Indian Automotive Space is going through a transition and this transition can become smoother and faster through the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning to study customer behaviour, buying patterns, predict demand, plan supply and design innovative products. Founded in September 2015, Let’s Service Automotive is working closely with the original equipment manufacturers and their dealership networks to help them deliver good customer experience and know more about their customers through the application of ML.
Analytics India Magazine caught up with Sachin Shenoy, co-founder and CEO of Let’s Service to gain insights on how the company is utilising the emerging technologies. Shenoy with the other co-founders Girish Gangadhar and Sachin Radder started Let’s Service with solving a small use case of delivering the convenience of doorstep pickup and drop for periodic maintenance so that customers do not have to go through the hassle of visiting authorised service centres. Regarding funding, Shenoy said, “The company has raised funds from a group of tenured investors and they continue to back us, as they deeply believe in the business and also the opportunity that lies ahead for the company.”
Use Of AI & ML
In the pickup and drop business, the company uses recommendation algorithms in the internal operations to match the demand and supply of the customers and in the software suite for some critical use-cases. On the IoT front, the company is using accelerometer and gyroscope readings to deliver the same insights which IoT devices do, which makes it more scalable without having the dependency and hassle of fitting a device on the vehicle.
Tech Team
The core tech stack of the company is a combination of multiple technologies like Java, PHP at the back-end, MySQL on the database and tools and technologies like Python, React, Angular JS, Ionic, NodeJS, Redis, AWS, Zeplin, etc. The company currently has 2 products on the market. The first one being a Doorstep Pickup and Drop Assistance Membership for periodic maintenance sold to vehicle owners and second, being the suite of software products sold to auto dealerships. There are more than 25 members in the engineering team.
Regarding the tech team, Shenoy stated, “I personally believe in the idea of hiring someone who has 60% hunger and 40% talent/skills. We as a company believe that as long as the hunger is present to achieve, people will keep punching above their weight and deliver impact.”
Roadmap
The company has scaled the overall business with Pickup and Drop services being delivered in 27 Indian Cities today, and also sold the suite of software products in more than 180+ cities and towns in India. The latest product is called the “Smart Ride Club” which is a membership program for vehicle owners in India. The product is inviting Beta customers currently and running pilots at a few select locations in Bengaluru.
The vision of the company is to “Simplify Vehicle Ownership.” Sachin stated, “Our job as a company is to become a Concierge for vehicle owners where all the above tasks can be performed at one single place without breaking a sweat and saving tons of time and money in the process. We are well on our way to achieving this goal and we will keep creating value for all stakeholders involved as we go along.”
