TÜV Rheinland and ControlExpert have entered into an innovation partnership for the detection, classification and assessment of damage to motor vehicles: The cooperation aims at the continued development of AI-based mobile applications for the digital assessment of vehicle damage to bring them to market maturity. AI stands for artificial intelligence. The partnership is intended to last several years. The development work will initially focus on the detection of damage and differentiation from conventional traces of use on vehicles, for example in rental car fleets, leasing fleets or car sharing. In addition to reliable image recognition, a neutral and fair assessment of the damage is also important. ControlExpert has been using the AI-based image recognition technology successfully in practice for several years. After successful validation and testing of reliably functioning applications with TÜV Rheinland, the system is extended to other areas such as crash assessment.

Mobile damage assessment is increasingly being digitalized

“In the future, damage assessment will increasingly be carried out via stationary and mobile applications using automated solutions based on digital image recognition. A successful example is the scanning technology we use. However, we are now taking a big step forward: we are investing in the development of market-ready and truly reliable applications with artificial intelligence. The decades of expertise of our experts and specialists are key to this,” says Dr. Matthias Schubert, Executive Vice President Mobility and responsible for the global mobility business at TÜV Rheinland. The aim is to take on a leading role in the field of damage and value assessment, also in terms of technology, and to continue to grow.

TÜV Rheinland has specifically selected ControlExpert from Langenfeld in the Rhineland, Germany, as its technology partner for the coming years. The company is a digitization expert for the automotive industry and operates in 17 countries globally. Dr. Andreas Witte, Managing Director of ControlExpert: “Our research and development department was established in 2015 and now has more than 30 experts. We have been researching for more than ten years now how to identify and evaluate the degree of damage on a photo using automatic image recognition, for example. Our research results are already being applied in practice by numerous customers. The combination of AI with the comprehensive practical knowledge of experts in damage detection and assessment continues to be important. It is precisely this combination that we want to create and expand in our partnership with TÜV Rheinland”.

Expanding business with damage and value appraisals

In a first step, the partners aim to use TÜV Rheinland’s broad experience and extremely large data stock to significantly advance existing mobile applications based on artificial intelligence in the years ahead. The innovation development with ControlExpert in this project has no influence on the daily work of the experts, but runs parallel and together again with experts from TÜV Rheinland from the area of damage and value assessments as well as IT.

The experts from TÜV Rheinland will use existing mobile devices, technologies and systems in their work as usual. The existing business of damage and value appraisals with around 300 experts at TÜV Rheinland and a further 400 partners at TÜV Rheinland FSP is to be complemented and expanded by new services in the future. TÜV Rheinland has been firmly established in the market for car services and appraisals as an expert organization with its own company since 2001.

The goal is the first AI-based application on the market

Dr. Matthias Schubert: “Next year we want to develop the first marketable application that allows AI-based mobile damage assessment. By doing so, we want to safeguard our position in the market as a neutral and independent service provider with high accuracy and broad expertise. The automation is intended to free our experts from routine tasks as long as this is reliably possible. However, the human factor and human experience will remain crucial in appraisal and assessment for the foreseeable future.” In fact, the experts are already using comprehensive databases and databases as well as apps on mobile devices in their work. This is precisely the path that the company intends to continue to follow successfully with the upcoming investments and innovations.