Today we’d like to introduce you to Travis Simpkins.
Hi Travis, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I’m one of those people who talks to cars. Not to anthropomorphize them or anything – but c’mon, they are witness to humanity at its best and worst. Some of that emotion spilling out has to end up stuck in the seat cushions or that place where your fingers can almost but not quite reach your phone.
In retrospect, maybe business school wasn’t the best path, because I was well into my thirties before I landed in the industry.. And over a decade later, before I opened ADAS On Call. I had been in automotive technology and safety for a while then, and after a contract with an alcohol interlock device (in-car breathalyzers) ended, I took the opportunity to start ADAS On Call.
We are in one of the fastest-growing segments in the industry, the calibration of the sensors that are responsible for all of the collision avoidance and mitigation systems in your car. From simple parking sensors to advanced braking systems that combine radar, Time of Flight Light ranging, more commonly known as LiDAR, and vision-based sensors that can react to other cars or pedestrians at the actual speed of light.
These calibrations – often required after collisions because even slight variances in sensor alignment can have the worst imaginable consequences. After even a minor collision, a radar sensor mounted on the front bumper or grill can easily have been moved by a millimeter or two. At just 50 feet, that translates into 20 inches of error, slightly larger than a soccer ball rolling out from behind a parked car. And the small child chasing it.
That’s a pretty dramatic anecdotal example – but it’s a very real application. Collision repair professionals are usually detail-oriented people, and the ones I work with all genuinely care about the quality of the work they do, and especially their customers’ safety. Sometimes, though, when the consumer and the repair shop aren’t aware of the sensitivity of these sensors, or their importance in the complete array of safety systems in the car, these calibrations can get overlooked. So we’re trying to change that.
We have also recently developed a calibration system for automotive repair shops that I hope puts me out of business – and into another one. Calibrations now involve a lot of manual measuring. A surprising number of manufacturers’ repair procedures call for the use of a weight on a string and a tape measure for calibrations. There are a lot of failure points in that, and small errors are not just possible – they are almost certain.
We are using the same cameras and lidar that is in the cars to position the calibration targets around the cars instantly and accurately. This takes the measuring out of the equation and reduces the calibration time from 30-45 minutes to a few minutes.
I’ve got the first one, and as of last week, I’m out in the field using it in different shops to get as much data as I can in varied environments. I’m super-excited about it and genuinely enjoying the whole process. It’s good for the business, good for the repair shops, and good for the customers. It feels good too.
One of my favorite automotive quotes is from Dale Earnhardt, the legendary NASCAR driver. Dale wasn’t much for soul searching, at least not out loud, and maybe the layers here weren’t intentional. He said, “It’s a never-ending battle of making your cars better and also trying to be better yourself.” I just love that.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I’ve never run a business before, so it was never a smooth road. That “freedom” I envisioned is really just trying to prioritize things that half to be done right now, and get some of them done after close of business before falling asleep trying to update my website, or trying to decode the sales tax due if I provided a sensor to a business in Augusta, GA, but it was ordered by a service center and delivered to me, and I’m otherwise sales-tax exempt as service company.
We are typically treated as a subcontractor on collision repair by the insurance company, and our true customer is the repair facility, but also their customer, keeping in mind that the insurer is the writer of the check and sometimes has different priorities. So that’s an adventure.
We are often the “last touch” on a collision repair, and I wasn’t wholly prepared for the responsibility that carries. We are essentially giving the car a final safet clearance before someone gets in teh car and drives off to pick up thie kids, or maybe head off to work at the hospital and ave lives (In my imagination, everybody who picks up their car from the shop is always off to some life-changing event or resposnible for the lives of others. Thy are probably just going home. Even so.)
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m hoping I covered most of this when I over-answered the first question. I’m in a very technical field, and an industry segment that doesn’t have much space for creativity. So got a little carried away with the rare chance to do some writing.
What separates ADAS On Call is our absolute, uncompromising position on safety and the performance of the safety systems. As a mobile service, that’s often inefficient, as we can’t always just work a little longer when we aren’t satisfied with our calibration results. The repair facility or dealership wants to go home, which brings us back the following morning. We’re okay with that. Driving past an accident on the road, I don’t want to have to wonder if I could have prevented that, or that I wasn’t in too much of a hurry to get a hair more accuracy into a calibration.
I did forget to do the whole look at me thing. I’m on the legislative committee for the Carolina Collision Association, where we are pushing for stronger consumer protections through state legislation. The goal is to assure consumers’ rights to have their car repaired with new parts, and not be forced into using “network” repair facilities if they have one they trust more.
I’m also ASE L4 Advanced Certified in ADAS, Autonomous Vehicles, and Vehicle Electronics. The L4 Advanced ADAS doesn’t sound very sexy – but any L4 Advanced Certification is a big deal. Last I checked, there were fewer than 1000 Advanced ADAS certs in the country. It’s the equivalent of a terminal degree in the ADAS world.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.adasoncall.com
