While the car-buying process has increasingly gone online, most technology has been reserved for how car sellers and companies that offer financing communicate with buyers. (It turns out that buyers generally loathe the experience of visiting a dealership.) Increasingly, artificial intelligence is used in the process of connecting buyers and sellers, and it answers common questions.
France-based startup ProovStation, however, may be the first to apply artificial intelligence to the vehicle inspection process. ProovStation is an industrial deep-tech startup behind the first automobile scanner that fully automates the inspection and valuation process for used vehicles…
… all in three seconds.
ProovStation has transformed a previously manual, subjective and time-consuming process taking up to 30 minutes into one of industrial speed and quality capable of managing several hundred vehicles per day. The ProovStation stations, built in France, use a new generation of AI based on the latest NVIDIA graphic cards and a cutting-edge optronic system which allows them to perform a 360-degree scan of the vehicle in just three seconds. More than 300 photos are taken and analyzed by its algorithms before making a complete diagnosis. Covering all viewing angles, the station identifies all defects with millimeter precision and automatically generates an exhaustive and quantified inspection report listing the vehicle’s defects.
This week, the company, which is based in Lyon, announced the closing of a new funding round of 10.4 million euro (US $11.3 million) led by Supernova Invest, alongside Otium Capital, through its industrial venture fund and Crédit Agricole Création. This fundraising is expected to enable the startup to consolidate its pioneering role and to establish itself internationally as a key player in the used vehicles market.
Through a partnership between ProovStation, supermarket giant Carrefour, tire company Michelin and used vehicle company BCA Group, the startup is shaking up the used vehicles sector by offering all car owners a unique, simple, reliable and instantaneous digital sales experience. The ProovStation’s automobile scanners, enhanced by the Michelin QuickScan technology which automatically tests tire wear, are already available (free of charge) for self-service in the parking lots of several Carrefour hypermarkets in France. These allow car owners to obtain an instantaneous firm offer (non-binding unless specifically approved by them), guaranteed by BCA Group, for their vehicle at a fair price relative to the market based on the objective evaluation of its condition.
“We are proud of closing this funding round, which will allow us to give each driver an access to our service within less than 30 minutes of their homes”, says Cédric Bernard, CEO and co-founder of ProovStation. “Thanks to these funds, we will be able to invest in our technology to reinforce our international leadership. They will also give us the means to accelerate our expansion in the automotive industry to boost our already vigorous growth”.
Edited by
Alex Passett
