Latest / Auto Collabs / From Homeland Security to Auto with Amir Hever

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From Homeland Security to Auto with Amir Hever · Auto Collabs

• 0:00
  [laughs] I think that's- It's not every day you get to sit down- No, no, no. [upbeat music] This is Auto Collab. See, hear me, I'll sit right here, man. [laughs] Okay. [laughs] What,
• 0:19
  what you don't realize is usually when we record the intro to this, these podcasts, we hit the record button and somebody says something. And we never pre-communicate who it's going to be. Ever.
• 0:33
  Just when recording happens, somebody says it. [laughs] And this is the first time in how many episodes? How many have we done? 50 some odd things- Mm, something... of these.
• 0:42
  Where, where the record button got hit- That we all stood there and we're like, "Nah." [laughs] [laughs] And then Cirillo, this is what, this is what I'm gonna call it, I'm gonna call it like I see it.
• 0:51
  Cirillo realizes this, and he says these words, "You know what?" [laughs] Which really means he has no clue what he's about to say. He's hoping that by the end of the first three words- I was gonna say-...
• 1:03
  he has something to say. [laughs] Stop. We gotta stop making Cirillo laugh. I was gonna say, you know, it's not every day you get to interview somebody who worked in Homeland Security. [laughs] That's true.
• 1:14
  That's an interesting intro. It's just fair. And it's fair, and it's true- It's a great-... because today's [laughs] guest, Amir- Very good... the CEO and co-founder of UVI, started in Homeland Security. How appropriate.
• 1:26
  How do you make your way- Right... to auto from that? Well, the company did, at least, in Homeland Security. That's true. Right? That's true. So. And- Yeah, really an interesting move.
• 1:32
  You know, when, when UVI landed on the scene a couple years ago, basically the only people doing anything close to what they were doing is Hunter Machines. Right.
• 1:41
  And you literally had to know when you were building the building that you were getting a Hunter Machine. [laughs] You built the building around the machine. Like, that thing is dug up in the ground. Right. Right.
• 1:50
  We're gonna get calls from Hunter reps. Um, and so- They're gonna be like, "No, that is not true." [laughs] Right. Well, yeah.
• 1:57
  And so it's, it's super new technology, but it comes from outside of the industry, which, you know, all three of us always love kind of getting that, that insight and people from outside the industry, tech companies coming inside and understanding why that's a big deal.
• 2:10
  So we are really excited to introduce you to Amir and to UVI. Uh, hope you enjoy our chat.
• 2:16
  [upbeat music] All right, we are here with Amir, the CEO and co-founder of UVI, a new, uh, tech company to auto, at least, over the last couple years. Amir, thanks for joining us, man. Absolutely. Thanks for having me.
• 2:34
  Yeah, absolutely. So, uh, I w- I wanna start with this because people will hear your accent, and they'll know right away that you're not from Midwest Ohio. Is he from Canada? Um, but- Canadian. [laughs] Yeah, yeah.
• 2:46
  [laughs] Oh, Canada. Could be. [laughs] But, uh, you, UVI is, is really, it's an international company first. So your story as a founder actually started, um, not in the US auto market. Is that right? That's right.
• 3:00
  So, um, yeah, I'm, I'm from Israel. Um, we have the R&D center in Israel. Uh, we have more than 100 people in Israel. But absolutely, we're expanding here, and we have offices both in Ohio and New Jersey.
• 3:11
  I relocated to New Jersey with the family, um, over a year ago, uh, which is simply great. Uh, my daughter actually have a better accent than I do. So, uh- [laughs] So that's, uh, so that's pretty cool.
• 3:23
  Um, so yeah, we're excited to be here. We're expanding globally. Uh, we also have offices in Germany, um, in the UK, and now we're opening offices in Japan. So it's pretty exciting times for us.
• 3:34
  Amir, let me get this straight. You, you start in the Homeland Security sector, if I remember correctly. How do you connect the dots from, hey, we're in Homeland Security, to the automotive industry?
• 3:47
  How did that all happen? [laughs] So, um, uh, uh, actually, we started, as you say, we started in the Homeland Security. It's all started from, um, in, with my previous company.
• 3:59
  We visited the Minister of Economics, and when we tried to enter the parking lot, the security guard simply lay over the road to see if we have anything underneath the vehicle. Um, and- No...
• 4:09
  when we ask him whether he can see something- He's like, "Hold on a second." [laughs] And gets down on one knee. "Hold, hold, guys." [laughs] He's like... [laughs] Whatever you do- Laid out...
• 4:17
  don't pull forward if you're up to no good. I'm under here.
• 4:21
  [laughs] [laughs] Um, so when we actually asked him whether he could see something, he s- he said, "No, but if you'll explode inside, they will look on the cameras and see that I try to do my job."
• 4:33
  [laughs] Um, and you immediately understand that something is really not working there.
• 4:39
  Um, so, um, so eventually, um, the last, um, last company that I've been with, we were sold and acquired by Alibaba, the Chinese giant, and they, uh, it became the R&D center, um, in Israel.
• 4:53
  Um, and then we started UVI to be able to scan the undercarriage of the vehicle and tell you if there's anything that doesn't belong or anything that was modified in the undercarriage.
• 5:04
  Um, and to be completely honest, after scanning, you know, a few thousands of vehicle, we saw that we're able to see a lot more leakages than bombs in the undercarriage. [laughs] Um, so- You're like- We understood-...
• 5:17
  bombs, one every 7,000. Leaks, one every two, right? [laughs] Exactly. Um, and we understood that we can do a lot for the commercial side. Uh, but we didn't really understand exactly how much and exactly what.
• 5:31
  Um, because we started to get a lot of data, a lot of information.
• 5:35
  Uh, but we didn't know exactly kind of what segments or verticals in the market it will fit to, um, or how much we can help eventually to all the customers that we work with today.
• 5:46
  Uh, we were kind of more in the exploring phase to understand exactly what we're seeing, what are the issues in the market, what can we help with.
• 5:53
  Um, so it took us a few years eventually to understand where we should focus. That makes a lot... I feel like, so I didn't know that story about the security side of the business.
• 6:02
  You know, the first I- It's unbelievable... I've, I've learned about UVI is, uh, really-Kind of at NADA last year.
• 6:09
  And, um, you know, I, I see, I saw your people there, and they were, they're dressed up in the mechanic jumpsuits and, you know, really- [laughs] For me, I love that kind of stuff, right?
• 6:16
  So I'm always like, "Yes, we got like a little theme park going on over here at the UVI booth."
• 6:21
  [laughs] And, and so, like, but I feel like over the last six months I've been hearing more and more about it as the technology is, is adapting.
• 6:28
  Um, and, and really, and, you know, and I know you have Samantha Foster now. She's like kind of a force of nature when it comes to the marketing side of the business. So she goes and introduces herself to everybody.
• 6:37
  But as that, as that momentum has been growing inside automotive, what have been your biggest pickups on, like, why dealers are leaning into the technology?
• 6:46
  'Cause I know you have, like, several value propositions that are, um, you know, like, the top of mind ones. But are there any value propositions that have surprised you as you've rolled out more into automotive?
• 6:59
  Um, absolutely yes. And I think it's also kind of, um, you know, the timing that we right out, we, we, we started selling to dealerships, right, um, in the middle of COVID. Um, you had less technicians.
• 7:11
  You needed to rely more on, on technology to help you, um, doing kind of, you know, at least we're covering the detection part to understand really fast what issues you have in the vehicle, so you can be more efficient.
• 7:23
  You can have your technicians really work on fixing the problems and not necessarily detecting them. Mm.
• 7:29
  Um, so I think it kind of both are growth as a company and a technology, what we were able to introduce to the market, uh, because we needed to understand exactly what issues we are solving, right?
• 7:40
  Is it only finding the leakages or even showing the customer that everything is fine with this vehicle?
• 7:47
  It's also part of the experience that we're seeing that dealerships right now are really, really, um, kind of investing and, you know, spending a lot of money eventually to provide a better experience for the customer.
• 7:59
  So I think it's kind of, um, the market changes that we're seeing, the technology that more and more, um, dealerships, but I think the whole industry is kind of more leading towards to because we're seeing the EVs, we're seeing autonomous vehicles.
• 8:13
  Companies started, especially the auto companies, started to embrace more technology and that also affect the dealerships.
• 8:19
  Um, and it gave us, um, with the market condition, it gives us a really good timing to introduce new technologies that will help them and will assist their business and eventually, uh, will help them also with the, uh, customer experience that they're, that they're able to provide.
• 8:34
  One of the things that really surprised us is to be able, um, to really see how many oil leakages we do see in the vehicles. It was really surprising. Um, we were finding things that we, we were really surprised to see.
• 8:50
  People putting pliers, um, to hold their exhaust pipes. [laughs] Um, so- That's the first time I was ever introduced to UVI.
• 8:59
  Someone, someone, uh, was like, "Look, here's this video," and it, like, rolls over and there's pliers, like clamp grips- That-... holding two parts together.
• 9:07
  [laughs] That sounds like, that sounds like my childhood mechanic experience, 'cause I always remember my dad under the car, not having any idea how to fix a car, but he always had to fix it 'cause we didn't have money to bring it somewhere.
• 9:19
  So that might have been a leftover from, you know, like in my Daly family childhood. [laughs] That was the Daly household. [laughs] Probably. [laughs] Well, I, you know, what's, what's crazy about that is these...
• 9:31
  You know, anytime you introduce technology, and I love how you said, like, it affects the employee experience because they're freed up to actually do the work, and the, you know, the advisor maybe isn't having to do...
• 9:41
  Uh, but it also affects the consumer experience is a big deal. But I think what's really interesting to me is from what I know, especially, like, from a, from a used car operation standpoint.
• 9:50
  You know, I was in the operations side of the business and, and a sales manager. One of the things that we always knew is, like, there were seven things that every technician would see every single time, right?
• 10:03
  And, you know, if, if anybody's ever been in used cars or ever had that pencil back to them, you know what those seven things are, and they al- they normally dealt with a couple different leakages.
• 10:11
  But, and nothing against the technician, but you're kind of trained to see, you know, certain things more often, especially on certain vehicles. So what, what's interesting to me is, like, we saw all of these things.
• 10:23
  Have, uh, have you noticed a trend toward, like, certain repairs or certain things getting found that weren't typically getting found, and that that's, like, freed up, you know, either resources or moved revenue for, for some dealers?
• 10:37
  Um, so yeah, and I think, um, um, what we're trying to create, and, and that's part of it, kind of, um, because we're seeing so many vehicles, so many brands, different wear and tear over vehicles, we're really able to leverage all the data that we're seeing to give you an accurate reading, right?
• 10:53
  Because if you think about it and you have a technician, now he's saying you have a leakage.
• 10:58
  Um, and, uh, to understand how severe is the leakage, it's, um, you know, uh, uh, it's hard to tell because it's really based on who's, um, who's checking the vehicle.
• 11:09
  Or if you have rust on the chassis, how do you know if it's severe rust, if it's something that can harm the safety of the vehicle, or it's something that, you know, you can drive the vehicle and everything would be fine for the next two years, um, and you don't need to do anything and it's part of if you need to appraise the vehicle.
• 11:24
  It is, is it something that you need to take into consideration or not?
• 11:27
  So we're bringing kind of everything that we're learning from all of our data, and we're creating some, uh, some kind of a, a standard, a standard way to really understand the issues that we're seeing.
• 11:39
  So to really give you the feedback if it's something that you should be aware of, something you should, you, you need to fix, and eventually how much it was, it should cost you.
• 11:47
  Um, so if you're the consumer eventually and you're coming to, you know, for a trade-in or to sell your vehicle, you know exactly, based on everything that we've seen so far, whether it's a real issue and then how much, you know, you actually need to spend in order to fix the issue.
• 12:05
  Um, so it's kind of a, a different view-Um, that, you know, companies had so far, but, but now we're really starting to leverage all the data that we're seeing from everywhere.
• 12:17
  Um, and that's created a lot of new opportunities and, um, you know, and services that we can provide to our customers. Now, here's, here's my most interesting question of the day. Well, we'll be the judge of that. Yeah.
• 12:30
  No, you- Wow. Watch for your assumptions. [laughs] You watched this, okay? Here's my most interesting- Now you're really gonna have to work for it. [laughs] Have you, have you considered this?
• 12:39
  Because I'm only a few years away from this in my life. Paul's kind of into this world. Um, have you considered beginning to market this to dads that are letting their kids drive their cars- [laughs]...
• 12:51
  when they get that driving age, pulling into the driveway, just to know if things got a little awry while they were out? [laughs] 'Cause I'm just saying, there's a market segment there I feel like you could attract.
• 13:02
  [laughs] Uh, absolutely. It's- that's a before and after, right? Before the kid, uh- [laughs]... took the vehicle for the weekend, and after the weekend. [laughs] So, but absolutely. I'm seeing, like, a...
• 13:12
  You know what I would love to see?
• 13:13
  I would love to see a dealership deploy, like, a Pawn Stars style YouTube or, like, TV series where they have to break it to people that their car has the pliers holding things together.
• 13:26
  [laughs] It's like, like, there's nothing more entertaining than- I don't know how I feel about this... watching someone walk into Pawn Stars thinking that th- what they had- Yeah. Oh... was worth more than it is.
• 13:35
  They're about to retire. And it's like, "Sorry, this thing-" Right. [laughs] Yeah, yeah. And having just cameras set up as that thing goes through the UVI system.
• 13:43
  [laughs] And then the dealer having to break the news to the customer like, "Sorry, Karen, uh, [laughs] this thing's a hunk of crap. Let's put you in a paperweight." Your Porsche 911 is actually a Camry. With a kit.
• 13:53
  [laughs] Right. [laughs] It's a Camry with a kit. With a Porsche kit. Oh, man, that's great. That's good. So, okay. So, um, Amir, recently you, you won a award that I think is pretty coveted across the industry.
• 14:06
  Um, can you tell us about the award and, you know, kind of how you felt the moment that you found out you won it? S- so, absolutely.
• 14:14
  We won the Automotive News Award for the, um, All Star, uh, for the, in the fixed ops vendor category.
• 14:21
  Um, this is really, really, really exciting for us because, um, it kind of shows that the industry embrace and started to recognize, uh, what we were doing in the last two years.
• 14:32
  Um, so this is, you know, this is huge for us. And the fact that we were, you know, we, we were able to win the award from, um, from Automotive News, which is, um, which is huge. Um, this is really exciting for us.
• 14:46
  When we found out, we were really happy. And, you know, this is exactly what we wanted to do and to recognize in the last two years. Um, and still, we are doing so many things.
• 14:56
  Um, and, and I think this is, right now, this is only the beginning. Um, you know, we are working with a lot of dealerships where we have the relationship with GM, we have the relationship with Volvo.
• 15:07
  I mean, more and more dealerships will start getting our systems.
• 15:10
  Um, and, and, you know, this is, um, an amazing and exciting times for us, but also we have two more, um, segments in the market that we'll start deploying systems in the next few months.
• 15:21
  So we're also very, um, you know, we're working really hard on the fleet solution and also on the used car marketplaces. We work with CarMax, which is, you know, they're an amazing partner as well.
• 15:32
  Um, so definitely, hopefully next year we'll have, uh, another award on, uh, in a different segment. [laughs] Gonna need a trophy case. There you go. All right, tell me this. [laughs] What did...
• 15:41
  Did they send you something nice? What did they send you? [laughs] Like, I don't, what is... I, I hope, I hope KC Crane is watching this, because we're about to turn the heat up a little bit.
• 15:50
  Did you get, like, a golden play button or something like that? What'd you get? So, um, the, the funny thing is I'm not getting those stuff. [laughs] It's, uh, Samantha and Yaron.
• 15:59
  [laughs] So they're getting all the cool stuff. [laughs] And I'm, uh, and I'm not. And you just got to do this lousy interview, right? [laughs] Yeah, just like, "What about the interview?"
• 16:07
  They made you handle Street Jill Brons, right. [laughs] They're like, "Hey, Amir, this was really cool. Um, they, they wanted us to give this to you. It's a $25 gift certificate to Outback Steakhouse."
• 16:18
  [laughs] I think they have those in New Jersey. That's so rude, okay. So, so what is next?
• 16:23
  'Cause I, you know, like, as technologies change and grow and expand, and yours actually, like, changes and grows and expand, 'cause I've seen, like, the, you know, the, the set ne- next to it, and now it's got the big arch, I think you call it Artemis, where you see the whole car.
• 16:38
  But what's, what's next? Is it, like, micro refining? Is it understanding via learning? Is it connected platforms? Is it, what's next for UVI and, like, the way that it leverages technology to serve the industry?
• 16:49
  So in ADA, we, we introduced the Atlas Light, which is the, the, the system that scans the exterior, and it opened a lot of opportunities, especially for dealerships. Um, what's next?
• 16:59
  So, you know, the market is evolving. We see more EVs, and definitely understanding the wear and tear in EVs. Um, and understanding kind of, you know, we're starting to see really, um, excessive, uh, tire wear in EVs.
• 17:13
  And I think everyone are starting- Hmm... to realize why, because the batteries are really heavy, and we're seeing, um, the cars are, now weight a lot more, so it really affect the tires.
• 17:21
  Um, we're able to find issues, you know, in the battery cells, especially when we scan the undercarriage. So we're adding more and more features all the time.
• 17:29
  Uh, the beauty of the system is that we're, we don't really need to change the setup or the hardware.
• 17:34
  We keep working, the brains in the, the brain is in the software, so we keep adding more and more features all the time.
• 17:39
  Um, so, you know, with dealerships that is using our system today, just on a weekly basis, getting more and more features all the time.
• 17:45
  So EVs, autonomous vehicles, um, to understand the sensors of the vehicle and to understand if the vehicle is working, you know, properly, um, and all the sensors are working and if there are any issues.
• 17:57
  Um, and of course, more leveraging the data that we're collecting, offering additional services, maybe, you know, um, um, you know, uh, bringing more business opportunities to the dealerships that we work with.
• 18:09
  Um, so this is, these are kind of the things that we're working right now, and definitely we're gonna have a lot of announcements in the next few months.
• 18:15
  Have you seen any dealers-Purchase and install these in places other than, like, a service lane.
• 18:22
  [clicks tongue] I'm just thinking there's, there's, like, places that you could put this that would be high traffic that could lead to service revenue or to purchasing cars. Have you seen any of that at this point?
• 18:33
  So not necessarily dealerships, but absolutely, you know, other businesses. Uh, we are in touch with turnpikes that they would like to put the system in their service area.
• 18:44
  Um, so, you know, we can offer to people that are driving the, the, uh, the turnpike to scan their vehicle, understand if there are any safety issues, anything that they need to fix, um, so they can be perfectly safe, you know, and understand that their vehicle is safe.
• 18:59
  Uh, we're in touch with, you know, uh, with malls, uh, to put it as part of their parking lots. Um, so you can get an estimate for the vehicle.
• 19:08
  You can understand if something is wrong with the vehicle while you're going to the shopping mall.
• 19:13
  So absolutely, we will install more and more units that eventually will affect, and consumers [chime] will be able to see us in more places besides the dealerships. Uh, but right now we're focusing on the dealerships.
• 19:25
  That makes sense. Uh- How in the heck do you even c- like, I, I'm listening to all of this. [laughs] I get excited when I come up with, like, a new variation of a card game. [laughs] How do you... Like,
• 19:40
  cool, I've always wanted to own a 3D printer to maybe prototype something. [laughs] H- how do you even connect the dots?
• 19:48
  Like, what were you doing before all of this, before you came in touch with this ha- the hardware, and how do you even start sourcing to put stuff like this together? I- Like, this is what I wanna know.
• 19:58
  Maybe nobody else wants to know this listening to the show. I'm curious about this piece- [laughs]... because it, it, it, it interests me. It blows my mind how you're able to see an opening.
• 20:08
  Seeing an opening is one thing. Being able to then assemble- Right, driving over the guy at the, at the place. That's- Yes. Everybody's like, "This is wrong," right? Yes.
• 20:17
  But where do you go from this is wrong to this is solved? How do you- Yeah, like, I, I've got a drawer full of napkin business models. [laughs] You know what I mean? No doubt. How do you...
• 20:26
  What were the pieces that connected for you? Like, how do you even s- source a business model like this? So, uh, in my background, I'm an image processing engineer. Um, so I do a lot of computer vision. Okay.
• 20:37
  All the companies I've been involved with in the past, they were all around computer vision. Um, actually, my brother come from, he's the, you know, he's the other co-founder.
• 20:47
  Um, he comes more from the hardware side, um, working with cameras, um, understanding how to build a camera setup that will be able to do the 3D modeling and everything.
• 20:57
  Um, and basically, we've combined kind of our knowledge and experience, um, into building, building something. Um, and I, we have a really, really great team.
• 21:09
  Um, so all of our management and all of our employees are involved in kind of our strategy, what we would like to do next. Um, eventually, if you think about it, um,
• 21:20
  uh, uh, our computer vision engineers in UVI, um, although a lot of them didn't really know anything about cars before they started working with us- [laughs]... now they understand cars really, really, really good. Wow.
• 21:32
  Uh, because they're seeing all d- I mean, all day long, they're seeing kind of the examples, the images.
• 21:38
  Um, so, you know, we're seeing kind of a shift in the product requirements that is being moved or transitioned into kind of the abilities that our engineers are able to provide after they're seeing kind of all the data that we're able to, to collect, um, which is interesting.
• 21:54
  For a tech company, it's, it's a real interesting transition because basically, the ones that are now seeing the capabilities of the product are the engineers, uh- Wow... which is, which is really interesting.
• 22:06
  Y- yeah, I just, it, that kind of stuff blows my mind. I, I just feel like I need to say congratulations because, you know, I, we get so much praise, and I'm like, "What the flip did we do?"
• 22:16
  We m- we made sure multi-track was enabled and hit the record button. [laughs] [laughs] Nailed it. You know, like- Right? Fair. Honey, guess what I did at work today. Yeah, but I love hearing- I'll take it.
• 22:27
  [laughs] Yeah, I love hearing the kind of the behind-the-scenes story, and I think a lot of people in the industry do because so often we only get the NADA presentation or the- Right... webinar or speaking event.
• 22:37
  To be able to hear like, "No, there was this opening.
• 22:41
  We, we assembled these hard-to-assemble pieces into something that made sense, and, and it took shape," I think is so incredibly inspiring, not just for business owners in the auto industry, but for those that are on the front lines that are like, "How can I innovate inside of my day-to-day?"
• 22:58
  Or, or, you know, service writers or technicians.
• 23:02
  Like, there is so much that you can do inside of the sphere that you work inside of to come up with and move that heavy object and create a path forward that's bigger and bolder than you probably ever could have anticipated.
• 23:15
  So I, I think that's awesome. I love hearing that, stuff like that. Thank you. And I think it's really important also to have design partners.
• 23:22
  Um, so we, at the beginning when we deployed systems, we had kind of beta customers that understood that, you know, we're still learning, we're still understanding exactly what we're able to provide, um, and kind of what results we're able to, um, to provide.
• 23:38
  Um, so we had a lot of support from the industry as well, um, and that's amazing. You don't have a lot of industries where- Yeah...
• 23:45
  the actual customers are forward-thinking, understand that the market is changing, and now they would like to see what more they can do. Mm.
• 23:52
  Um, and you know, it's, it's amazing to, to work in an industry that you have a lot of, um, um, a lot of businesses and a lot of partners that are able to give you that ability. That's true.
• 24:04
  That is such a unique thing about the automotive industry, which is one of the reasons we love it so much, because it really is a big community that wants to see a win across the board, even if it doesn't directly translate right now to me getting ahead, right?
• 24:17
  Everyone's always in it together. Amir, uh, CEO, co-founder of UVI, thank you so much for spending some time with us today.Thank you for having me. Thanks a lot.
• 24:31
  Having a security guy lay under a vehicle to scan for potential threats- Somebody... is just a job that I'm not signing up for.
• 24:41
  [laughs] I, my, my immediate thought was like- Yeah, I'm, I'm waiting, I'm waiting for, like, the technicians. They're all, like, out in the lane, right? They're like, "Yeah, it's underneath here, guys."
• 24:49
  [laughs] You even had the audio, like, back away so it sounded like you were under the vehicle. [laughs] Expert level podcasting right there. [laughs] Expert level podcasting.
• 24:59
  Yeah, I was like, when he said that, I was like, there's a whole bunch of grunting that goes along with that, because I don't know a grown man that can't get down on the ground without- Down on one knee.
• 25:08
  [grunting] Then down on both knees. Yeah. And then the lean under the vehicle.
• 25:11
  Well, it's interesting, because this is very, you know, a, another friend of ours that is, that is originally not from this country, and we interviewed him a couple months back, which was, uh, s- uh, Slavic- Michael Cirillo.
• 25:22
  Oh, sorry... with, no, yeah, [laughs] he's from Canada.
• 25:26
  No, but Slavic, and, and similar story with car scanner, and he's like, "Yeah, I was doing this car rental return, and they couldn't tell me whether it was me or him, and so I just had to go solve for it."
• 25:38
  And the fact that this is a very similar story in not the same exact type of technology, but also looking at a car, that it's like, I saw someone doing this, and cameras and technology should be able to solve for that.
• 25:52
  And then to bring that from Homeland Security into auto, such an interesting just story, and, like, the way, Cirillo, you know, you, you saying just the way that people see the world and take things from idea to solution is a really big deal to me, because that's, that's not, that's not your everyday person.
• 26:11
  I feel like everybody and their brother goes into a restaurant and is like, "I could run this better." But nobody goes and runs it better.
• 26:17
  And- [laughs] And, uh, this is an example of a guy and a team that, that's doing that for multiple industries. I just think, like, we're, at time of recording this, we're, we're headed into the Thanksgiving holiday.
• 26:28
  Black Friday's coming up. There are legit people thinking a week in advance about how they can get in line early enough to get $27 off a Zenith TV. [laughs] I don't, that ain't me anymore, man. Zenith.
• 26:39
  And he's like- Oh, boy... how do I assemble all of this hardware to scan cars to tell you how rusty they are? [laughs] Meanwhile- Like, I'm like, damn, shit...
• 26:47
  we're like, how do I position my fat pants in the right spot that halfway through the day I can grab them and keep going? [laughs] Do you know what I'm saying? Oh. I think we all understand what's going on here.
• 26:58
  Either way, thank you so much for spending some time with us today.
• 27:02
  Um, it is so much fun to just see this ingenuity and these personalities coming into automotive and really shaping in the future to, to things that in, at some point in the future we're gonna be like, "That's not the way it always has been," because it makes that much sense.
• 27:15
  On behalf of Kyle Mounseer, Michael Cirillo, and myself, thank you for listening to Auto Collapse.
• 27:19
  Sign up for our free and fun to read daily email for a free shot of relevant news in automotive, retail, media, and pop culture. You can get it now at asotu.com. That's A-S-O-T-U.com.
• 27:32
  If you love this podcast, please leave us a review and share it with a friend. Thanks again for listening. We'll see you next time.
• 27:38
  [upbeat music] Welcome to Auto Collapse. Welcome to Auto Collapse. [laughs] Are we recording? Are we rolling yet?
• 27:57
  Not yet.