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centage require review of one or two line items—with the estimate annotated as to what an appraiser needs to review—while the balance will require being handled “old school: have it towed, take the car apart and go classic blueprinting.”
Moving beyond that 40% of initial estimates “without any further line items” needing to be added will require greater access to vehicle-specific OEM build sheet data, he said.
“If we get that, we’re going to have a greater understanding of that vehicle, the DNA of that car,” Spears said. “And then we’re going to have a much better understanding of what this car really needs, its repair process. We have got to solve the problem of build sheet data, and we’re in the right room for that.”
In the interim, he said, AI estimating offers benefits to more than just insurers. Tractable has a test going with LKQ Corp., he said, using the technology in a bit of a reverse way: helping determine which parts are not damaged on salvage vehicles.
It could also help collision repairers with the customer sales process, Spears said. Currently, estimators point a potential customer to a waiting area while preparing an estimate.
“Instead, they’re going to be able to quickly take some images of the car, and then while the images are being processed, they can take the customer around the shop and show the investment that you have” in equipment, training and certifications, Spears suggested. “When they get back to the desk, here’s the estimate.”
Jimmy Spears of Tractable said his company’s AI estimating system has become adept at quickly determining from photos if a vehicle is a total loss
by Simon Alvarez, Teslarati
In a recent press release, Rivian announcedit hadofficially produceda total of 1,015 vehicles by the end of 2021, 920 of which were delivered before the end of the year.
The update comes as news emerged the company’s chief operating officer, Rod Copes, had retired from Rivian in December.
Considering Rivian has only just started delivering its first vehicles like the R1T pickup truck, R1S SUV and its Amazon delivery van, the company’s 1,015 deliveries in 2021 is nothing to scoff at. Rivian announced before the end of the year it would likely fall “a few hundred vehicles short” of its 2021 vehicle production target, which was set at 1,200 units.
The recent updates—particularly the departure of Copes— appear to have adversely affected RIVN stock. Rivian shares dropped about 2.3% in premarket trading on Jan. 11 as news of the COO’s departure spread online. As of writing, Rivian shares are trading at $80.93 per share, far below its all-time high in November when RIVN traded at nearly $180 per share, but still enough to give the company a market cap of more than $71 billion.
The departure of Copes was extremely understated. While a company spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal the executive’s departure had been planned for months and his duties had already been absorbed by Rivian’s leadership team, there had been no press release announcing the retirement when Copes left in December.
Rivian will likely have its hands full in 2022. The company is expected to ramp the production and deliveries of the R1T and the R1S. Deliveries of its Amazon electric delivery van are expected to increase as well.
The electric truck market is also poised to become more competitive this year, with vehicles like the Ford F-150 Lightning and possibly the Tesla Cybertruck starting their customer deliveries sometime in 2022.
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