Adam Herrick, a longtime veteran of e-commerce in the auto industry, has joined Sell Your Car, Inc., a provider of automated vehicle valuation tools, as director of marketplace and product.

Herrick will lead Sell Your Car’s software project management as well as marketplace innovation for the company’s suite of dealer-facing inventory and sales tools, which are designed to help dealers acquire more vehicles from private party sellers through real-time valuation, instant payments and same-day service.

“We have a very easy-to-approach and simplified offering that helps dealers use data that’s available right now to come up with the right price via AI-driven automation for vehicle acquisition,” Herrick said. “The emerging instant offer market is among the top changes to the retail automotive landscape.”

Herrick’s previous roles include overseeing Overstock.com’s automotive listing platform, revitalizing digital sales for AutoNation, General Motors’ Shop Click Drive initiative and consulting with Toyota.

“As a thought leader in vehicle data and marketplace product development, I am thrilled to work with Adam and our dealer partners to produce useful products,” Sell Your Car CEO Kristopher Ross said in a news release. “He’s an elite talent and is a great fit with our team of forward leaning innovators.”

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On Monday, the business development technology provider announced the addition of its digital voice assistant (DVA) — Brooke.ai — to the Stellantis MarketCenter.

As a MarketCenter supplier, Proactive’s Brooke.ai offers Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Ram, Fiat, and Alfa Romeo dealers in the U.S. competitive pricing through Stellantis’ MarketCenter within the DealerConnect portal.

Brooke.ai is a digital voice assistant designed to answer, handle and appoint inbound service calls for dealers. The tool can improve the customer experience while reducing operational expenses because it’s built using artificial intelligence specifically for automotive service scheduling.

Proactive Dealer Solutions studies showed that an average of 30% of inbound service calls are lost, abandoned on hold, or misrouted. Brooke.ai can ensure every call connects, which can lead to tens of thousands of dollars in additional revenue every year.

Brooke.ai also can provide callers with basic dealership information, such as service hours and location details. The tool can quickly transfer more complex or non-appointable calls to the correct person at the dealership, including roadside assistance, when necessary.

John Epp is the general manager of Scranton Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram.

“Since implementing Brooke.ai into our inbound service call about 40% of the overall call volume has been stopped from ringing in the lane,” Epp said in a news release from Proactive. “And over 54% of customers now call to book an appointment with the digital assistant. We are saving more than 22 hours of labor time a month just by eliminating these calls from the team’s workload.

“The calls are handled quickly,” Epp continued. “Our average call time is around 2.5 minutes and appointments are always booked correctly making for a smooth transition for my team. We are excited to be at the forefront of this technology and are glad that we chose Brooke.ai as our solution. We are thankful for the support from the Proactive Dealer Solutions team and look forward to the features they add to the application in the future.”

Proactive Dealer Solutions is offering the following Brooke.ai packages to Stellantis dealers at competitive prices:

– Brooke.ai Package Overflow and After Hours: For dealerships that choose to use Brooke.ai for overflow calls and after-hours calls, or smaller dealerships doing less than 1,000 customer pay and warranty ROs per month. The package includes up to 1,500 minutes per store per month.

– Brooke.ai Package First Response: For larger dealerships doing upwards of 1,000 customer pay and warranty ROs per month. This allows the use of Brooke.ai upfront in call flow to handle the brunt of the call volume coming into the dealership. All service calls would be initially handled by Brooke.ai. Includes unlimited minute volume.

– Brooke.ai Package Full Coverage: This package is best for those dealerships with no in-house BDC who want to eliminate inbound calls to the service drive. It features unlimited Brooke.ai minutes as well as unlimited calls, which are handled by a team of skilled, onshore, live agents to take calls that require a live person.

There are also a few options dealers can choose, including:

— Brooke.ai Package Maintenance and Recall: This package allows Brooke to recognize when a vehicle is due for manufacturer-recommended maintenance, inform the customer that this service is due, and ask the customer if they would like to add that work to their appointment. Brooke scrubs the VIN to identify any open recalls, informs the customer that there is an open recall on their vehicle, and asks if they would like to add that work to their appointment. Dealers can choose to take advantage of both the recall and maintenance features or disable recalls.

— Brooke.ai Package Outbound Recalls: Dealers can leverage their DMS integration or use a CSV file to upload a list of recalls they wish to have Brooke.ai make outbound calls on. Dealers can exclude certain recalls they do not wish to be appointed. Brooke.ai will make three outbound call attempts to customers over a 45-day period to notify them of an open recall on their vehicle and schedule a day/time for them to bring their vehicle in. Brooke.ai will leave messages for customers when the calls are sent to voicemail.

“We are proud to be part of MarketCenter and look forward to helping our Stellantis dealers further improve the efficiency and profitability of their service departments. Our mission is to ensure that auto dealerships can answer and appoint every inbound service call while efficiently managing their service bays,” said Pat Reininger, CEO of Proactive Dealer Solutions.

“With Brooke.ai, Stellantis dealerships can now improve the service experience and drive operational efficiency while alleviating service advisors and BDC agents from the demands of inbound service calls,” Reininger went on to say.

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Farmer will be responsible for overseeing revenue growth across field sales, national sales and independent sales, with a focus on delivering value to customers and driving results for CarNow’s dealer network.

“My focus is to lead efforts in delivering recurring impact to our customers and make it easier for our dealers to do business with CarNow,” Farmer said. “We’ll build on the customer-centric approach throughout the entire organization, seeking to improve efficiencies in the sales process while enhancing and expanding our offerings.”

Farmer comes to CarNow from dispatch and impound management software provider Traxero, where he served as vice president of impound revenue operations. Previously, he was vice president of U.S. dealer sales for BacklotCars, and has also held executive positions with ADESA and TradeRev, and was president of Farmer Auctions in Salem, Va.

In a news release, CarNow said his experience demonstrates a “history of success as a senior sales and operational leader across diverse industries, including automotive, mobile technology, telecommunications, real estate and auctions,” and that he has “consistently fueled growth by developing and leading motivated high-performance teams, transforming underperforming organizations and expanding market footprints.”

CarNow CEO Kayne Grau said Farmer’s “impressive track record and dynamic leadership style, honed across diverse industries, perfectly align with our commitment to driving innovation and exceeding expectations for our customers.”

“Will brings a unique blend of strategic insight and operational prowess,” Grau said, “and we’re excited to leverage his disruptive mindset to elevate our revenue streams, foster customer-centric approaches, and solidify CarNow’s position as an industry trailblazer.”

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The truck can travel an estimated 230 miles on a single charge and transport up to seven vehicles at one time, which CarMax said allows it to efficiently service its stores in the region.

The company’s Stockton, Calif., store, which has a Level 3 charging station to provide fast charging for the truck, will serve as the region’s hub.

CarMax said its real-world-conditions test replacing a diesel semi-truck with a zero-emission vehicle will help it make decisions about expanding to more electric trucks in the future.

The test also supports the company’s efforts to reduce its environmental impact and is a step toward its commitments to achieve a 50% reduction from its 2018 baseline in greenhouse gas emissions by 2025 and its goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

“We’re excited to test the efficiencies of the all-electric semi-truck within our transportation fleet and see how this vehicle can support our overall sustainability efforts,” CarMax vice president of logistics Matt Aman said.

The Freightliner eCascadia all-electric semi is being leased from Penske Truck Leasing and is the first to be leased by Penske as a vehicle hauler.

Aman said CarMax is committed to working with “industry innovators like Penske” to incorporate technologies to help reduce the company’s carbon footprint.

“Collaborating with forward-thinking customers like CarMax to use electric trucks within their vehicle delivery operations is important to advancing sustainability in the transportation industry,” said Patrick Watt, vice president of alternative vehicle and emerging technologies for Penske Truck Leasing.

CarMax said it has made progress toward its green goals, citing a total emissions reduction of more than 10% in 2022. The company has retrofitted stores with LED lighting and increased its use of renewable electricity from wind, solar and biogas to improve its electricity use efficiency.

In October, CarMax was ranked 13th on the EPA’s Green Power Partnership Top 30 Retail list with 36% of the company’s total electricity use coming from green power sources.

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During Used Car Week, Harmon joined Cherokee Media Group associate editor Andrew Friedlander on the Auto Remarketing Podcast to explain why, even though AI is the hottest topic around, it’s still not being talked about enough in the automotive logistics sector.

Listen to the conversation in the window below.

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The partnership integrates STELLA Service Booking into the Xtime platform, which the companies said saves dealers from having to re-key information, saving time and reducing potential errors.

STELLA Service Booking is an artificial intelligence-powered digital voice assistant designed to answer every inbound call on the first ring, 24/7, eliminating hold times and allowing customers to schedule appointments to reduce the booking process to less than two minutes.

“The integration with Xtime has been a remarkable journey, offering dealers transformative benefits,” STELLA Automotive AI CEO Rich Sands said. “Early adopters are thrilled with the integration, reporting increased efficiency, improved customer satisfaction and heightened profitability.”

STELLA’s digital voice assistant speaks with customers and navigates them through common questions, checking the schedule and making service lane bookings. The company said STELLA manages the majority of calls but can also seamlessly transition customers to dealership staff, allowing for enhanced dealership operations, reducing costs and improving customer service scores.

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The automaker announced it is working with Resideo Technologies on a “joint simulation project” to explore vehicle-to-home energy management.

The EV-Home Power Partnership is designed to explore the potential of EV batteries to support optimal home energy management. The companies said the project will explore, test and quantify the customer benefits of pairing bi-directional EV charging with a Resideo smart thermostat to help customers potentially save money on monthly electric bills, reduce strain on the U.S. electric grid and enable use of cleaner energy, while helping ensure homeowner comfort.

Ford’s F-150 Lightning already has the capability to power a home in the event of an outage through the available Intelligent Backup Power system. The EV Home Power Partnership project will simulate the integration of Resideo’s smart thermostats with the energy stored in the F-150 Lightning’s battery, which the companies said can be “smartly” coordinated to help power the home’s heating and cooling systems.

The project is designed to assess how coordination of a bi-directional EV and smart thermostat can reduce the overall energy needed by the home during times of electric grid stress while minimizing energy usage during the most expensive hours each day by automating the home to match a consumers’ time-of-use electricity rate.

The study will also assess how coordination between the battery and smart thermostat can enable a system to use cleaner energy from the grid if renewable energy is readily available.

“Driving electric is unlocking an entirely new world of personal energy management that could not only save our customers time and money, but also help support a more sustainable energy grid,” Ford head of global charging and energy services Bill Crider said.

“Successful vehicle-to-home energy management solutions would give Ford EV drivers as well as utilities and power companies the confidence to accelerate future vehicle-to-grid services never before thought possible with traditional vehicles.”

The companies said EV battery storage can play an integral role in helping stabilize the electric grid, allowing homeowners to remain comfortable during power outages or other energy events as well as saving money using stored energy during peak demand, when energy costs tend to be higher.

“The two largest contributors to an individual’s carbon-emission footprint are usually the car and the heating and cooling of the home,” Resideo executive vice president and chief revenue officer Dana Huth said. “With this EV Power Partnership project, we can discover new ways for F-150 Lightning owners to use their EV battery to power their home’s heating and cooling and to help build a home energy management strategy that can optimize their home’s comfort and energy use.”

Work on the project has begun and is expected to be completed in the first half of 2024.

Holman, ChargeHub collaborate to simplify EV fleet charging

Global automotive services company Holman has joined in a partnership with ChargeHub, developer of a network-independent community-driven EV charging app, designed to help commercial fleet operators simplify public charging for their electric vehicles.

The companies said the collaboration uses ChargeHub’s proprietary app to provide access to more than 80,000 charging locations throughout the U.S. and Canada while also processing payment, enhancing the public charging experience for drivers and streamlining the transition to EVs for fleet operators.

ChargeHub said its technology allows fleet operators and their drivers to access charging stations from a number of public charging networks through a single account, eliminating the need to manage multiple accounts for each individual network.

Through the collaboration with Holman, fleet operators can also monitor and track all charging costs in one centralized location, eliminating potential blind spots or gaps in information while easing the administrative burden.

“This is an exciting time for commercial fleets to use the ChargeHub application as their gateway to a growing but fragmented ecosystem of charging networks,” ChargeHub CEO Simon Ouellette said. “Our shared goal with Holman is to help fleet operators simplify and accelerate their transition to EVs through innovative technology designed to enhance the experience of driving an electric vehicle.”

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In this episode of the Auto Remarketing Podcast, recorded during Used Car Week, Kilway talks about how technology and process work together, the next great innovation in the car business and selling cars through virtual reality goggles.

Listen to the conversation in the window below.

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The developer of automated drive-through inspection systems for vehicles has joined with sustainable technology provider Hypertec in a strategic partnership to drive mass production of UVeye’s products.

The collaboration is designed to ramp up production of UVeye’s computer vision/artificial intelligence-powered systems in response to growing demand from the auto industry, including car dealerships, auctions and fleets.

Among UVeye’s partners are General Motors, Volvo Cars, CarMax and most recently Amazon, which has partnered with the company to provide its automated vehicle inspection system at hundreds of locations for Amazon Prime last-mile delivery operations in the U.S., U.K., Canada and Germany.

UVeye and Hypertec said they will work “in synergy” to manufacture and distribute UVeye’s three main drive-through inspection systems.

— Helios: An underbody scanner designed to detect frame damage, missing parts, fluid leaks and brake and exhaust system problems, among other issues.

— Artemis: A tire quality inspection system designed to identify tire brand, technical specifications, air pressure, tread depth, sidewall damage, tire mismatches and alignment issues within seconds.

— Atlas and Atlas Lite: UVeye’s 360-degree vehicle exterior detection system, designed to automatically detect damage such as scratches, dents and imperfections. The system examines sheet metal and external body components like bumpers, door locks, grilles and windows.

Production will take place at Hypertec’s facilities in Plainfield, Ind., and Montreal. A joint team of UVeye and Hypertec engineering and technical experts will be formed for installation, servicing and customer training for the new systems.

“Our drive-through inspection systems have consistently demonstrated exceptional performance, detecting 96% of existing vehicle problems within seconds, in contrast to less than 25% accuracy for traditional manual checks,” UVeye co-founder and CEO Amir Hever said.

“The demand for our technology has grown exponentially since its debut in North America at CES 2020, with hundreds of car dealerships, auction houses and fleets eagerly awaiting our increase in production. We are confident that partnering with Hypertec will propel us to the next level.”

Hypertec president of hardware technology solutions Simon Ahdoot said the companies are a perfect fit for each other.

“As a company committed to engineering excellence and operational prowess, we believe we are the ideal partner for UVeye,” he said. “Our longstanding track record of large-scale manufacturing for innovative technology rollouts aligns perfectly with UVeye’s mission to deploy groundbreaking automotive solutions.”

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After speaking on a panel during Used Car Week, he joined Cherokee Media Group associate editor Andrew Friedlander on the Auto Remarketing Podcast to discuss being a serial entrepreneur and how dealers can use data to acquire inventory from the public.

Listen to the conversation in the window below.

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