Both the Collision Industry Conference and the Society of Collision Repair Specialists announced efforts in April aimed at closing gaps in how ADAS work is understood, performed, and represented across the industry.
CIC Forms ADAS Task Force
Dan Risley, chairman of the Collision Industry Conference (CIC), announced the formation of a new task force centered around the risks and impacts to consumers relative to ADAS work in the collision industry.
“Today, as we’re all in this room, there’s thousands of cars in shops incorrectly calibrated or ADAS work that’s not done,” industry consultant Sean Carey, who will chair the 11-member task force, said at CIC in Charlotte in April. “It’s not good. We owe it to the consumer to get this right. And no matter what segment of the industry you are in — supply chain, repairer, information provider — it doesn’t matter. We have to combine our strengths and our knowledge and our experience, and bring more information to the marketplace. That in general terms is what the task force is about.”
Carey said the task force was “being convened to advocate on behalf of the consumer, identify the gaps and challenges related to ADAS, and provide awareness and understanding to the CIC body on possible solutions or workload recommendations of to do.”
“It’s our belief that without an industry-wide knowledge definition, critical safety procedures are inconsistently executed and not independently verifiable, creating preventable risk, cars leaving the shop every single day incorrectly repaired,” Carey said.
He went on to say that this initiative exists to establish and clearly define the problem statement, and provide recommendations on potential solutions for the industry to adapt safe and accurateADAS repairs and recalibrations.
Sean Carey will chair a new CIC task force focused on helping ensure risks for consumers related to ADAS are adequately addressed within the industry.“Pretty simple, pretty straightforward, but an enormous task. It is a cluster out there at the moment,” he said.
Carey said at the July CIC, the task force planned to present the “problem statement” the task force has identified, and bring forward potential solution work product by CIC in Las Vegas in November. The task force is slated to conclude with a presentation on its findings at CIC in January.
Carey said the challenge is there are a thousand cars today, and there’ll be a thousand cars tomorrow and a thousand cars the next day, leaving shops that won’t have proper recalibrations.
“It’s changing all the time. The technology is so dynamic from the OEMs, and we want to try to resolve that,” he said.
Risley said in addition to Carey, the task force is comprised of five past CIC chairman, including consultant Lou DiLisio who will co-chair with Carey, and five current CIC committee chairs. While the task force is a closed group, Risley said, industry input is welcomed and can be contributed through a form on the CIC website.
“They’ve got their work cut out for them, but I’m really looking forward to what that output looks like,” Risley said. “Again, it’s all focused on what’s best for the consumer. We are not creating standards. This is not a standard-setting entity. CIC does not do that. We want to raise up what the issue is. They're going to develop that problem statement, as Sean said, come up with possible solutions, what they might look like, and work products that could come of it, but we're not creating or defining what a standard looks like.”
SCRS Launches Council for ADAS Professionals
The other industry initiative related to ADAS was discussed by Aaron Schulenburg of the Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS) at its open board meeting in April. Schulenburg began by talking about how proud he is of the degree to which SCRS has built a “community” for collision repairers.
“It’s all these people who really believe in the same thing and want the same outcome,” Schulenburg said of the association. “They may get there in different ways. They may find different models and opportunities. But they believe in something better for this industry. They believe in lifting other people up. They believe in supporting each other.”
He said the ADAS segment of the industry has grown as “a natural extension of the work that’s done in collision repair.”
While ADAS professionals and collision repairers work hand in hand and face many of the same challenges, Schulenburg noted they are not necessarily the same professionals — and that collision repairers are often customers of ADAS businesses. He said SCRS has seen significant membership growth from ADAS specialists, and the association recognized those members needed something more.
"They deserve their own voice," he said. "They deserve some opportunity to shape the messaging that surrounds their industry and their challenges. A group that shows up for them, that they can count on, that they can lean into, and a community that's built so they can surround themselves with their peers. And that's something that SCRS is working on."
He said SCRS has developed a council that will work within SCRS to do just that, to be a separate voice that will reflect those businesses.
“I think we’re all really excited about this ability, this opportunity, to expand, to find ways to represent more of those voices that we think are important,” Schulenburg said.
John Yoswick