Ravin AI: Bringing Trust and Transparency to the Automotive Industry
By Josephine Melvin
Ravin AI is bringing trust and transparency to the automotive industry by applying computer vision and machine learning to help make vehicle inspections faster, more efficient and more consistent.
Remember the last time you rented a car and had that stressful moment when you returned it, to see if you were going to get overcharged for damage you caused or, worse, charged for damage you didn’t cause?
By installing off-the-shelf camera systems at the entrance and exit to a car rental site, Ravin is able to automatically scan the car on check out and check in and then provide an objective condition report for that vehicle. This eliminates the stress associated with subjective condition reporting or human error.
Over the past 12 months, the team have been working on moving their AI condition reporting system to work via a smartphone. This has opened up a number of different new use cases, for example allowing users to submit insurance claims without having to visit a garage for an assessment, or empowering consumers to complete end-of-lease inspections themselves, guided by Ravin’s ‘Inspect’ mobile app.
Since being founded in 2018, Ravin has developed partnerships with leading automotive businesses, such as Avis Budget Group, across Europe and the US. They also recently hired a new North American General Manager, Jim O’Brien, who was previously a used-car leader at Audi of America and BMW Financial Services.
They are backed by Shell Ventures, PICO Venture Partners and recently secured additional funding from Fraser MCCombs capital – a leading US-based automotive investor.
Over the coming year the team intends to scale up their product and operations with a particular focus on mobile use cases, allowing for vehicle transactions to be conducted in a trustworthy and transparent manner, even when being completed remotely.
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