Garbage In = Garbage Out

Vehicle electronics, particularly advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) components, are improving in how they “see” and react to situations drivers encounter every day on the roadway. ADAS component manufacturers are improving that reaction time by increasing the speed at which the sensors and computers recognize and communicate. All of this makes it challenging for the repair industry to keep up with all the changes in the computers we call vehicles. 

If the contention is that vehicles are getting smarter, that may be so, but there are some factors that have to be considered. First, a computer is only as smart as the data it’s being given. A phrase I often use when talking about the need for proper calibrations is, “Garbage in, garbage out.” Any manager who does payroll or any other reporting for the shop will tell you that if the information going into the computer is wrong, the information coming out will be wrong. This applies to vehicles with any sort of sensor that’s communicating information to modules and computers. The data being provided must be accurate for the system to function correctly. Sensors in today’s vehicles are networked together and communicate with other systems. A sensor providing incorrect data can now affect multiple systems in the vehicle. With all these systems networked together, one sensor giving incorrect data can cause a chain reaction of unwanted results. 

To make all this work, software and electronics engineers who design features like ADAS work with vehicle manufacturers to test and validate that the systems work in their vehicles. Road testing and crash testing are performed to validate that all systems work as designed. Through this validation and testing, they establish where all the sensors must be aligned to the vehicle for them to work correctly. This is, for lack of a better term, the “zero point” for the vehicle’s sensors. This zero point is what the repair industry must calibrate to. It’s a known and repeatable set of parameters to set the vehicle sensors correctly. Once set, the software has a starting zero point, and now everyday driving variables, such as weight in the vehicle and other vehicle and environmental conditions, can be accommodated for and identified. 

When the environment or vehicle platform has exceeded those tolerances from zero point, the vehicle system may be rendered inoperable and will notify the driver that something is wrong. Without the starting point, the vehicle may not operate correctly.

It’s also worth noting that a calibration process requires a technician to duplicate the environment and vehicle conditions set by the manufacturer. Otherwise, it’s a comparison, not a calibration, with too many variables not accounted for. It may result in a successful calibration, but to the wrong parameters, creating operational issues. This creates “garbage in,” or incorrect data, to the computer. The vehicle is trusting the technician to follow and create the environment required to calibrate. What this means for repair facilities is that validating that all the sensors are “seeing” correctly or operating correctly becomes a more critical piece in newer vehicles. All the sensors and components must be aligned correctly to the vehicle to be sure that the focal points where the sensors are supposed to be looking are correct. 

Vehicle Variables

When we take a look at how these sensors are seeing down the road, we realize that a vehicle that has not been compromised by a crash event has the original geometric center line of the vehicle still intact to which the sensors are aligned. When the vehicle suffers a collision, windshield replacement, potholes or suspension replacement, the way the sensor is mounted or the factory centerline or attitude to the roadway changes, causing data to change from its parameters. This is why calibrations are needed after repairs to validate that the sensors are set to their correct positions and are functioning correctly, providing the correct inputs for proper responses to roadway hazards or conditions.  

What I want you to consider is that during vehicle repairs, those tolerances may be taken up by the facility doing the repairs or have preexisting conditions that affect the sensor position or the way the sensor is aimed, as the vehicle geometry has changed. 

Let’s use an example of a collision shop putting a vehicle on a frame rack and repairing that vehicle. When you take a look at all the measurements and everything the technician is working with, the vehicle is reassembled with an industry-accepted tolerance of ±3 millimeters. How many degrees is 3 millimeters to a sensor? Take this into consideration when you think about a vehicle’s suspension alignment. 

The factory zero point was set on a vehicle that was within specifications for the vehicle alignment. If the alignment is out of tolerance, will you be providing garbage data with the calibration being performed? During the repair process, the tolerances that may have been there for these sensors to operate correctly may be taken by the repair process itself, leaving no margin for error during the calibration. This could cause a failed calibration or an incorrect calibration when setting zero point.  

A Dilemma

I started looking at shops repairing vehicles and asking questions of owners and managers. I’ve also been reading studies and reports of people who are saying that they were dissatisfied with their vehicles’ ADAS operation after repairs were completed. So ask yourself: What could have changed the way the vehicle operates? Was the calibration completed correctly? Was the calibration even done? Is a sensor not mounted correctly? It’s also possible that the owner might not understand its operation. I also started asking friends and other people the same questions and found similar statements. No matter what, there seems to be a pattern of owners not satisfied after repairs.  

I recently took some training with Autel in New York, and I really started seeing the value of its new systems, such as the IA700, IA900 and IA1000, verifying alignment of the vehicle with a quick check and the system aligning with all four wheels to get the true geometry of the vehicle and — depending on what your shop wants to do — allowing the technician to do an alignment if necessary. The new Autel equipment verifying target placement is also a game changer in documenting that calibrations were completed correctly. When you think through the process, what is the result of a calibration on a vehicle with the alignment out of specs? If the vehicle is not going straight down the road, will the lane departure or automatic emergency braking be effective or correct? Will the system continuously be correcting (and aggravating) a driver?

This becomes really interesting when you look at repair services provided for vehicle owners by different entities. The mechanical shop does alignments and does not perform calibrations. The auto glass industry replaces windshields on vehicles out of alignment from everyday driving. Collision shops do not recognize what repairs or procedures will require a calibration to verify operation.

Whether we want to admit it or not, vehicle owners are becoming dependent on these systems. Ask any group of people if their ADAS has warned them or reacted when they were driving, and you’ll get a lot of them saying yes. Now, ask if at some point when they were not paying attention, did the vehicle prevent or warn them from an incident? A number of them will also say yes. 

I know that many people do not like the ADAS in their vehicles or do not want ADAS in their vehicles, but ADAS does work when the inputs are correct. When the inputs are not correct, the ADAS may become an annoyance to the driver. So it makes you wonder: Do they not like ADAS, or are they annoyed due to their ADAS not performing correctly? It’s interesting when you think it through.   

The Cost

I realize no one wants to add the cost of alignment to all the costs already associated with calibrations — the customer going in for an alignment and then having a calibration cost on top of that. A simple bumper repair costs more due to calibrations being required. A windshield replacement has dramatically increased in cost due to calibrations, and now an alignment may be a consideration. All these factors are driving people crazy on the cost of repairs. 

We all went through this when airbags became the norm. Maybe artificial intelligence (AI) will change the way all ADAS works. AI seems to be changing the way we estimate and even order food. Even AI costs money and will need to be factored into the equation somewhere. No matter what we as an industry do with vehicle electronics, at our businesses or homes, input matters for electronics to work correctly. Not having the correct data does not just create an annoying computer but presents danger to the user. 

Summary

I wish I knew where this was all going and how it’s going to end up. Change is constant, and we all have to adapt. 

In the world of computers, there is less margin for error, as the processing of information is so fast and increasing. No matter whether it’s man or machine, the proper guidelines as to how a vehicle is repaired must be followed. To not follow exactly as required can make a difference in the operation of a vehicle or its components that you nor myself could even manage to comprehend. 

I am no engineer or software designer; I’m just a person working to repair vehicles correctly. The instructions and guidelines are there; we do not get to pick and choose which ones to follow and which ones to not follow just because cost or our current business model doesn’t make it easy. 

It will get better; our industries are inventive in creating solutions for repair shops every day.  I look forward to the new solutions that will be introduced and learned. Keep your eyes and ears open, and learn all you can. Great ideas come from the most unlikely of sources.