Auto Care ON AIR

AAPEX 2025 Open Mic Sessions, Part 1

• Auto Care Association • Season 1 • Episode 80

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What if warranty approvals took hours instead of days, your bay handled most ADAS calibrations without a remodel, and market chaos actually expanded your margins? From the AAPEX show floor, Auto Care ON AIR hosts sit down with three leaders who are reshaping how shops work, sell, and keep drivers safe.

First, Jill Trotta explains how OneGuard’s priority virtual inspections place an ASE Master Tech on a live call to verify VINs, document failures, and move extended-warranty approvals fast, without pulling cars off the rack. She opens the lens on coverage realities, why shops get stuck delivering “not covered” news, and how smarter fraud prevention (image-matching, location checks, VIN verification) protects everyone while cutting wasted time.

Next, Rob Blitzstein shares why he launched True North Automotive Aftermarket Consulting to serve Canada right now. We dig into tariffs that won’t sit still, consolidation that feels inevitable, and the logistics puzzle of a California-sized car park spread across a continent. Rob lays out how AI-driven inventory, collaborative freight, and market-acceptable pricing can turn uncertainty into opportunity, and why “people, service, availability” still wins even as playbooks change.

Finally, Steve Dawson of Hunter Engineering demystifies ADAS. We break down dynamic vs static calibration, the costly myths about space, and the real triggers you might be missing... like condensers, grilles, or even certain headlamp jobs that require recalibration. Steve’s core message: most shops already own half the tools they need. With training, clear op codes for billing resets and calibrations, and procedures-first habits, you can reduce comebacks, prevent phantom braking and lane-keep confusion, and keep customers safer on the road.

If this helped you rethink warranties, ADAS, or your Canada strategy, follow the show, share it with a shop owner who needs it, and leave a quick review so more pros can find these insights.

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To learn more about the Auto Care Association visit autocare.org.

To learn more about our show and suggest future topics and guests, visit autocare.org/podcast


Mike Chung:

Well, hello and welcome to another edition of our Apex Auto Care on Air Open Mic sessions. We are live in Las Vegas. I am Mike Chung, and I have the distinct pleasure of having Jill Trata of Reparify on our program today. Jill, welcome.

Jill Trotta:

It's so good to be here, and it's so good to be at Apex. I'm just like vibrating with excitement.

Mike Chung:

Well, thanks for taking the time. It's always a pleasure to see you. So tell us a little bit about yourself. Tell us about Reparify, your role there.

Jill Trotta:

Yeah. So about eight months ago, I joined Reperify. And Reparify is a company I've watched for a really long time and really like some of the things that they're doing. And a friend of mine went there, and I was able to get a position. I started there about eight months ago as the head of sales for OneGuard Inspections and was recently promoted to managing director of OneGuard Inspections.

Mike Chung:

Congratulations.

Jill Trotta:

Yeah. And um OneGuard Inspections does they're the third-party inspection company between the shop, an independent repair shop or any repair shop really, and the third-party administrator for extended warranties. Okay. And given my background as a technician and as a service writer, this is an area that's really near and dear to me because extended warranties are thought of as so bad in the industry. And the shops don't want to work for them. But you know, it's really a necessary evil. It provides people with a way to pay for these repairs when they normally wouldn't be able to. And I see it as like a challenge to come in and apply different technologies to that space that makes it easier for shop owners. You know, my whole goal in my career is to make the lives of shop owners and technicians better. Being a technician, being a shop owner, that's something that I take very seriously and is important to me. And, you know, with RepairPal, we did that. And we worked with a lot of the extended warranty companies in that space. So this is kind of a natural extension of that. Being the the inspection company that goes out and helps make the decision, you know, access that third-party liaison and gives the information, you know, is the is the glue between the extended warranty company and the shop.

Mike Chung:

Sure.

Jill Trotta:

Yeah.

Mike Chung:

So tell me a little bit more about extended warranties. I mean, I'm putting my consumer hat on and I'm thinking about I purchase a vehicle new or use. I might be offered an extended warranty. Is that for a particular part category? Is it for the entire car? Can you just give us a little 101? Yeah.

Jill Trotta:

Yeah. Most of them cover like holistically most of the components in a car. It's important to read those policies to make sure that you're getting the right coverage.

Mike Chung:

So what are some of the things that might be covered? Is it like tires?

Jill Trotta:

Usually you could buy tire policies, but usually like water pumps, like your transmission, your engine, the electrical components in the car. So the shop does the diagnosis, then they call the extended warranty company to get the approval. Oftentimes the extended warranty company wants to send out an inspector to inspect. Um, just like if your a tree fell on your house, they would send out an inspector to inspect that.

Mike Chung:

Or if you get an offender bunder, you have an adjuster come.

Jill Trotta:

And the pain point, there's a couple pain points for shop owners, but one of the main things is that inspector has to come out in person. So they've got the car on the rack, they've got the technician time allocated, and now they have to wait.

Mike Chung:

Sure. And lost bait.

Jill Trotta:

One of my things, and one guard was doing this before I came, and we're gonna roll really hard at this next year, is innovation. So we have what's called a priority inspection, and that is a virtual inspection with an ASC certified master technician on the other end.

Mike Chung:

Okay.

Jill Trotta:

So the technician can hit a link, the inspector pops on, they walk, they take the bin, they take the dash, and then they walk through what the repair is virtually. Okay. So that way the car never has to leave the rack and they can get approval within hours instead of within days.

Mike Chung:

That's significant.

Jill Trotta:

Which is significant for the shop owners. Now, shop ownership And the young customer. And the customer, customer satisfaction, and the technician, because they're not wasting their time pulling the car on the rack, putting the car back on the rack and waiting. There's not a lot of waiting, which hopefully should solve one of the pain points in that area. And if I could help to do that with bringing technology to this space, that's what I want to do.

Mike Chung:

So you mentioned pain points and certainly the things you highlighted, the time, the trouble, the coordination, the length of time. What other pain points, what other hurdles are there with extended warranties?

Jill Trotta:

You know, sometimes there's about coverage issues, things aren't covered, consequential damage, and then the shop has to tell the consumer, not covered. And a lot of times, unfortunately, the shop takes the brunt of that rather than the actual extended warranty company.

Mike Chung:

Interesting. And if if I'm the consumer, is it a one-time payment for the warranty, or is it kind of like a policy I might make a monthly payment on?

Jill Trotta:

It could be either. A lot of them you buy them and they're baked into your car loan.

Mike Chung:

Okay.

Jill Trotta:

There's also some like direct-to-consumer products now where you can go on before your warranty expires or even after your warranty expires and buy a policy to cover your car. With how technologically advanced cars are now and the amount if like a computer component goes out if your your uh ECU goes out, that can be really expensive. Oh, yeah. So having an extended warranty from a consumer standpoint could be important, especially if you don't have, you know, they say the average consumer doesn't have a ha the resources to cover $500. Right. You know, when you're talking about your average auto repair is upwards of four hundred dollars. Sure. And then it that and that's just like basic maintenance and repair, you're talking about thousands of dollars for some repairs.

Mike Chung:

The things you mentioned, uh water pumps, engine, those could be thousand dollars plus easily. And so is there a deductible that's usually inductible.

Jill Trotta:

Okay.

Mike Chung:

And then uh does another issue come into play of what the condition of that particular part or the vehicle is and um before or after some sort of incident from an inspection perspective?

Jill Trotta:

From from an inspection perspective, um it doesn't it's it's what's on the car at that time. And the inspector goes out and make sure like if it's a water pump leaking, they can say it's a dripping, it's seeping, or it's completely blown out and water just drains out. So being able to provide the severity of the repair to the extended warranty, and and you go from there.

Mike Chung:

I see.

Jill Trotta:

And then the extended warranty company ultimately makes the decision. I see at one guard, we just give the what is going on with this vehicle. What do we see? What what can we hear? What can we smell? What can we touch?

Mike Chung:

Sure. And you mentioned the virtual technology of getting a master certified technician on the other end to diagnose quickly. Um, what else is in the pipeline for for the future for improving the technologies? Or um I think you had mentioned even blending artificial intelligence. Can you tell us a little bit more of like what's in the pipeline?

Jill Trotta:

Yeah, you know, we have some uh features built into our priority right now, but you know, think about one of the big things in the expendant warranty area that is widely talked about is fraud. And this is why they use the the uh companies like OneGuard is to prevent that fraud from happening, going out and basically seeing it. So think about other fraud protection that we could build in. Say, like we could tell if the the person holding the camera moves more than a certain feet away from the car. So we know are they going to another car?

Mike Chung:

Um because you mentioned the VIN number verification.

Jill Trotta:

Yeah, VIN verification, dash verification, and then you know, potentially if there was a Ford Explorer, they could have another one next to it.

Mike Chung:

Interesting, yeah.

Jill Trotta:

Being able to have fraud protection built in for that, being able to tell like if they've seen these pictures before, have these pictures shown up in databases before, things like that. But mostly just like creating a space where the expanded warranty companies feel comfortable giving the shop the approval to do the repair. And that's good for the shop, it's good for the consumer, it's good for the extended warranty company. Nobody has to waste a ton of time. Right. Because if you're sitting in Missoula, Montana, and your vehicle's broke down and they have to send out an inspector, the chances of somebody's gonna have an inspector ready to go within 24 hours is gonna be slim there.

Mike Chung:

Sure.

Jill Trotta:

So using these kind of products and being able to move to a more virtual um environment. Yeah, it's a much more efficient. It's beneficial for everybody. You know, it's not widely adopted right now, and there's a lot of hesitation about it, but it is the way of the future.

Mike Chung:

Oh, thanks for sharing that. And the fraud component is very it's a very serious consequence, and I'm glad that's being thought of because you know, when we think about a solution, what are the unintended consequences? Being able to build and guard against that is so critical.

Jill Trotta:

Yeah, absolutely.

Mike Chung:

So I've learned so much talking with you, Jill. Is there anything else regarding extended warranty companies and what your programs are looking to achieve that's worth mentioning?

Jill Trotta:

Yeah, we're just looking to expand our footprint. We work with most of the major extended warranty companies and third-party administrators right now. And we're just looking to bring on more and be able to share this technology because um there are companies out there offering things where you uh products that you take pictures with, but nobody has an actual inspector on the other end.

Mike Chung:

Sure.

Jill Trotta:

Yeah.

Mike Chung:

Okay, so here we are at Apex. You've been coming to Apex for a number of years, right?

Jill Trotta:

Oh my gosh. I think this is like my fifteenth or sixth. 15th or 15th. You're a pro. Oh my goodness.

Mike Chung:

So tell me about your experiences here. Have you seen the grow the show evolve? What are some of the your goals here?

Jill Trotta:

Yeah, you know, one of the biggest things that is just blowing my mind right now is I just came from the Women in Auto Care breakfast.

Mike Chung:

Okay.

Jill Trotta:

Four years ago, that breakfast was 40 women stuffed into buddy bees on the last day.

Mike Chung:

Okay.

Jill Trotta:

And to walk into that room and there's 425 women.

Mike Chung:

That's more than 10 to tenfold.

Jill Trotta:

Yeah. My first women in autocare conference was in um Charleston, South Carolina. I believe 2014, there were 40 women.

Mike Chung:

Wow. How much things have changed. I mean amazing.

Jill Trotta:

It just blows me away. And one of the things I was just talking to Stacey about is my job right now is very travel heavy. Sure. And that can be very depleting. And we recently just had the legislative event.

Mike Chung:

Okay.

Jill Trotta:

And in terms of like work, that is optional. And I was literally sitting there right before going to get on the plane going, Am I really gonna go? Because I am so tired. Sure. But what I forgot. And I don't think I'll forget this again. Is these events put on by the Auto Care Association and Women in Auto Care fill my bucket. They do not take from my bucket.

Mike Chung:

Very energized.

Jill Trotta:

Everybody here puts something into my bucket. And I believe feeling like on a high and ready to like, okay, I can continue.

Mike Chung:

That's so that's so encouraging to hear.

Jill Trotta:

Yeah, and that's a testament to all of you guys. Like, you guys have done such a good job over the years.

Mike Chung:

Well, I wish I could take credit, but you mentioned Stacey, our head of communications. She and so many other uh the leadership are so dedicated to expanding our community, expanding women in autocare. So really thank you for those great words. And I think as we wrap up, you know, on a personal note, some favorite vacation spots, favorite spots in Vegas, least favorite spots in Vegas.

Jill Trotta:

You know, my favorite place in the whole world is on the island of Kona. There's a um a snorkeling spot called Two Step. Okay. And it is like jumping into an aquarium. Oh it's the most magical place on earth, I feel like.

Mike Chung:

Do you have plans to visit again?

Jill Trotta:

Yes. One we have plans for um March, and you know, it's been kind of crazy with travel and things, and I I really want to go before then, even if I live on the West Coast, so Hawaii is like a three-hour or four-hour jump. Sure. So um I would love to go in December sometimes. I don't know if I'll be able to make that happen.

Mike Chung:

Okay, well, fingers crossed you'll be able to get there again soon. And it was Kona. What was it the name of the It's called Two Step. Two-step. Wonderful. Well, we're here with Jill Trata of Reparify. We've learned so much about extended warranties and what is extended warranty companies and the solutions your company's providing to make an efficient solution that is more beneficial for the shops as well as the end consumer. So thank you so much for joining us, Jill, and to all of our listeners. We hope you have a great day.

Stacey Miller:

Thanks for having me.

Mike Chung:

Absolutely.

Stacey Miller:

All right. Welcome back to Open Mic. We are at Apex 2025, and I have with me Rob Blitztein.

Rob Blitzstein:

Happy to be here.

Stacey Miller:

Welcome back. You are back on the show, but you are back in a new role, and that is as the founder of True North Automotive Aftermarket Consulting.

Rob Blitzstein:

A company that is three weeks old and launching basically at Apex.

Stacey Miller:

That's incredible. Congratulations on your new launch.

Rob Blitzstein:

Thank you.

Stacey Miller:

So tell me a little bit about what you're doing.

Rob Blitzstein:

Uh, well, so True North is an idea that I had kind of overnight and a few weeks ago, uh, mostly because I was taking some time off and uh got bored pretty quickly. Uh bought a fish tank and started a garden, and then my wife told me I had to go do something else. Typical midlife crises. Yeah, I had a couple of them at once, I think. So uh true north. The idea behind True North is to take my lifetime of knowledge, really four generations of knowledge that I have, and uh bring it to the north and see if I can uh help the proud people of Canada expand their margins, grow their businesses in a healthy and sustainable way.

Stacey Miller:

I love that. So you went across the border.

Rob Blitzstein:

Across the border. Uh Canada is such an interesting market to me because um from what I'm learning, and I have a lot to learn, and I'm not making any assumptions, but from what I've learned, it's very similar to the United States, but a couple of decades ago, where we slat price sheets and a lot of jobbers, and before the major roll-ups really started to happen in the United States. So uh that is really my forte. It's what I'm most familiar with, that style of business. Um, and uh, I'm pretty excited to get to learn the culture and the areas and the businesses up there, make new friends, new network, new partners. And that's really what this week is for me uh growing my network.

Stacey Miller:

That's great. So uh the Canadian market is interesting, obviously. There's there's some geopolitics involved that are going on right now. We're not gonna get into all that, but I had a little note here that said something about chaos breeding opportunity. And I love that you wrote that. I think it's a perfect explanation for one, like how you operate and why we should operate in these fields. Um, but tell me a little bit about why you think that.

Rob Blitzstein:

Well, I couldn't get to the second page of the form without filling that in. No, I'm teasing. So I I really do believe that in life in general, and you see that often, and right now the automotive aftermarket is in a very interesting crossroads. Like you mentioned, the geopolitics. I'm not into politics, but they definitely do affect us. Uh the tariff game is very challenging to A, understand and B, maintain it within your company. And what makes it even more challenging is it keeps changing. Once you think you have it under control, you wake up and there's new news about tariff went up or down. I mean, you never know what's gonna happen. And that's this administration. So the next administration that comes in, who knows what's gonna happen. Um so that's that is to me creating a lot of opportunities in Canada. Um, and I think the Canadian companies are gonna learn that they're much more powerful uh than they may have expected, and the manufacturing community is gonna have to figure out how to service Canada, which is you know a huge piece of land uh and not easy to navigate, and it's gonna be their job to figure that out, and we're gonna put some of the responsibility in their court.

Stacey Miller:

Yeah. And you have you have a lot of experience and supply chain with your former employer, and I think to me, obviously there's a lot of confusion with tariffs like you were saying. We don't know if they're going up, they're going down, they're changing by the minute. Um, so the challenge is staying informed. However, one of the things that I think about when I think about tariffs is like, okay, how do you turn a challenge into an opportunity? That's like what the aftermarket always does, right? Yeah. And I think a lot of it is being creative with supply chain, right?

Rob Blitzstein:

That's so fun. Yeah. So I think that I think you're hitting the nail on the head and uh and going right back to chaos breeding opportunity. Uh, I don't want to get too far into some of my ideas because uh you know, I don't want to give it all away. But I think that there's a lot of opportunities to really bring the vendor and manufacturing community together to figure out how to navigate the size of the land and the cost of the parts because it's so big in Canada. They basically have you know the population both of people in car park of California, but it's spread over the whole country of Canada, which is huge. So um there's ways that I think I see where the manufacturing community can kind of come together to support the Canadian aftermarket. And that's gonna be interesting because right now the parts are coming into America, we're being tariffed at whatever rate it is that day, and then we're shipping it up to Canada, and the Canadian companies are having to feel the effect of the American tariff.

Steve Dawson:

Right.

Rob Blitzstein:

And I think that there's gonna be some ways around that, which is only gonna bring uh savings to the Canadian aftermarket and create some more efficiencies and opportunities to expand margins, and that's really what I'm focused on.

Stacey Miller:

That's really that's really encouraging because you know, I think about the aftermarket, I think about logistics and efficiency. Like we're all about creating efficiency. And the example that my CEO always talks about, Bill Hanby, is what other industry, you know, you take your car into the shop, uh, they diagnose your car, you know, within the hour, they go and they order a part, Java drops your part off, the car is repaired in the next hour, and then you're on the road the same day, right? Like those logistics.

Rob Blitzstein:

But how much happened in what you just said, right? I mean, think about it, right? So a c a a customer pulled into a garage, explained to the mechanic what was going on. The mechanic diagnosed the car, called the auto parts store, a counterman picked up the phone, looked up the parts on the counter, printed out a ticket, somebody pulled that off the shelf, put it on a delivery counter, a dispatcher gave it to a driver, the driver delivered it to the garage, maybe picked up some returns or a check along the way, got back in his car, drove back to the store, then the job gets done, and the customer picks up the car and they think, oh, that was easy. Yeah. But wow, what a process that you know happens behind the scenes that the general public, we take for granted being industry people, but the general public doesn't get to see that part. And there's you're a hundred percent right. There's a lot of moving parts. And if you don't manage all that correctly, two things are gonna happen. You're gonna have poor service and you're gonna lose money. And uh that's what we want to avoid.

Stacey Miller:

Do you think that there's a way to leverage all that's going on with AI to be creative with the supply chain or some of these some of these places where there could be more efficiencies?

Rob Blitzstein:

Yeah, and I think that's gonna come down to getting smarter about what you need on your shelf and how much of it you need. And I think that's where AI will be able to interpret the data that we already have in a way that is probably more complex than a human's able to figure out on their own. Um, and there's a lot of companies in the space that recognize this. So it's gonna be interesting to find out who the real players emerge to be and and how we connect them to the to the market, whether it's the United States or Canada or Mexico or Europe. I mean, you know, we're all facing the same challenges, just kind of speaking different languages and maybe a little bit of a different car park, but it's all the same. We're selling auto parts, and what are we supposed to have? What parts are gonna fail next? You got you know, the the age of the car park is is growing, which is fantastic for our industry. Um, but with that, you need to keep up with your what's on your shelf and your model.

Stacey Miller:

That's right. Um, you know, we're talking about tariffs a little bit, and obviously it's disappointing because we want, you know, Canada and Mexico to be our allies, like let's have the free flow of parts and and have that trade that's so important to us. Um, but you know, aside from tariffs, I think you mentioned it early on earlier on, and that is consolidation is a big thing that's happening in the industry, and you're still learning, I know, but do you have any perspective on there's a lot of consolidation happening in the US? Do you do you see the same thing kind of happening in Canada as well?

Rob Blitzstein:

Uh yeah, I'm just kind of starting to learn the market up in Canada. Uh, what I've learned so far is that you have some major WDs and they're pretty impressive as they are. Uh, and then there's, again, from my understanding, thousands of independent jobbers spread out across the huge land of Canada. So um at some point, I would imagine that that start uh those smaller one, two-store, three-store jobbers are gonna need exit strategies. And when that time starts to come, whether they have a secession plan or not, uh, that's where you're gonna see either the bigger WDs start to buy them up or some private equities starting to fund some roll-ups, and you know, they'll have their own managing partners and such for the portfolio. So I do see that. I don't know when, but it's almost you have to think it's almost you know, uh not just a probability, but uh a matter of time, I would think. So um, but we'll be paying attention for that as it as it grows.

Stacey Miller:

Yeah. Not not probable, but possible. Is that the right order?

Rob Blitzstein:

I always say not possible, but probable.

Stacey Miller:

Not possible or probable. All right, sorry.

Rob Blitzstein:

Uh maybe I had it right. I don't let's keep going.

Stacey Miller:

I think it's so interesting to see what's happening in the US market in terms of consolidation. Um, I've only been in the aftermarket about eight years now. I came from like 10, 12 years in another industry, but it's kind of like the same thing happens, and you can learn from history and research. And that is that small companies get bigger, they combine, big companies buy them, and then after some time, maybe they fragment and they split out again and they spin off. Yeah, and then they combine again and then they get bigger, and it's just like this cycle. So I think it one, it happens in every industry and it happens in every country, and it's one of those things that's inevitable. It will always happen. Yeah. So understanding when and where it's gonna happen and how that's gonna benefit your business and how you can strategize to either be a part of that or not sounds like perhaps something that True North could help with.

Rob Blitzstein:

It's the it's the new dream. You know, build it and sell it seems to be the the model. Um, and you can do the our business is so great for that. You're it's it's really anybody can come in and learn the business, and there's so many resources and so many good people that can uh that can help along the way. And you know, it's not impossible, even in the United States uh or anywhere in the world, it's not impossible to start and build and sell. I think if you focus on what really matters, the business hasn't changed all that much over the years, and that's the people, the service, and the availability. And if you have all that going for you and you charge the right price, you don't have to be the cheapest guy, you don't want to be the most expensive guy, you just want to be the right price, you want to be market acceptable. Uh, it's a great business. And and it's so easy to build and sell. I so easy. There's a lot of work to do, you gotta work hard. Um, but it's possible. And and uh I think you're gonna you're gonna see a lot of that happening in Canada.

Stacey Miller:

That's amazing. I can't wait because after you, we're actually gonna have Adam Malik from Turnkey Media. He's gonna talk a little bit exactly about what's going on in the Canadian market, give us the latest stats. So it's gonna be a perfect follow-up to what you're doing.

Rob Blitzstein:

Adam's great people. I met with him this morning on his podcast, and we had a great conversation, and uh I'm very excited to get to know Adam more. I mean, he's such a cool guy. Um, and that's exactly what I'm talking about. There's so many good people, and you know, a guy like me who's been in the United States his whole life and and built a network and a career here uh to venture off into Canada is quite a challenge. And it's been very humbling to run into my own network here at Apex, and there's so many people that are willing to help, and they have contacts and friends and their own networks up in Canada. So um, you know, and Adam's just another one of those guys who's just a great dude, and I'm happy to call him a friend.

Stacey Miller:

He's killing it.

Rob Blitzstein:

He is.

Stacey Miller:

Is there anything else that we should have mentioned that we didn't hit?

Rob Blitzstein:

Um you could visit my website at www.tnc360.ca. If you hit dot com, it works too, but we want to go to.ca and um you can check out all the services that I'm offering. And I did bring with me a t-shirt for you.

Stacey Miller:

For me?

Rob Blitzstein:

Now, this is original first run print. Wow. This will never happen again.

Stacey Miller:

Oh my goodness.

Rob Blitzstein:

I happen to be wearing one myself, but this one's for you.

Stacey Miller:

Thank you so much. I will proudly, proudly wear this.

Rob Blitzstein:

I hope you wear it in your uh competition and we get some uh marketing out of it.

Stacey Miller:

We'll get some we'll get some marketing out of it. Thanks so much to my good friend Rob. Congratulations on your new venture. We're super proud of you and uh really excited to see what you do with it.

Rob Blitzstein:

I appreciate that. Congratulations to you and autocare and all the success that you guys have found. You're doing a really great job helping the industry, and I'm sure everybody appreciates you.

Stacey Miller:

Thank you. Couldn't do it without a fantastic team, all of which are hiding behind these cameras right now. Bye, everybody. Thank you all.

Rob Blitzstein:

Bye, everybody.

Stacey Miller:

Welcome to an autocare open mic. We are here at Apex 2025, and I'm here with Steve Dawson. Welcome, Steve. Thanks. Thanks for having me. Steve is the regional manager at Hunter Engineering, and today we want to talk a little bit about ADOS and how it impacts the repair industry. So, first of all, tell me a little bit about Hunter Engineering and what you guys do for our non-aftermarket listeners.

Steve Dawson:

Gotcha. So we're the the really the leader in wheel service equipment. So tire changers, balancers, aligners. Um, and now we've really delved heavily into the ADAS part of the business, so which ties very closely into the alignment of the vehicle so that we make sure that the alignment of the wheels are right and the alignment of the cameras are right as well.

Stacey Miller:

Mm-hmm. And what does ADOS stand for?

Steve Dawson:

So advanced driver assist systems, which is ironically something that's been in place since the 70s. We've had it as common things that are there to help the driver make it a little bit easier. And in the past, a lot of them were really just to make it so you didn't have to keep your foot on the gas pedal all the time and those kind of things where now we've taken it to the next level to help the car even be safer to operate. Oh my god, wait, analysis been around since the 70s? Yeah, so your cruise controls and your anti-lock braking systems that were in the late 70s and early 80s were the start of advanced driver assist systems so that you didn't have to pump the brakes when you'd come to an intersection and it was a little bit slippery and things. The the computers themselves calculated and and adjusted the brakes accordingly uh through the ABS pump. So it's all those kind of things. We've just continued to make it more and more advanced over time.

Stacey Miller:

Wow. I never considered those safety features to have been like ADOS so early. When I think ADOS, I'm like, oh, this is futuristic technology, like this kind of just came out in these brand new self-driving cars, but it exists in pretty much every car that's on the road today at this point, then, right? Yep, pretty much, yeah. Wow. So that makes it incredibly important for the service and repair industry.

Steve Dawson:

Absolutely. Absolutely. And really what's made it even more is that now we've added in so much technology that the cars can react to things without any driver input. Where before there is you still had to press on the brake pedal, you still had to, you know, turn on the cruise control and set it for a certain speed. Now, if the vehicle senses that something's in the road, it automatically applies to brakes, even if you're not touching a brake pedal.

Stacey Miller:

Yeah, I'm still getting used to those features uh in my vehicle, to be quite honest. Oh, I'm not used to like trying to change a lane and then it kind of gently touches, nudges me back over. So I think it's probably a common thing among among drivers, they really like these features because of the safety that it introduces, but it probably introduces um some really interesting use cases for repair and needing to train technicians properly on how to repair these ADOS enabled vehicles, right?

Steve Dawson:

Absolutely. That is uh, you know, if we're in a technician, uh technician in this space, we need to be constant learners because the vehicles are changing so rapidly, and there's a lot of key points that need to be done that we need to make sure are correct, otherwise, it can affect the driver. I I once had a customer in. That had uh replaced four tires and did an alignment on a vehicle. Customer came back multiple times with a vibration and they tried everything, rebalancing the tires and thought it was there was something wrong with it. And turns out when one of the technicians, after hours of diagnosis, was driving down the road and the steering wheel was vibrating like crazy and he hit the left directional and the vibration stopped. And it was because his eight-ass system was not calibrated correctly. So as he was driving straight down the road, the steering angle sensor and the calibration had not been redone. So the car actually thought it was driving off the road and telling him to get back in the lane. Oh my gosh. The technician spent hours of wasted time trying to diagnose something that if he had done all of the steps uh through the the alignment process, he would have been able to uh eliminate all of that as an issue.

Stacey Miller:

Wow. And so there was no indicator to that driver that something was wrong with the calibration system. It was just kind of like old school. You feel a vibration in the wheel, you think something's wrong, you take it to the to the um technician and and try to have them diagnose it. Yep. Wow.

Steve Dawson:

And the worst part is because they just did the tire changing and the alignment, the customer wasn't going to pay for all of that labor time and all of that additional service. So it was done on the back of the repair shop.

Stacey Miller:

Wow, that's a challenge.

Steve Dawson:

Yeah, there's many times where shops are costing themselves a lot of money because they're they're not following all of those steps and it requires some rework back after the fact.

Stacey Miller:

And all of those steps, they they differ across year, make and model, right? It's different for different cars. And tell me about those kind of challenges from a repair perspective.

Steve Dawson:

So the the space that's required, the procedure that's required is wildly different. So there's typically two types of calibration: a dynamic, which requires us to go drive the car, and then a static where we actually set a target at a known distance, a known height in front of the car, beside the car, whatever we're calibrating. The challenge with that is that it depends on what manufacturer you're with, depends on what manufacturer and if they're going by their global standards or their North American standards. There's a whole host of different things. And, you know, I'm from the DC area, and when you do a dynamic calibration, it can be very challenging to find the right road conditions to drive 25 to 45 miles an hour to allow the vehicle to go through its learn procedure where you're not having traffic stopping, or the roads don't have lines on them, or there's a whole host of issues.

Stacey Miller:

Wow.

Steve Dawson:

The other challenge with that is it rains and it snows. So those days we can't do some of those calibrations because the car can't get a reading as to what it is if the road is all wet or if there's snow built up on the side of the road. So with not having the standards and then some of the other atmospheric and situation challenges, it makes it tough for repair shops, but there's some solutions to try and make it a little bit easier for them.

Stacey Miller:

Let's let's talk about some of those solutions that may make it easier for repair shops. First, I definitely want to commend Hunter Engineering because I think you guys do a really good job of one, providing really great tools, but also you guys provide a lot of training for technicians as well to make sure that they're repairing vehicles safely. But uh, you said the word um the standards, which made me think about standardization and maybe standardizing the calibration of ADOS across vehicles. Is that a potential solution?

Steve Dawson:

It we would all probably love it because it would make it much easier to set a standard process, make it easier for the technician, reduce the learning curve. A lot of the technology that we've developed and others in the industry have done to eliminate some of that learning curve and make it as standard as possible, but it's still a challenge because do I need six feet? Do I need 12 feet? Do I need 16 feet? There's a lot of different variables that are in it. So that standardization would be great. The other part of that standardization is are we going to standardize when we do these calibrations? Are they getting done at a regular maintenance interval? Is there anything set out from, you know, if it's the OEM or from a maintenance council kind of thing that hey, this should be done at this time. Um there's also not a lot of research about when does it need to be done. Uh Shurion just recently put out white papers on uh a Nissan that was not in an accident just over a period of time. I think it was a 2018 Nissan. They ran a test um seven times with uh basically a mannequin going across the road like a pedestrian. And I think four of the seven times the car hit the pedestrian or hit that mannequin um it just from age. So we don't know if that is from you know the sagging of suspension and that the camera's not looking in the same place, or if it's that the sensors themselves actually have fade on them. So there really needs to be a little bit more research to be able to determine is where are we losing that effectiveness of those sensors? But if we lose it, it could be kind of you know catastrophic in results.

Stacey Miller:

Absolutely. I mean, I just learned something new because I thought that you only really needed to calibrate your sensors or go through any of these type of alignments after a collision. But it sounds like in the near future, perhaps there are maintenance intervals that you would do that as you would an oil change or your spark plugs or rotate your tires.

Steve Dawson:

It's very possible that that's where where we could end up. And the other side of that is a lot of the people in the industry feel the the same way about if my car's in a collision, I need to calibrate, but otherwise I don't. But in a lot of the cases in the repair industry, we do an AC condenser. So most of our parts suppliers will not warranty a new compressor unless we replace the the uh condenser in the front of the car, which usually requires removing the radar unit to be able to do that. Um, and in in almost every manufacturer, if that radar unit comes off, they want to recalibrate it. Because unlike an oxygen sensor that has several different inputs that the computer can analyze the results that are coming from that sensor and say, hey, there's a problem with this sensor. I need to turn on the check engine light. With an ADAS sensor, the computer can reach out to the sensor and say, Hey, are you there? And it says, Yep, I'm here, I'm I'm all good, but it doesn't know what it's looking at until we set that target at a known distance or a known setting, or we run it through a diagnos uh a dynamic calibration procedure where it's going through looking for certain things. And if it doesn't see, you know, if it's not seeing lines coming in a uniform direction and it's coming off at an angle, then it will fail calibration and lights will come on. But prior to that, we don't know any of that information. And there is so as we're doing a maintenance repair, we're doing something where we have to take the front end off the car or take the grill out of the car or those sort of things. There's plenty of opportunities for the maintenance side of the business to need this. And the challenge with it is most of our technicians they like to pop open a hood and look down and go, I got to take that 10 out, I got to take that 13 out, but they don't really go to the repair procedure. And I'm a guy, we don't go to the instructions very easily. So, but we need to be going to the repair procedures to look at it and say, hey, what is is a calibration required after I'm done with this? There's cars that if you replace the headlight bulb, it requires you to recalibrate the car. Yeah. Um, so there's a lot, a lot involved with it that that is today in many repair shops, and they're just not taking advantage of it. And and many of them have as much as 50% of their cars coming in the shop that they could probably do with the technology they have today. And then when it gets a little bit more advanced, then they need to, you know, have something like our equipment to be able to help them get through the rest of it.

Stacey Miller:

Well, that's great news because it seems like there's a really great opportunity for repair facilities to provide really good service to the customers by understanding the procedures that need to be done to get those vehicles back on the road and kind of like reduce driver confusion. Because I imagine for a driver, if I'm driving one day and my sensors are out of whack, they haven't been calibrated, or I'm in a collision and maybe they weren't um recalibrated and my car's doing something that I didn't expect it to do. Maybe it's stopping in the middle of the road, but it's not supposed to. Um like tell there's an opportunity there, I think, for technicians to understand what's happening and to be able to explain to their customers so that way they can provide the proper service, reduce that customer confusion on, oh, why do I need this extra part or why do I need this extra service? But use that information to get that consumer back on the road faster. Because not a lot of them may understand that there are these extra procedures that need to be done to keep their car operating as safely as possible.

Steve Dawson:

Yeah. And that's it. That when you go to the dealership, they do a great job explaining that this has got lane departure and lane keep and automatic braking and it's going to keep you safe. What they don't explain is that your alignment may be now two or three hundred dollars $125 because this calibration needs to be done. I like to say eight ass is a team sport. It requires everybody in the building to be involved with the process. So service riders need to be able to explain to a customer why we're doing this, why we're actually doing that repair and how that it will affect the customer. They need to be able to understand what questions do I need to ask so that when we're diagnosing that car, we've got all the right information. And then the technicians need to know what they're doing to be able to complete the procedures.

Stacey Miller:

I love that. I love that you said that ADAS is a team sport because I think there's a lot more knowledge and education that needs to happen across the industry, not only on the procedures, but like you said, what the dealers can be doing to educate uh who's purchasing the vehicle. And then at the shop, you know, at the even at the retail level, right? If you're buying this part and you're replacing this part either on your own or at your favorite independent or at your dealer, it it will require some sort of calibration, right? Some information on that. And then at the service level, right? Hey, this is gonna take, you know, an extra hour or or hour of labor of service in order to calibrate this vehicle. So pretty.

Steve Dawson:

Can you imagine that you have to call a customer and say, hey, Mr. Customer, I can't fix your your headlight today because it's raining out?

Stacey Miller:

Yeah.

Steve Dawson:

Because I need to do a calibration after I'm done and I can't do it on a rainy day.

Stacey Miller:

That's crazy. That's that would make me really depressed. So any other advice that you have for shops in the industry, they're trying to understand ADOS, they're trying to fit it into their service space today. Maybe they're confused. They think like, okay, I need $250,000 of equipment. I'm not quite ready yet. Like, what are some small steps that they can do to prepare for that? Because they are going to eventually need that kind of equipment as the vehicles get more technologically advanced.

Steve Dawson:

I think the the first thing I would say is training. Take some time to get some training. If it's from a vendor like us or others, vendors around the industry, and really understand what is required and what is necessary. Put together that that stair-step plan. What can I do today and what I have? And then, you know, as an industry, we scared the bee Jesus out of shops all over the place and told them you need to have a football field size of space to be able to do this. And the reality is for the general repair shop, they don't need that much space. They can probably do it in their in their standard alignment bay. Um, there's a lot of different ways that we can help support somebody to be able to get that done in the space that they have. The other big thing is that they probably already have the technology and the equipment to be able to do 50% of those calibrations. So it takes a manager owner to realize that, all right, I've got to think about this process from beginning to end. So, do I have something as simple as with a customer recently that shared with me that my technicians are doing the service, but we're not billing for it. And when I ask my service riders, they say we don't know anything about it, we don't do anything with it, we don't think we use that piece of equipment, yet the technicians are using it in the back. And it was all because nobody built an opcode. There was no way for the service rider to bill a steering angle sensor reset or a dynamic calibration in their system without manually adding it. And we're creatures of habit, we're creatures of path of least resistance. There's no opcode, we're not really thinking of it. Um, so making sure that we have that kind of a process as well as some tools if it's manual uh research or utilizing some of the aftermarket tools where we can plug in a VIN number and tell the system what we're doing for repair and have it kick out for us that, oh, because you're replacing that headlight, you need to do this calibration. Yeah. So there's a lot of that kind of groundwork that needs to be done. And then getting a partner in there to say, all right, what is the right piece of equipment for me to be able to go to the next level and do even more? And there's um I, you know, I think we have uh our booth down at SEMA has some some tape on the floor that shows in a like a regular 30-foot bay that you're able to do like 97% of the car park on the road um in that kind of space. So it's it's very doable for for most shops. I think be able to do that.

Stacey Miller:

That's that's an amazing uh takeaway and a really good point to end on. Like it makes me feel very optimistic, and I think it should make a lot of the service facilities in our industry feel very optimistic. And that is that you may already have 50% of the tools you need to do calibrations. And so getting some education and getting some training is gonna get you halfway there. You're not starting from scratch, and it is achievable. And doing that is only gonna help improve the customer experience and improve the bottom line for your shop and future-proof it, right?

Steve Dawson:

Absolutely. And and really provide a better product for your customer because if anybody's had an automatic braking experience, they don't ease the brakes on and say, hey, I think something might be out in the road, I better slow down a little bit. It jams on the brakes and it jams on the brakes hard. Yes. Um, so we don't want to have our customer have to experience that if it's in the middle of the highway or in their their neighborhood. We want it to work the way it's supposed to and keep everybody safe around them.

Stacey Miller:

Fantastic. Great takeaways. Thank you so much, Steve, for being here. Thanks for having me.

Steve Dawson:

Really appreciate it.

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Behzad Rassuli

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Jacki Lutz

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Michael Chung

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Stacey Miller

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