Revv ADAS and I-CAR were winners before the 2024 SEMA Show even opened, as both were named winners of New Product Awards at the Kickoff Breakfast held first thing Nov. 5, the first day of the show.
Revv ADAS won the Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) Product category for Revv ADAS Plus, while I-CAR won the Collision Repair & Refinish Product category for its I-CAR Academy.
Runners-up in the ADAS category incuded Revv ADAS Mechanical, and Vision Automobile Electronics Industrial’s Solar Wireless Driving Assistant.
Runners-up in the Collision Repair & Refinish category included I-CAR’s RTS App, and SagolaSPRAY, from Sagola by Elcometer.
Revv ADAS Plus
Revv ADAS Plus automates ADAS procedures by using AI to identify ADAS calibrations in real time, scrubbing estimates in all three major estimating systems – CCC, Mitchell and Audatex – while referencing OEM repair procedures. Revv ADAS said the product can capture an additional $1,250 per job on average.
Revv ADAS Plus was built for shops of all sizes, said CEO Adi Bathla in an interview with Autobody News.
“Whether you are a small shop or a large MSO, whether you are an ADAS specialist, static or mobile, you have to through a lot of changes,” Bathla said. “We’re here to support wherever you are, whatever type of business you are, whatever you have in your tech stack.”
Bathla said winning the New Product Award means a lot to his team.
“It means a lot of the hard work and dedication, listening to our customers, that we did for months to bring this to fruition is making an impact in an industry that is changing,” he said.
I-CAR Academy
The I-CAR Academy program is a comprehensive entry-level curriculum designed to support both new technicians and the shops that employ them.
Dara Goroff, vice president of planning and industry talent programming for I-CAR, accepted the award.
“We think that this curriculum will help us to recruit new talent to the collision repair industry, where we’re suffering a talent crisis, get that new talent trained, and then help our shops retain that talent by investing in a lifetime of learning and development,” Goroff said at the presentation.
Later, in an interview with Autobody News, Goroff explained in addition to the curriculum, I-CAR Academy includes human resources best practices, instructor guides for CTE educators using the program in schools, and mentorship guides for a tech doing on-the-job training in a shop.
“It bridges the education from what a technician can learn in a trade school to what they would learn working on the job in a shop, so it doesn’t matter at what point in an education path someone is, if they go from a school to their employer, they will have equal, consistent standardized education,” Goroff said.
The program helps a new tech advance from zero foundational knowledge to being able to work in a collision repair shop.
“What’s great about it is, with the HR best practices, the mentorship and instructor guides, not only are they learning while they’re earning, but the shops are more readily able to accept those new technicians, create an amazing culture for them and retain them,” Goroff said.
I-CAR is “absolutely delighted that the New Product Showcase has recognized I-CAR Academy programming,” she added. “That tells us we’re headed down the right path and that the industry appreciates those who are doing the work to make sure that we fill the shortage with technicians that are qualified and qualifying to build and fix cars correctly.”
Abby Andrews