INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
The race is on for the car of the future, equipped with self-driving capabilities, on-board personalised information and entertainment and
an ever-smaller carbon footprint
using to continue expanding its technology, as well as building out the rest of its business.Today, UVeye is already finding applications
in assessing the state of rental and used cars, helping with insurance adjustments, inspecting vehicles to diagnose mechanical or other
problems and as part of wider security efforts
Its customers include car giants, their OEM partners, insurance companies, security services and governments, rental companies, on-demand
ride-hailing companies and many others in the transportation industry whose businesses are based on maintaining or inspecting vehicles.Amir
Hever, the CEO and co-founder, noted that while there are, for example, six OEMs already working with his company, there is also a long
waiting list of companies that want to work with the startup
So this is part of the reason for the funding, too: to scale up and meet that demand.The key to UVeye is that its vertically integrated
system (which includes the scanning hardware as well as the software to read and understand the scans) is fully automated
Berkley Corporation are leading this round, along with another returning investor, F.I.T
said that Toyota Tsusho (a member of the Toyota Group that provides a number of car-related services such as exporting, alongside
non-automotive interests) will be using its technology in used-car centers and the wider automotive trading market
registrations and subsequent claims, as well as those security applications.This funding is the first significant money that the startup has
raised and brings the total raised by UVeye to about $35 million
Its strategic partners include Daimler and Skoda
Nannizzi, director of fintech investments at W
Berkley Corporation, in a statement
Typically and traditionally, inspections are done by human mechanics, who then compare their findings against previous human-made
assessments to identify issues
The vehicle also needs to be completely stationary during these checks
The whole process can take hours or days.UVeye brings that down to seconds, Hever said
UVeye manufactures all its own hardware as well as develops the software that runs on it
I asked if at any point it might be able to work with the kind of camera you might typically find on a smartphone
These are improving all the time, and they are already being used as portable computers by, for example, customer service assistants at
rental agencies to check-in vehicles after they have been returned by customers.Hever said that while this may be the case, the aim for his
be justified by reducing the number of customer service agents that need to be on the payroll, and more importantly speed up the procurement
The possibilities for what it might tackle next are very interesting.Tapping into the rise of autonomous vehicle technologies, one area that
systems are producing, to provide even more accurate assessments of problems a car might be having
could potentially expand to scanning what might be on the inside as well as the outside
Today, a lot of this is done with x-rays, but there are new technologies involving sound waves and other parameters to be able to identify
relevant to security inspections.
