Artificial Intelligence can enable an amateur to capture expert images of a damaged -- or undamaged -- ... [ ] vehicle, according to Ravin AI. High-tech companies are bringing Artificial Intelligence to bear on the vehicle-inspection process. That sounds a little dry, but it's potentially a game-changer for anyone with a smartphone who wants to file an insurance claim, pick up or drop off a rent-a-car or a ride-share, turn in a lease vehicle, or someday, make a dealership service appointment, knowing in advance what's wrong with the vehicle. "I call it'proliferation of inspection,' " said Eliron Ekstein, co-founder and CEO of Ravin AI, based in London, with offices in Israel and Austin, Texas. "Traditionally, you have to bring the car to an auto auction, or to a special place at a dealership, and have a specialist look at it. We see a need to inspect vehicles during their use by non-professionals, by ordinary people like you and me," he said in a phone interview.

More than one billion car inspections are done every year by car rental companies and insurance companies. Israeli start-up Ravin wants to simplify that process, using artificial intelligence to allow anyone with a smartphone to be able to file an auto report. "The problem today is that most of these inspections are done manually by people who are subjectively choosing what to report," said Ravin CEO Eliron Ekstein. "If you think about a leasing company, when you bring the car back to the dealer, you leave it there, and then it might be a week or two until it gets inspected. And then, you might receive a bill for damages in the mail later. That creates a pretty poor customer experience, and causes a lot of problems in the industry."