During a congressional hearing on vehicle safety last week, a U.S. representative noted the importance of ADAS features functioning properly throughout the life of a vehicle. 

“In the past decade or so new vehicles have been equipped with advanced driver assistant technology called ADAS, which is designed to prevent deadly crashes but while it can improve safety, it is important that these features work not only when the vehicles come off the assembly line but for the life of the vehicle,” said Rep. Diana Harshbarger (R-Tennessee) during the hearing. 

She followed with a question to John Bozzella, Alliance for Automotive Innovation (Auto Innovators) president and CEO. “Do drivers know if the ADAS systems in their vehicle are fully functional and properly calibrated?” 

Bozzella answered that automakers work on the durability, effectiveness, and warranty of the systems the same way they do for every other part of the vehicle. 

“It’s really important that they work and they work all the time,” Bozzella said. 

Harshbarger asked if there is any standard way for consumers to know a system is working properly, such as a warning light. 

“The vehicles, that I’m aware of, make the customer aware of when the system is working and when the system is on and when it is off,” Bozzella said. 

Educating consumers about how systems work and their limitations is important to safety as well, Bozzella said. 

Harshbarger then asked, “Do the automakers provide independent automotive businesses with information on how to maintain that functionality?” 

Bozzella responded, “Yes, this is critically important. The manufacturers provide all the data necessary to diagnose and repair vehicles to everyone, both dealers as well as independent repair shops.” 

ADAS scanning and calibrations have been at the forefront of collision industry conversations in recent years as the processes make repairs more complex and, at times, come with a cost that insurance companies push back against. 

During the spring, State Farm started the rollout of its calibration requirements for Select Service repair facilities nationwide. At the time, multiple professionals in the repair industry shared concerns about pressure to meet State Farm prices for calibration procedures. 

The State Farm email announced the requirement to use ADAS MAP by Opus IVS to scrub estimates and/or repair orders to identify VIN-specific ADAS and necessary calibrations. It adds that the system provides OE repair procedures.

In a February interview, Brian Herron, Opus IVS president, told RDN that the ADAS scrubber works by recommending calibrations based on the vehicle and information uploaded about the damage by the repairer. The scrubber also provides service information from the OEMs.
He said the scrubber does not take the place of repairers looking at OEM procedures.

GEICO announced a standardized pricing agreement with asTech last year, and Driven Brands started a non-mandatory pricing guidance for the Farmers Guaranteed Repair Program (GRP) on Tuesday. Driven Brands’ top price range for operations mirrors the prices GEICO set in place with its asTech agreement. 

During a Senate hearing in Montana this spring, John MacDonald, representing Auto Innovators, said that the organization sees OEM repair procedures as a serious public policy issue. 

“Today’s vehicles are considerably more advanced than even vehicles a few years ago,” MacDonald said. “Features including things like automotive lane centering, adaptive cruise control, pedestrian detection and avoidance, and dozens of other — what we call ADAS, or advanced driver assistance systems — are standard in a lot of vehicles.” 

Proper procedures are in place to fix ADAS systems, MacDonald said. He said these procedures are provided to repair shops by automakers. 

“We firmly believe that the OEM procedures should guide the work that’s done,” MacDonald said.

Greg Van Horssen, a State Farm representative, argued that he supports following specific technical procedures but not position statements or general checklists or safety inspection checklists because they are general. 

“They are in the manufacturer’s book,” Van Horssen said. “These are not repair procedures. They are suggestions, and we think this bill would require us to follow that, and we believe that it would result in an astronomical increase to your insurance premiums.”

Yet, position statements and safety inspections are not presented by automakers as suggestions. 

Last month, Hyundai updated its position statement from “reccomended” to “requires” pre-repair scans and post-repair scans on vehicles equipped with electronic components and systems following a collision. 

“Hyundai Motor America requires a pre-repair scan to ensure safe and accurate repairs and also a post-repair scan to ensure all systems and components are functioning, calibrated and communicating properly with NO diagnostic trouble codes present,” the new position statement says.

The statement highlights the exact method that automakers provide independent automotive businesses with information on how to identify the functionality in question, by performing a pre-repair scan and a post-repair scan so that the automative business is aware of any diagnostic trouble codes that may be present, regardless if a warning light or malfunction indicator light is illuminated.

Michael Bradshaw, vice president of K&M Collision in North Carolina, said it takes skilled technicians to identify the systems that could be impacted by a collision and the scope of repairs that are needed. 

“That becomes critical because we have all the OEM information,” Bradshaw said. “You have to be able to access and read and understand that, and then determine the applicable options on that vehicle you are working on. Identification is one of the most important parts. If you don’t identify the need, they are never going to get performed.” 

Safety inspections on many vehicles are time-consuming and meticulous, he said. 

“We are going through this checklist to ensure none of those safety systems were affected by that collision that just happened in order to make sure there is a great deal of confidence that they will function effectively, if there is another collision after this event,” Bradshaw said. 

Collision repair facilities also need to ensure they have the correct space and tools to complete calibrations, Bradshaw said. He said the space has to be a controlled environment that meets whatever the manufacturer’s requirements are. 

Bradshaw said occupant safety can be impacted if safety inspections and procedures are skipped. He said if skipped, damaged components such as air bags could be missed and won’t work properly if the vehicle is in another collision later. 

Consumers also become dependent on ADAS features working properly, such as lane assist and blind spot detection, he said. If not operating in a way that is expected, it could lead to a crash, he said. 

Emergency braking sensors not calibrated correctly could also apply brakes when it is not supposed to and cause a rear-end crash, he said. 

“From a standpoint of the safety inspections, I think that is one of the most important things that shops should be doing and should be aware of, but I have a lot of concern that many shops miss,” Bradshaw said.

He said safety inspections should not be negotiated and should follow OEM procedures.

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Rep. Diana Harshbarger (R-Tennessee) asks auto makers about the lifetime safety of ADAS features during a hearing June 26/screenshot.