Modern vehicle repair service provider Kinetic Automation recently introduced robots to fix electric vehicles, with plans to expand the coverage to include robotaxis someday.
Kinetic lands $21M to revolutionize EV repair system
According to a recent press release, Kinetic has secured $21 million in a Series B Financing round to fund its ambition of pioneering digital repair for electric and autonomous vehicles.
Menlo Ventures’ Shawn Carolan led the funding round. The company’s major internal investors, Lux Capital’s Bilal Zuberi, Construct Capital’s Rachel Holt, and Haystack Ventures’ Semil Shah, participated in the fundraising.
Kinetic also disclosed that it landed investments from the venture arms of Liberty Mutual Insurance and Allstate Insurance, along with its “early angel investors.”
“They were saying, ‘This reduced our cycle time by days.’ Or ‘We got cars back to customers faster and cheaper,’ and ‘This made my life way easier.’ So we knew this was already solving a tremendous pain point.”
Menlo Ventures’ Partner Shawn Carolan
Kinetic’s Robots rev up EV repairs, someday robotaxis
Kinetic’s innovations include a robotic system, computer vision, and machine learning software to streamline diagnosis for electric vehicles and other modern cars. Its system also enables fast recalibration of sensors and software.
The company claims to have developed a robotic system that employs computer vision and machine-learning software to rapidly diagnose issues with an electric vehicle’s digital systems.
While existing collision repair shops can easily fix the physical damage from a collision, the process can be time-consuming and expensive for digital repairs because they must carefully check that all the important features, like sensors and computers, are working properly.
In response, Kinetic deploys its robotic systems and technicians to aid body shops and dealerships fix the intricate “digital” aspects of electric vehicles and robotaxis someday.
To be specific, Kinetic’s service bay employs smart cameras, including one on a robotic arm, to scan a car entirely. This scan identifies what area needs software updates or recalibration, and then the company’s software fixes it automatically.
“Modern vehicles are increasingly built around a central software architecture, incorporating numerous sensor-enabled systems for driver assistance. Kinetic is at the forefront of this transformation, focusing on digital repair services for these advanced systems.”
Kinetic Automation
Advantages
Electric vehicle adoption remains progressive in the US. However, EV sales growth has slowed down this year partly due to the high insurance and repair costs.
According to JD Power’s 2024 EVX-Ownership Study, only 26% of American customers were “very likely to consider purchasing” an electric car in 2025, and over 20% were “very unlikely to consider an EV purchase” despite the technology’s climate advantages.
Kinetic’s cutting-edge repair system can encourage car buyers to consider EVs over gas-powered cars, potentially boosting electric vehicle sales in the coming years.
Kinetic offers diagnostics and recalibration of modern vehicles’ high-tech systems. In effect, it substantially lowers costs and diminishes the time associated with modern vehicle repairs.
Kinetic currently focuses on electric vehicles in the US, gradually expanding to include robotaxis and other autonomous vehicles.
