UVeye, a pioneer in the development of automated vehicle inspection systems, and Amazon today announced the deployment of AVI (Automated Vehicle Inspection), an AI-powered system that automates most of the daily inspection process of delivery vehicles. AVI scans for and detects automotive issues, improving fleet maintenance and reducing downtime for Delivery Service Partners (DSPs), as well as improving safety for their drivers and the communities they serve. AVI will be deployed in Amazon delivery stations in the U.S., Canada, Germany and the U.K.
The system – which scans a vehicle in seconds as it drives through a tunnel of cameras and sensors – has been piloted at select Amazon delivery stations in the U.S. A study of the data shows that AVI finds more defects in hard-to-inspect places, such as damage to the vehicle undercarriage, or nails in the tire thread (35% of all issues stem from tires) than when that part of the inspection process was done manually. By automating part of the vehicle inspection process using computer vision and machine learning, AVI makes inspections faster, more accurate, systematic and objective. The data analysis also revealed that within weeks, the number of vehicle groundings dropped with improved maintenance of vehicles.
“Three years ago, we set out to adapt our technology to the particular needs of Amazon,” said Amir Hever, co-founder and CEO of UVeye. “Each new feature and improvement has brought us closer to where we are today and we are so proud of the system, which is now being scaled to administer tens of millions of inspections a year.”
“After a successful pilot program, we’re looking forward to the deployment of AVI,” said Tom Chempananical, Global Fleet Director, Amazon Logistics. “There are over 100,000 Amazon-branded delivery vehicles on the road, bringing 20 million packages to our customers every day. With AVI, we can automate most of the inspection process at scale, to help reduce time spent on this task by DSPs and Delivery Associates, get packages to customers faster, while improving safety on the road.”