The Future of Automated Periodic Vehicle Inspection (MOT)
Background
Periodic vehicle inspections or the Ministry of Transport (MOT) test is a procedure mandated by national governments in many countries to ensure that a vehicle conforms to both safety and emission regulations.
For example, there are over 23,500 local car repair facilities across the UK alone, employing more than 65,800 inspectors, who are authorized to perform testing and issue certificates. Local examiners are accountable for ensuring these facilities meet the regional MOT standards, and investing many resources into assessing these facilities every one to three years. All this is meant to identify and target MOT facilities that are not testing vehicles properly, and therefore, endangering people’s lives.
In the last couple of years, many transport ministries around the world have decided to privatize this inspection process and potentially automate it as well, to increase transparency with vehicle owners and support the efficiency of the testing facility.
There is No Efficient track Record of Vehicle Modifications
Many countries require testing facilities to document modified parts and changes in any vehicle and provide law enforcement institutions with access to those records, eliminating the risk of illegal attempts to modify or enhance vehicle performance.
There is a challenge in obtaining dynamic, objective, and high-resolution documentation for every vehicle that went through this periodic testing. MOTs need to record every single violation or modification and grant online access to the relevant parties.
The Average Vehicle Inspection Takes Over 10 Minutes per Vehicle
MOT facilities need to use several mechanical operators and dedicate at least 10 minutes of work to every single vehicle to identify various types of mechanical defects to the vehicle.
As more vehicles are added every year, this results in overload and congestion of the existing inspection lanes. Bigger spaces with multiple lanes are needed to support the increasing number of vehicles coming for the certifications.
AI to Improve Periodic Vehicle Inspection
New technologies, such as artificial intelligence, present a real opportunity for governments to operate smarter, dramatically improve services, and most importantly, make roads safer.
For example, they can invest in quick and efficient multi-lane inspection, to manage the time of mechanics more efficiently and allow them to focus on more crucial inspection and damage assessment tasks.
Entirely automated AI-based MOT test lanes, allowing a full MOT test to be operated quickly and seamlessly via one platform, offer a more efficient and better level of service for customers.
Automated Vehicle Inspection Use Cases:
One Global Standard — Ensuring MOT Standards Remain High
UVeye can put MOT facilities at the forefront of technology with automatic inspection systems at certified inspection centers.
When utilizing artificial intelligence and deep learning algorithms, MOT testers can rely on an objective source of truth for quicker and more effective inspections. Meanwhile, they will improve customer trust and satisfaction, as high-resolution images of the inspections (like of the undercarriage, or the tires) are automatically documented and can be used for future reference in a fully transparent process.
UVeye inspection can decrease examination time by 40% per vehicle and provide full cloud access to the documentation produced by the systems with an objective report that can be shared with the authorities.
• Reduces human error | UVeye's AI complementary approach serves to identify where mistakes might be occurring in the MOT test.
• Full access to the historical data | automatic digitized documentation of any inspected vehicle.
• Saves time & dramatically reduces the cost per inspection | by implementing efficient, automatic and digital methods, the annual volume of vehicle inspections, without changing the operation can be increased or additional space or workforce.
• No lift or inspection pit is required | more space, fewer operation costs.
Could the Annual MOT Test Become a Thing of the Past?
MOT tests won’t be annual — but instead happen in real-time
These days, an inspection can be required at various times, periodically, or upon transfer of the title to a vehicle, and proof of inspection is required before a vehicle license can be issued or renewed. In the future, during every routine inspection, all the necessary information will be sent directly to the authorities and a virtual MOT certificate will be issued — verified via the Vehicle Unique ID feature by UVeye.
Summary
Adopting UVeye’s automated solutions can provide certified Ministry of Transport facilities an opportunity to rise above the rest, adopt cutting-edge technology, and record a layer of data that didn’t exist before.
In the world of competitive workshops and certification facilities, it is important to validate customer trust and satisfaction, and to provide an objective analysis of any issue, ensuring safe roadworthiness for vehicles and documenting modifications and vehicle status.
