With the number of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) components in the latest vehicles, they increasingly require a recalibration after a seemingly minor incident. But when is it required? And what is the proof to show it was done? Building trust of ADAS procedures for all stakeholders in the collision repair industry is a continuing focus for the Collision Industry Conference’s (CIC) Industry Relations Committee.
The committee continued the discussion April 22 at CIC in Phoenix, which was held virtually, and for the first time in more than a year, also in-person, which was by invitation-only because of Arizona COVID restrictions.
To sum up that day’s discussion, Jim Keller, president of 1Collision Group and co-chair of the committee, said trust requires following OEM repair procedures, making sure all involved in the repair process know the recalibration is being done, and then documenting those procedures.
As it morphed from its previous iteration as the Repairer/Insurance Committee to the Industry Relations Committee, Keller said the 53-member committee, which is made up of a wide range of collision repair ecosystem stakeholders, has the goal to build relationships and “foster discussions that identify topics that the industry would benefit from gaining alignment on.”
Rather than an overly technical discussion that day, he said, “it’s more about how can we build trust within the industry so there’s less stress, more clarity, and understand how we can move forward with the consumer, the repair shops, as well as the insurance companies, and all try to cohabitate in a better fashion?”
While the committee is in its current iteration, Keller said, it will not entertain the idea that OEM repair procedures for ADAS technology may not always be necessary.
“The only instructions a repair center has – or an insurer that wants to understand what the procedures are has – are the OE procedures,” he said. “They built the car, they engineered it, and so we’re not going to have that discussion. There are people in our industry who are still wondering if OE procedures are really necessary to follow, and I think that’s preposterous. What we believe as a committee is it’s about fixing the car properly for the consumer to be made whole.”
Committee Co-Chair Jonathan Chase, director of claims process & centralized services at National General Insurance, said aligning stakeholders promises to reduce friction.
“These are opportunities to get this right for all stakeholders and take care of the customers, and they’re also where these things can go wrong.”
Chase introduced Elliott Asch, assistant vice president of recalibration services at Safelite AutoGlass, who discussed the swiftly growing demand for ADAS recalibration within Safelite’s repair centers. That’s been a departure from even recent years, when a technician could always drive to a customer’s house or place of business to perform a windshield replacement.
As vehicle technology continues to evolve at “an incredibly rapid pace,” he said, consumer awareness and expectations of what is required for a proper recalibration will increase. He said the repair industry must evolve so that ADAS recalibration is easier for customers to understand, for shops to complete, for shops to be able to prove to insurance carriers the work was completed, and to protect shops from liability.
As recently as 2016, vehicles needing recalibration made up a very small percentage of windshield replacements at Safelite. For 2021 vehicles, 80% of those for which Safelite replaces windshields will require a recalibration because of a forward-facing camera, and 20% of the company’s total windshield replacement business now requires recalibration.
“So we had to adjust our business model very quickly to provide peace of mind to the customer their vehicle is working properly,” he said.
It’s not surprising that customers often don’t know what ADAS features their vehicles have, he said, noting that a few years ago, they often struggled just knowing if their vehicle’s windshield had a shaded band at the top or not.
“Now there are rain sensors, heated wiper parts, sometimes fully heated, there’s head-up display, and now there’s cameras, lidar...there are many many more features on a brand new windshield than there ever was.”
Without verification, ignorance could be bliss
“A key point here is that when you replace a damaged piece of auto glass – or any vehicle part, for that matter – the customer can see it,” Asch said. “They can see that it’s fixed; they can see, ‘My bumper had a hole in it it, and now it doesn’t have a hole in it. They can see that ‘My windshield was cracked, and it’s not cracked now.’ But with recalibration, there’s no visual evidence to the customer, and there’s not necessarily a light that goes on the dash that says, ‘Hey, your system was not recalibrated.’”
Because of that, he said, the customer may have the false impression the vehicle is operating as designed.
“From a customer satisfaction and education standpoint, we’ve had to change the way we speak with customers,” Asch said, in identifying the need for recalibration and notifying the customer.
Safelite’s recalibration process requires electronic proof via communication between the scan tool and the vehicle that the process was completed.
“We will not invoice an order until we have complete data that says this was done complete – end of story – and we do not allow field override; our technicians cannot override the system. This is machine-to-machine. Yes, it was done, and here’s the proof it was done successfully.”
During each step of the recalibration, the technician captures an image of the scan tool’s screen that is then uploaded to Safelite’s system. Data includes the repair order number, the technician who worked on the vehicle, the time/date stamp, and the VIN, along with a confirmation the recalibration was complete and successful.
“If there’s ever a problem with that vehicle down the road, we will have the documentation on our end that says what we did, that we did it correctly, and when we have data to suggest there was a pre-existing condition on that vehicle, was it corrected, and what did we do with that vehicle? From a risk mitigation standpoint, it’s very important to have the proof. Getting these in place now just sets the stage for our entire organization and the industry that we need good data now.”
Be sure to document each step of the recalibration
Frank Terlep, CEO of Auto Techcelerators, which offers Test Drive CoPilot, a smartphone application for managing ADAS test drives, reinforced the need for documenting each step of the recalibration. As time ran short in the session, he quickly ran through some examples of items to examine as part of a checklist to ensure the process is accurate.
“Was the fuel tank full? Was the trunk full? What’s the ride height? Did you set up the targets correctly? How far away are the targets? Do you have images of the targets? Do you have images of the dash? Do you have images of all of that needs to be documented and time stamped? Because if you don’t do that, you don’t have a record of what was done, and you don’t have supporting documentation of why you’re invoicing the customer.
“I know Safelite brought it up, but in my opinion, how do you deliver a car back to a consumer without properly taking that car on a test drive and documenting a test drive to validate the ADAS systems on that vehicle actually work as designed before the consumer gets back in the vehicle and drives it and becomes the crash dummy or becomes the test person, the QC person of the repair or the calibration you just completed?”