Company modernizes collision repair recalibration process

Nikhil Naikal and Sander Marques, two of the co-founders of Kinetic, were working at a lidar maker when they had an epiphany: Cars were becoming a lot more digitized with the installation of sensors. And those sensors don't fare well in accidents.

"The sensors got jostled. They need to be reset; they need to be recalibrated," Naikal said. "The vehicle doesn't know how to recalibrate itself."

But the traditional aftermarket recalibration method was low-tech and unreliable. Their insight: Technology was needed to bridge the gap between the structured world of the factory where sensors are installed and the unstructured aftermarket repair world.

The two thought about how to solve the problem by leveraging artificial intelligence and automation first.

The startup, which launched in June 2021, offers precision digital sensor recalibration for advanced driver-assistance systems. Using off-the-shelf robots and calibration targets combined with Kinetic-designed mounts and software, sensors used in adaptive cruise control, blind-spot monitoring and other functions can be calibrated.

CEO Naikal, who was in a similar role at a company that provided high-definition, machine-readable maps eventually bought by Velodyne Lidar, called the current recalibration process "kind of stuck in the stone ages."

It is often done with a handful of tools including a tape measure, a laser and a plumb bob. The process takes up to two hours and can cost more than $600.

The traditional method also is prone to human error, said James Lenehan, general manager of Chapman Collision in Las Vegas, part of Chapman Automotive Group.

The collision center began using Kinetic for recalibration in January. Kinetic's technology "sold itself," Lenehan said.

Before the center began using Kinetic's system, a certified repair company would come to Chapman for recalibration.

"They would do it the old-school way," Lenehan said.

Kinetic picks up vehicles needing recalibration, transports them to its site in Las Vegas, does the work and then returns them to the collision center. It costs $495 for most vehicles and takes about an hour including transportation, Lenehan said.

Not only is Kinetic competitively priced, the process is very accurate, he said.

"For me, as a general manager just to have that peace of mind that my team is getting 100 percent calibration with the documentation to support it with the insurance company" is great, Lenehan said.

Lenehan has been in the collision repair business for 25 years. He said he saw the number of sensors in vehicles really start ramping up in 2019 as the number of driver-assist features in all kinds of vehicles increased.

"What used to be a case-by-case basis now is every car," he said. "Some may be more in-depth, but if you are working on a car in this day and age, you better believe you will be dealing with recalibration."

The growth in the number of sensors is being driven by demand for safety features and by government regulation, said Jeremy Carlson, associate director, autonomy at S&P Global Mobility.

S&P Global Mobility estimated 67 percent of vehicles worldwide in 2023 had some advanced driver-assist sensors involved in Level 0 to Level 2 automation, including front-view camera or front radar. That is forecast to shrink to 54 percent by 2030, as demand in more advanced levels grows. What is called Level 2-plus to Level 4 autonomy is forecast to rise from representing 5 percent of vehicles in 2023 to 29 percent worldwide by 2030.

"With L2-plus and L3, we start to see a noteworthy increase in the number of sensors," Carlson said.

That trend led seed-stage mobility investment firm Automotive Ventures to invest in Kinetic last year, firm general partner Steve Greenfield said.

Not only were cars going to get more sophisticated, but people in those vehicles wanted to be safe; therefore, calibrating the sensors was going to be a business, Greenfield realized.

"I was adamant I wanted to participate in ADAS calibration," he said.

His fund has close ties to dealership groups, and Greenfield thinks they will be "ideally positioned" to make money off recalibration.

"I think ADAS calibration is a sweet spot for dealers," he said.

The predictable growth was one reason Essentia Ventures invested $2.5 million in Kinetic in February 2022, said Marco Marinucci, co-founder and partner in the early-stage investment firm in the San Francisco area. In October 2023, Kinetic announced its Series A funding of $10 million.

Marinucci said just considering the millions of windshields replaced annually in the U.S. and how many of those contained sensors gave him an idea of the market for Kinetic's system.

"I have been in automotive for 13 to 14 years, and I wasn't aware of how big a problem it is to do calibrations manually," he said.

Kinetic has around 100 customers now, mostly collision centers. It has three "Kinetic hubs" doing repairs in Santa Ana and San Bernardino in California, and Las Vegas. They perform hundreds of calibrations monthly, "soon to be thousands," Naikal said. More hubs are coming soon, said Courtney Walters, Kinetic's business development manager.

Kinetic will expand into more warm-weather states next winter, Naikal said, but the entire U.S. is a potential market. It takes about three weeks to build out a hub, and each one needs 40 to 50 customers to create the volume to justify full utilization. Kinetic is open to colocate a hub with a partner, Naikal said. It aims for the individual hubs to be profitable rather than the entire company.

"The hubs become cash-flow positive very quickly," he said.

Besides dealerships and collision centers, insurance companies are a promising customer growth area, Marinucci said.

"Insurance will jump on board as soon as there is traction," he said.

As levels of autonomy rise in vehicles, the demand for recalibration will rise quickly, Marinucci said.

"Once the [auto manufacturers] get to Level 3 [autonomy], it becomes a liability question," he said. "You are much better off if you can prove it was robotically calibrated."

Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct Kinetic's founding date.