How Ravin’s AI powered car damage detection is changing the automotive industry

What is car damage detection?

Car damage detection is the process of analyzing images to highlight potential defects on a vehicle. At Ravin we’re using advanced artificial intelligence (AI), deep learning and computer vision to provide insurers, automotive companies and fleet managers with a more consistent, objective and efficient way to assess the condition of vehicles.

Example use case: AI damage detection in the motor insurance sector

Ravin works with world-leading motor insurance companies to streamline claims and underwriting processes.

Rather than asking a customer to bring their car into a garage to be assessed or manually reviewing images they’ve taken, Ravin’s AI technology can provide an initial assessment of the damage, allowing claims to be triaged into the appropriate channels.

Small claims can be directly paid out or can be sent to specialist garages that can carry out PDR (paintless dent repair) or other smart repairs. Larger claims, where longer repair times may mean a replacement vehicle has to be provided, can be handled through dedicated administrative processes.

For insurance companies, this means they’re able to process claims faster with less administrative costs, leading to lower premiums and happy customers.

Ravin’s mobile scanning technology is also being used as part of the underwriting process. Customers can scan their vehicles to provide a baseline condition report that can be referenced when a claim is submitted. This ensures pre-existing damage is taken into account when assessing the cost of repair.

How Ravin’s AI car damage detection solution works

Customers can be sent a link that directs them to the Ravin web application. They don’t need to download an app or even register as a user.

They will then be guided to complete a scan of their vehicle. Either a full 360° or, in the case of a claim, a partial scan of the damaged area. Ravin’s unique Mobile AI is running in real time on the customer’s phone. The Mobile AI is a neural network running in the browser that can:

• Filter the best images to be saved and submitted in the report
• Provide the user with real-time guidance so even inexperienced users can complete a successful scan
• Complete an initial condition assessment of the vehicle in real-time, meaning that results can be displayed to users before the images are uploaded and processed via the Cloud AI (see below)

Once the customer has completed a scan, they are shown the results in the app to give them confidence that their car condition has been successfully captured.

The images and the initial assessment made by the Mobile AI are then uploaded to the Cloud. Ravin’s Cloud AI is then able to conduct a more detailed assessment of the vehicle’s condition by:

• Adding additional damage candidates - the Cloud AI has more time and processing power so can conduct a more thorough assessment
• Calculating a condition grade
• Anonymizing personal data such as faces or license plates
• Providing repair suggestions and repair cost estimates
• Conducting anti-fraud analysis

What sets Ravin AI’s car damage detection apart from the competition?

Ravin’s patented damage detection technology is market leading and has been trained on over 600 million real vehicle images that have been captured organically from our cameras and inspection app.

We also have the most mature vehicle modeling AI on the market, which allows us to create a unique model of each vehicle, without having seen the vehicle before. This means we do not need to store thousands of 3D vehicle models which would need to be updated for each new model, spec and trim.

Our combined Mobile AI and Cloud AI mean we can provide instant results, guidance and feedback to users whilst also carrying out more complex and detailed analyses of the car’s condition.

Finally, we operate across used cars, leasing, rental, fleet and insurance, so we have products that are suitable for a broad range of businesses in the automotive industry. And we have both stationary camera installations (Autoscan) and mobile apps (Ravin Inspect).

Which types of customer and use cases does the Ravin AI platform support?

We offer our products in three main verticals: remarketing, fleets and insurance. Within this, we have deployed Ravin products to a wide range of use cases.

Remarketing (used cars):

• End of lease and pre-inspection
• Auctions
• Peer-to-peer used car sales
• Trade in
• Service and maintenance

Fleets:

• Rental
• Car sharing
• Delivery and logistics
• Incident reporting

Insurance:

• Claims (FNOL)
• Underwriting / new contract acquisition

A Summary of Ravin AI's Car Damage Detection Solution

Ravin AI’s market-leading AI car damage detection is revolutionising vehicle inspections. Across remarketing, fleets and insurance, Ravin’s patented computer vision and deep learning technology is making vehicle inspections faster, cheaper and more consistent. Ravin’s combined Mobile AI and Cloud AI provide users with real-time insight into car condition and deeper analysis and calculations such as repair costs. Ravin’s mobile Inspect app can be used on any smartphone without needing to download anything and Ravin’s stationary Autoscan system can be installed where customers require higher throughput and less human intervention.

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