Why Digital Vehicle Inspections Are the Key to Improving Road Safety

Vehicle inspections are notoriously a frustrating process. Time-consuming, subjective, and prone to human errors which cause mistakes that can lead to safety hazards. Manual vehicle inspections often leave customers feeling discouraged and suspicious that they’re being taken advantage of. This can make it less likely to be proactive about regular inspections which can further lead to unsafe cars on the road. Digital vehicle inspections are changing all of this, especially road safety.

What is Checked During a Digital Vehicle Inspection?

With digital vehicle inspections, thorough inspections can be completed within minutes with a simple 360° walkaround. AI assistance ensures good quality images and all angles are captured. You can also automatically catch any damages, maintain vehicle logs, curate and send condition reports that detail damage severity and provide a cost estimate of the damage. 

Why Are Dealerships and Service Centers Implementing Digital Vehicle Inspections into their Management Systems?

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1) Efficiency. Rather than detailing an inspection on a piece of paper that piles up or can get damaged, digital vehicle inspections operate solely within a software platform that can run on your mobile device. Not only does this save on administrative costs but it speeds up the entire inspection process significantly. When technicians know exactly where the issue is, they can fix it sooner. Furthermore, it allows for clearer communication between technicians and service advisers which means more accurate and standardized estimates.

2) Digital Vehicle Inspections Build Trust with Service Providers. It’s no secret that many drivers don’t trust the auto repair industry. Many have had negative experiences in the past and assume they’re being upsold on unnecessary repairs. Digital vehicle inspections help restore that trust between the customer and service providers. With AI and digital inspections, customers can learn more about their vehicles while getting a fuller picture that includes dents, scratches, odometer readings, interior scratches, wheel details, and more. 

Digital vehicle inspections also build trust with insurance companies and dealerships. Now a customer can capture the damage on a car as part of the FNOL (first notice of loss) process, receive a repair estimate, and file it to their insurance carrier. The process can be fast, transparent and fair.

When a dealership can provide a 360° scan to a potential buyer, they can rest assured their new car is safe and in a good condition, and are more likely to return to the same dealership down the road.

3) Improved Shop Safety. Human error is always a possibility with manual inspections. When an auto shop opens for the day, it’s not uncommon for inspectors to be thorough and alert during the first portion of the day, but as it wears on and technicians get tired or the shop gets busy, mistakes are innocently made. Sometimes necessary repairs are overlooked when inspections are done too quickly. Since inspections are time-consuming and detail-oriented, a tired inspector could easily miscalculate damage. Digital vehicle inspections remove such flaws by allowing employees’ energy to be used more effectively.

4) Digital Vehicle Inspections are Becoming the Industry Standard. While the demand for digital vehicle inspections was already growing, the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic led to a growing number of service centers in need of touchless services. Thanks to the contactless service they provide, digital vehicle inspections allow employees to conduct safe inspections, preventing the spread of viruses and giving customers the freedom to leave the shop while repairs are being made.

How Often Should Vehicles Receive a Digital Inspection?

Recommendations for manual vehicle inspections are ambiguous, at best. Experts suggest getting your car checked every one to two years which leaves a lot of room for problems to arise. With digital vehicle inspections, vehicle owners can have a more accurate understanding of when to take their car in to be checked.

On a larger scale, rental companies, leasing agencies, and even other industries such as ridesharing can all benefit from digital vehicle inspections. With the ability to conduct a quick scan before and after each rental or leasing period, inspections are faster, safer, and more thorough.

The Impact of Digital Vehicle Inspections on Road Safety

While it’s clear that digital vehicle inspection can help with shop efficiency and costs, perhaps the most crucial benefit of standardized use of digital vehicle inspections is improving road safety. A majority of auto repair shops conduct inspections in under 15 minutes. This leads to safety-related issues being identified less than 40% of the time and means over 30% of vehicle accidents are caused by mechanical failure. Digital vehicle inspections remove that room for human error, providing thorough checks of hard-to-see places.

Returning to the topic of customer trust, the logs that digital vehicle inspections maintain mean customers can keep track of when repairs were done. Combined with the high-resolution images captured during the scan, customers are more likely to trust technicians when they make repair recommendations. This means fewer cars breaking down and a drastic improvement in road safety.

The Importance of a Ravin Digital Vehicle Inspection

With all the benefits of digital vehicle inspections, it’s easy to see why they’re quickly becoming the industry standard. The increased efficiency, expense reduction, restoration of trust, and safety improvements they offer mean the technology can be used at multiple stages of a vehicle’s life and in a variety of use cases. Whether it be for an individual’s insurance claim or a rental company’s maintenance checks, digital vehicle inspections bring consistency and safety to roads everywhere. With so much at stake, you want to use a digital vehicle inspection you can trust.

With the industry’s most mature and award-winning inspection AI that is scalable to any business size, Ravin can support all of your digital vehicle inspection needs. Contact us today to learn more about our vehicle inspection solutions.