Sheryl Sandberg is leading a $10 million investment in an AI-powered vehicle inspection service

Sheryl Sandberg led a $10 million investment in… Self inspectiona San Diego-based startup that is also backed by former Tesla CEO John McNeil’s DVx Ventures.

The startup, founded in 2021, has He has spent the past few years trying to disrupt the vehicle inspection process By making it possible to correctly assess damage to a car body using as little technology as a smartphone camera. Self Inspection told TechCrunch that it has already completed more than 1 million vehicle inspections for rental fleets, auto finance companies, auctions and marketplaces, with Stellantis’ financial services arm using the platform for corporate-owned vehicles and end-of-lease inspections.

“The biggest technology companies are created by transforming industries that are huge, essential, and ripe for change,” Sandberg said in a statement to TechCrunch. “Vehicle condition amounts to billions of dollars in automotive decisions each year, yet data remains fragmented. This is changing. We believe self-checking will build the scoring system the auto industry needs.”

The funding round was led by her family office, Sandberg Bernthal Venture Partners, with strategic investment from US tire distributor AutoForce and auto bank Westlake Financial. Early-stage funds Costanoa Ventures, Rebellion Ventures and BrightCap Ventures also invested.

Self Inspection is one of a number of startups trying to use artificial intelligence to modernize the automotive industry. Thomas and Fly They are trying to improve the agency’s communication with voice agents. BidBus enables agents to do just that Submit competitive bidding on privately owned vehicles.

Other startups like UVeye have made a move greaterAn infrastructure-level approach to modernizing vehicle inspections.

But a big part of Self Inspection’s pitch is simplicity. The company sells its software to clients like Stellantis, and this software allows the customer to send a link to anyone with a smartphone so they can upload photos of the car. The self-check software guides the user through the process, making sure the entire vehicle is covered.

CEO Konstantin Yaremitso told TechCrunch last year that the company mainly benefits from the fact that “everyone has a good camera” and “knows how to take pictures.”

From there, the images are compared to what Self Inspection describes as “one of the largest datasets of damaged vehicles” to detect the presence and severity of any damage. The startup software then issues a cost estimate and a detailed inspection report.

“What we provide is actually a fully detailed PDF report, which you would normally only get from an auto body shop, which will tell you what work needs to be done to address the damage, the cost of the repair, how many parts you need, etc.,” Yarimtsu said. He added that the self-check can also pull data from the obd2 computer to get more detailed information.

Self Inspection told TechCrunch that its platform has already helped its customers reduce their costs by more than $80 million and save more than 300,000 operating hours. The startup plans to use the new funding to build more products, reach more enterprise customers, and expand into Europe.