Big break: Integrating Fyusion with Cox Automotive and scaling its vehicle imaging technologies within a larger company

The COVID-19 pandemic opened the floodgates for wider adoption of newer, faster processes in the automotive industry, especially those requiring the use of a computer. To Radu Rusu, that’s when innovative technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence got a greater chance to shine.

Before the pandemic, there was a “push-pull” to get folks in the industry to realize the value of AI-based and computer-powered technologies, said Rusu, the CEO of Fyusion, a computer vision company that develops innovative ways to image vehicles. 

Rusu, whose fascination with machine learning is 20 years strong, now believes the industry is realizing that applying AI technologies can revolutionize its processes. 

“The sense of urgency really kind of grew, and that made it easier for us to have conversations — not just with wholesale — I think in general,” Rusu said. “What we focused on is, ‘Let’s just make it real. Let’s just make it work, just like a robot, just like the other things we spent our careers building, get the real benefit for the customer.’ ”

He co-founded Fyusion in 2014. The startup originated from a desire to evolve from 2D data, such as photographs and videos. Capturing 3D images and using an AI platform to analyze them became Fyusion’s forte.

That caught the eye of auction giant Manheim. In 2018, the two companies started working together on how to enhance the process in which dealers list vehicles for wholesale — for instance, taking movable and 360-degree images to lend buyers at auction more insight into the vehicles’ conditions.

Cox Automotive acquired Fyusion in December 2020. At first, Rusu was anxious. He wondered whether Fyusion’s startup culture and smaller, nimble team of roughly 60 employees at the time would mesh well with the dynamic of Cox Automotive, a more complex organization. 

Twenty months later, Rusu believes it did. 

Cox “got to see, ‘Oh, wow, this investment, this acquisition, it really pans out.’ These guys are really good at what they do,” Rusu said.

Manheim is in the process of rolling out another of Fyusion’s projects: AI-driven fixed imaging gantries. Part drive-through, part photo booth, the gantries take high-resolution pictures of vehicles from multiple angles. What is captured is essentially a “digital twin” of a vehicle — a full-blown 3D model that can be scrutinized for such issues as body damage, Rusu said. 

“You achieve [impact] by having your technology, your capability, your product be deployed in as many locations as possible,” Rusu said. “It’s almost like a positive infection. That’s phenomenal when you are part of a company like Cox Automotive because those tentacles are there — we can reach so many different people.”

— C.J. Moore