Leveraging AI to Get Vehicles to Market Quickly and Safely
Tell us about your work at General Motors.
I’m proud to have worked at General Motors for 26 years. I recently began a new role leading Product Marketing for our Full-Size Vans and Light Commercial Vehicles. It’s an exciting space, as the number of fleets of corporate EV’s is rapidly growing thanks to the expansion of online shopping and a need for vehicles to deliver packages. Through the years at GM, I’ve also held operations leadership roles helping to build organizational effectiveness and driving continuous process improvements.
We understand GM’s mobile inspection app is set to be rolled out in early 2020. Why was there a need for such an app?
General Motors sells over 100,000 cars a year in the used car space; many are rental return vehicles. There are numerous intricacies involved in the inspection of these vehicles to ensure they can be turned around quickly and safely to be sold online or at auction. We needed a solution to transition from our legacy digital picture-based inspection tool, which was not uniform across our inspection providers, to a new AI-based tool that could be deployed quickly to any supplier in any location. I’m excited to report that the proof-of-concept we worked on last year was successful and demonstrated significant efficiencies. The app is being rolled out to our 35 suppliers in February.
Describe the inspection apps’ functionalities.
Simply by scanning a vehicle’s VIN number, the app extracts data about condition history of the car. Inspectors have the ability to submit photos and comments via mobile devices. Thus, the technology allows inspectors to easily identify and report possible issues, including open recalls, before any time and money are spent on labor. Instead of waiting for paper forms to cross their desks, administrators are alerted to issues promptly so vehicles can get on the road more quickly.
What’s the most exciting part about seeing this proof-of-concept be deployed into production?
First, the inspection app can continually be improved. Being able to roll out a solution that empowers us to move quickly when we find issues or desire improvements is tremendous. The second most exciting part is the amount of money projected to be saved annually. In the wholesale market, speed and efficiency translate into significant cost savings for OEM’s and rental companies, as well as auctions and dealers. Timeline improvements benefit all segments of the supply chain.
What was your experience like working with the DMI team on development of the inspection app?
Through our work on the inspection app we’ve formed a trusted working partnership and great relationship with DMI. The team is highly-innovative. When we had challenges, it seemed like overnight they’d come back and say, ‘This is what we figured out. What about doing it this way?’ In the two years we’ve worked with DMI, I’ve never felt like we were getting a sales pitch. The team is super collaborative and creative. It’s been fun.
