A recently released video by the president of a mobile calibrations and scans company asks for legislative regulations on aftermarket tools and standardized pricing which he describes as a public safety concern. 

“I’m creating this video in an attempt to voice my concerns related to vehicle repair and public safety,” Reynolds, Mobile Automotive Services Solution president, says at the start of the more than 40-minute video. 

GEICO announced a standardized pricing with asTech to its ARX shops in July. A recent email from the insurance company to the shops says Protech Solutions will be an additional starting Jan. 6.

Reynolds dives in explaining advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) such as adaptive cruise control, lane keeping assistance and blind spot monitoring and how the systems can control steering, breaking and acceleration. 

After in-depth explanations, including graphics, about the importance of scans and calibrations, Reynolds turns his attention to the complexity of proper ADAS repair procedures and the cost associated with specific OEM recommended or required steps. 

He gives specific examples of how costs for the procedures don’t match a standardized pricing agreement made by and between GEICO and asTech. 

Reynolds continues the video by recounting alleged missteps asTech technicians recently made during a remote service, while calibrating a vehicle’s seat weight sensor. 

Lastly, Reynolds explains what he sees as risks to the public in allowing insurers to set the pricing for procedures. He suggests needed legislative changes that require proper certification for scanning and calibrations to be preformed. 

The video, released by Reynolds on YouTube, provides a breakdown of chapters for each topical section.

During the video, Reynolds builds the viewers knowledge of ADAS. He states the ADAS components, such as radar and camera units, are mounted behind bumpers and on windshields.  

“When any of these components become misaligned, as they often do in a collision, they must be calibrated before the vehicle’s returned to service in order to make sure that the vehicle is safe and the systems operate properly,” Reynolds said. 

A front radar, for example, is used for acceleration, braking, and autonomous emergency breaking upon the detection of other vehicles, pedestrians or any object in or along the roadway. 

“Because the radar is right up front it isn’t uncommon for the radar to be shifted during a collision,” Reynolds says. “Let’s say a radar is shifted upwards and a proper calibration is not performed. When driving under a low overpass on the highway the emergency braking system could apply the brakes thinking the vehicle will hit the bridge.” 

Special training and tooling is required after a collision to properly calibrate, he said. This has caused the cost of collision repair to skyrocket. 

Reynolds describes the difference between OEM and aftermarket diagnostic tools. 

“Aftermarket tools, which are made by third-party companies, are not affiliated with vehicle manufacturers,” Reynolds says. “These tools are less expensive but cannot perform as many functions as the OEM tools and in many instances may perform those functions incorrectly.” 

OEM tools can perform software updates to vehicle modules, special functions like initializations and calibrations, along with reading data from modules which can be used for vehicle diagnostics 

Aftermarket tools sometimes have issues communicating with all modules and do not have access to manufacturing programing software. The tools also are often a few years behind. 

“For many years the collision industry fought to get insurance companies to simply pay for a code scan of the vehicle’s computer systems,” Reynolds said. “It seems obvious that the vehicle should have the code scanned after a repair to verify that there are no issues but insurers fought paying for these procedures so much so that vehicle manufacturers became concerned and began issuing position statements stating that the vehicle must be scanned before and after a collision repair this forced insurers to acknowledge that this was a necessary part of the repair process.” 

Reynolds says insurers then fought for the use of aftermarket tools instead of the use of OEM tools, which can cost in the $10,000s. 

Remote options, such as asTech, started to emerge as another option, he said. The tool can be plugged into a vehicle and then the data sent to another device in a remote location that is connected to the OEM tool. 

“While the remote access may sound like a good solution I want to use some context to explain why I believe it is not and should not be considered an acceptable replacement for a trained technician on site with the correct tooling needed to repair the vehicle,” Reynolds says. 

He says that calibrations are procedures that require trained technicians with hands on the vehicle. 

Reynolds describes the difference between static and dynamic calibrations. Static, for example, uses a target and then multiple measurements with a scan tool. 

An untrained technician is capable of accidentally moving targets to incorrect locations to get a read that says a vehicle passes, he says. 

“This is how a vehicle can get returned to service in an unsafe condition and operating dangerously even if a calibration is performed but by an unqualified technician,” Reynolds says. “Of course,  if this happens the remote company can’t be held accountable because they have no control over what the employee on the other end does, but this highlights why having qualified technicians with hands on the vehicle is necessary and how a pricing agreement can prevent that from happening.” 

Dynamic calibrations are preformed by using a scan tool to put the radar into calibration mode, Reynolds said. The vehicle is then driven during the calibration. He said it can be difficult to determine if the radar is vertically level. 

Some OEM procedures require that the front radar is leveled using an angle gauge prior to performing the calibration, Reynolds said. In most cases this requires the removal of the bumper. 

“This part of the procedure is often skipped in an attempt to cut cost but a properly trained safety system and ADAS calibration technician will understand that not leveling the sensor could create a dangerous situation,” Reynolds said. 

Reynolds uses an example of a 2022 Ford Edge. OEM procedures require the removal and installation of the front bumper in order to level the front radar, he says. He adds the labor time involved just for the removal and reinstallation of the front bumper is 1.8 hours, without completion of the calibration. 

Yet, a pricing agreement between asTech and GEICO sets the price a shop is paid for a dynamic calibration at about half the cost of just the 1.8 hours of labor, Reynolds claims

Even if skipping the radar leveling, the profit margins for shops is still low under the pricing agreement, he said. 

“This pricing incentivizes shops to use lower paid and unqualified employees to perform these calibrations,” Reynolds said. 

GEICO does note in its original documents to shops that additional costs, such as labor, can be negotiated for calibration and scanning procedures. 

“If a collision shop fights hard enough they may be able to get adjusters to allow for additional labor to perform the needed operations or perform proper repairs but this often comes down to the specific adjuster and their knowledge level,” Reynolds said. “In my opinion some insurance companies make it easy for repairers to repair the vehicles properly, while others make it difficult.”  

Additional calibrations such as steering angle and seat weight sensors also require training and special tooling, he said. 

GEICO’s email sent to shops late last month notes that prices are set up for additional operations such as seat weight sensors. It adds that the seat weight sensor price is included with remote scan pricing if an OEM scan is completed. 

Seat weight sensors are typically found in the passenger seat, Reynolds said. They read the weight of either an occupant or item on the seat. 

“This information is used to determine if the passenger airbag will deploy during a collision,” Reynolds said. “There is typically a weight threshold that must be met in order for the system to recognize an occupant and allow the passenger airbag to deploy. This way the passenger airbag doesn’t deploy if a book bag is in the passenger seat but it will deploy if a small child is in the passenger seat. Needless to say lives depend on the accuracy of these sensors.” 

OEMs have procedures for calibration of the sensors after a collision, Reynolds said. Many of the procedures require weights to be placed on the seat. 

For example, Mercedes and Subaru have special body-shapped tools that must be used. He said the tools can cost in the thousands. He also added that the process can be complex with multiple measurements. 

Another example, is a 2019 Honda Pilot, he said. The technician needs to make sure a seat is empty and placed in the correct position. The weight measured by the seat weight sensors must be read from the data list within the scan tool and recorded, he said. 

Next, the technician must check that the weight shows between a certain pound range, Reynolds adds. Another weight with a heavier pound range should then be used and the exact weight recorded, placed on the seat and measured by the seat sensors. A data list on the scan tool must be read and recorded. 

Lastly, the measurements are entered into an equation and if the right specifications are not met, more steps are needed, Reynolds said. 

“Obviously like the radar calibrations mentioned earlier this calibration cannot be performed properly just by plugging in a remote device in,” Reynolds said. “As you can imagine insurance adjusters aren’t going to want to pay for this calibration to be performed properly if they believe it’s an easy operation that should be included with a post scan.” 

He said he recently witnessed an asTech technician post scan a 2019 Honda Pilot. 

“In this instance it appeared to me that they disregarded the manufacturer’s published procedure and created their own procedure called Passenger Seat Weight Sensor System Quick Check.” Reynolds said. 

Reynolds shares photos of a chat log he says is between an on-site shop employee and an asTech technician. 

“You can see in these images the asTech technician never asked the on-site employee to put weights on the seat and there is no way that the procedure could have been completed properly,” Reynolds says. 

The incident was raised by Reynolds on the C&C Auto Show with Chris Chesney, Repairify vice president of training and organizational development, in November. 

Chesney responded that Reynolds could have witnessed an “outside instance.” 

“Our team is trained to do that properly and guide the placement of the weight,” Chesney said. 

He added that asTech is dependent on its team doing what they are trained to do. 

“Our intent is not to circumvent that at all,” Chesney said. 

Chesney told Reynolds he would like to know more about the incident so it could be corrected. 

Reynolds says in his video posted Dec. 23 that he did the chat log on the 2019 Honda Pilot to Chesney following the radio program. 

“I have not received any respond and I am not aware of any corrective action taken on the process or with that vehicle,” Reynolds said. 

Reynolds also questions if the situation was an outside occurrence in the video. 

“I’ve been told that it’s standard practice not just with asTech but with many companies to skip the weight measurements and my assumption is that this is in order to stay competitive,” Reynolds said. 

The video also discusses that Chesney was questioned about asTech using people in other countries to perform remote work. 

“He [Chesney] stated that when those technicians first start they’re not allowed to perform operations like calibrations but instead perform scans,” Reynolds says in his video. “But the improperly performed Honda seat sensor procedure was part of an asTech scan procedure. It concerns me that a person in another country can make the decision on whether to perform a system repair on a vehicle properly or skip it and say that the system is fine.” 

Chesney said during the radio show that asTech does have a team that works in another country. He said the team is made up of mechanical and electrical engineers who completed a university program. 

“It takes about eight to ten weeks to onboard them with the knowledge,” Chesney said. “They don’t jump in and do programming or calibrations. They are doing simply scans or prescans. That is just a segment of our team to handle North American business.”

He added that the “vast majority” of asTech’s team is in the U.S. 

Reynold says in his video, “to me it seems like the Rules Engine is asTech creating their own rules that conflict with position statements published by the vehicle manufacturers and those rules are based on internal research that isn’t made public,  so to me, it doesn’t seem too far-fetched that they would create their own calibration process for these seat weight sensors that suits their format rather than follow the procedures published by Honda.” 

However, Reynolds notes that it isn’t GEICO or asTech’s responsibility to determine what procedures are required to get a vehicle operating safely. 

“That responsibility is up to the repair shop but because of what I believe is misleading verbiage, GEICO and other insurers can use documentation like this to deny paying for procedures to be performed correctly.” 

The opportunity is created by insurance companies, Reynolds says in the video. 

“I believe the only way to address this would be to look at the regulations or lack thereof that insurers are or should be required to follow,” Reynolds said. “ I believe it would benefit the motoring public to request that state regulating agencies look into these concerns and if deemed necessary perform market conduct examinations. Collision repairs across the country are fighting what I feel is an uphill battle to repair vehicles properly.  I think it’s time the voices of these collision repairs are listened to by these state regulating agencies” 

Reynolds provides solutions that regulatory agencies could tackle. This includes requiring ASE certified ADAS technicians onsite signing off on all safety system calibrations not performed by dealerships. 

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Feature and embedded photos are screenshots from Reynold’s video.