Amir Hever of UVeye
An exclusive Tech Tribune Q&A with Amir Hever (co-founder and CEO) of UVeye, which was honored in our:
Tell us the origin story of UVeye – what problem were you trying to solve and why?
UVeye was founded in 2016. We originally had a solution to scan and detect bombs/illicit materials attached to the underbody of vehicles in access control points such as embassies, seaports, airports, border control, etc. Our systems utilize computer vision and machine learning, reconstructing the different areas of a vehicle and assessing the situation. We very quickly understood that the automotive market and mainly dealerships, auctions, and fleets can greatly benefit from automatic vehicle inspection and thus developed more products to fully diagnose the mechanical and safety situation of a vehicle. Our devices can tell you anything that’s wrong with your vehicle with only a drive through, such as worn tires, leaks, undercarriage damage, scratches, dents, and more. We’ve installed over 300 sites to date all across the world (mainly in the United States) and opened our USA headquarters in Teaneck, NJ, as well as an office in Cleveland, Ohio.
What was the biggest hurdle you encountered in your journey?
We kept adapting quickly and making sure our product fits well in the automotive space, while also creating a great customer experience. In that manner, we kept making our footprint more elegant while maintaining a high technology standard, and that took us time. We got to know our customers better and better while using local talent from the United States and from the automotive field, and we eventually reached a point where our products give great value and really enhance any car dealership, auction, or fleet space. We also formed great partnerships along the way with companies such as General Motors, Volvo Cars USA, and Carmax.
What does the future hold for UVeye?
UVeye keeps innovating and improving the process for inspecting vehicles, as well as continuing to develop new capabilities such as EV battery health scanning, an interior camera evidencing the inside of the vehicle which we just released, and much more. We are growing throughout all of North America and installing within the Volvo and General Motor dealers network, as well as scaling with Carmax.
What are your thoughts on the local tech startup scene in New Jersey?
We love it as we are very close to Manhattan, but also enjoy the local services and a great talent pool. We are close to Volvo’s HQ in Mahwah, while also being only 30 minutes away from a meeting in New York. We have found that there are great people both in the tech and automotive scenes in the state and we have been very lucky to find a great office and HQ space at Glenpointe, Teaneck.
What’s your best advice for aspiring entrepreneurs?
Be quick and agile to adapt your product to the needs of the market. We have kept flexible and open minded to keep giving better value to our clients, and if you take your car to one of the dealerships using UVeye in NJ or anywhere else, I am confident you will see a great customer experience that has very much evolved as we’ve grown.