July 24, 2019 weblog
UVeye vehicle inspection system hunts down the weird to the woeful
![Credit: CC0 Public Domain volvo](https://scx1.b-cdn.net/csz/news/800a/2019/volvo.jpg)
Monday was neither stormy nor blue for startup UVeye, which announced investors in a pool of $31 million, a further signal that UVeye is on to something important in the form of vehicle inspection driven by AI.
UVeye raise $31m to expand AI-driven inspection systems.
Three names led the recent round— Toyota Tsusho, Volvo Cars and W. R. Berkley Corporation (with participation from partners including F.I.T. ventures).
TechCrunch's Ingrid Lunden explained how the recent round of funding will make a difference for UVeye: it will be using the money to continue expanding its technology, and building out the rest of its business.
3D vehicle scanning technology is at play in their system. Technologies include hardware combined with deep learning and computer vision algorithms.
StartupHub.ai: Their system utilizes multiple high-speed, high-resolution (up to 25 mega pixel) cameras, that generate a high resolution image of the vehicle's undercarriage and exterior; image-processing algorithms serve to flag any vehicle anomalies. These may be security related such as weapons and contraband, or faulty vehicle components.
David Oren delivered a live presentation on YouTube in October last year. The video showed an undercarriage scanner near the car, tire scanner and the processing unit.
The system went to work in analyzing and anomalies were recognized. The car had taken thousands of images, which were pre processed and then uploaded to the cloud. where the AI engine kicked in and performed the analysis. The video showed some scans already entered on the screen.
UVeye offers their solution in the form of three products: Helios, Atlas, and Artemis, covering the vehicle undercarriage, exterior, and tire inspection respectively.
When handling the car tires, it can look for any damage, measure air pressure, and capture tire specs and manufacturer off the writing on the wheel.
All in all, the system can detect external and mechanical flaws; flag anomalies, modifications or foreign objects – both along the undercarriage and around the exterior of the vehicle.
How long does the scanning process take? They said "within a matter of seconds." TechCrunch had something to say abut this: "UVeye's technology is aiming to replace—or at least augment—a very antiquated and analog way of inspecting cars from the outside," said Lunden. "The whole process can take hours or days."
The Volvo Cars investment indicated their interest in what UVeye offered in the way of advanced scanning technology which could allow them "to take the next step in quality," said a Volvo Car Group press statement.
Volvo Cars believes using UVeye's technology could further improve the quality of cars leaving the factory and ensure that even tiny faults are detected. A first pilot is intended to start later this year at its manufacturing plant in Torslanda, Sweden.
As For Toyota Tusho, UVeye "will also support distribution to used car centres, and throughout the company's footprint within the Japanese auto market," said UVeye's press statement..
Who could gain from using this system? According to Repairer Driven News, manufacturing lines, dealerships or a rental car company. Rather than the renter spending time marking prior damage, you could instead just drive the rental car through a UVeye station and have all of the damage automatically recorded, Amir Hever, CEO, said.
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