Lubner: We Are Equipped Worldwide to Deliver ADAS Calibration

Gary Lubner, Belron CEO, speaking during investor day in London last week.

“All cars now are going to have these Advanced Driver Assistance Systems [ADAS] and if you don’t get the calibration right, it has pretty serious consequences and so we are obviously speaking to insurance companies around the world. We are now equipped worldwide to be able to deliver ADAS calibration,” said Gary Lubner, CEO of Belron during an investor day conference for D’Ieteren held last week in London. D’Ieteren is parent company to Belron and United States-based Safelite.

The amount of technology being integrated into and around windshields is increasing, he explained. And that means the demands on AGRR technicians are growing as well.

“All of these ADAS programs have cameras mounted on the windscreen and we are going to have to replace these windscreens and calibrate the systems,” Lubner said. “It is not only going to be critical from a safety point of view, it’s also critical for insurance companies that the people they get to do this are doing it right.”

Belron’s German business, Carglass, has rolled out a commercial based on this calibration protocol.

“ADAS is only 7 percent of total cars, but that is going to grow exponentially. In some countries it’s only 1 or 2 percent of vehicles, in other countries it’s a bit higher,” he said.

Belron’s United Kingdom-based company Autoglass® says it has launched a solution in October to replace and recalibrate windshields equipped with ADAS.

In addition to preparing for ADAS systems, ensuring the technician has the right windshield for each vehicle is becoming more of a challenge, Lubner added.

“The latest Ford Focus has 15 different windscreens for exactly the same car. That’s because some cars have ADAS cameras, some have a rain sensors and some are different colors or tints,” he explained. “When someone phones up and says I have a Ford Focus, we have to have the systems, technology, intelligence—both human and computer—to identify which is the right piece of glass.”

Belron also commissioned a variety of industry experts to shed some light on what the future of windshields will look like in a new report.

“Drawing on their insights, the ‘Window to the Future’ report paints a picture of the future of cars and driving and highlights how our driving lives will be changed by the integration of new technology, communication and safety features into the windshields of tomorrow,” writes Lubner in the report.

For more from Lubner during the investor day event, stay tuned to glassBYTEs.com™.

To read a copy of the investor report, click here.