test drives and work to get properly compensated for calibration labor.
For more information about The United ADAS Collective and upcoming events, click here.
About the Author
Peter SpottsPeter Spotts
Associate Editor
Peter Spotts is the associate editor of FenderBender and ABRN. He brings six years of experience working in the newspaper industry and four years editing in Tech. He has a bachelor's degree in journalism from Western New England University with a minor in integrated marketing communications and an MBA. A sci-fi/fantasy fan, his current 2010 Honda Civic is nicknamed Eskel, after the character from the Witcher book series, for the scratch marks on its hood.
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