Ron Ananian, The Car Doctor - May 2, 2026 - Hunter Engineering - Your Car Is Watching: Why ADAS Changes Everything
Ron Ananian The Car Doctor
Ron Ananian The Car DoctorMay 3, 2026
Ron Ananian, The Car Doctor - May 2, 2026 - Hunter Engineering - Your Car Is Watching: Why ADAS Changes Everything
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Concept
ADAS changes everything
The show is saying that newer safety tech changes how you think about your car. Because it uses cameras and sensors, repairs and adjustments can matter a lot for whether the safety features work correctly.
The speaker is basically talking about the same thing as ADAS—newer car safety features. They’re asking what the abbreviation means and how you can recognize when your car has it.
Your blind spot is the part of the road next to your car that you can’t see well from the driver’s seat. Some cars use sensors to warn you when something is there.
Cruise control is the feature that holds your speed steady so you don’t have to keep your foot on the gas. It’s one of the older “helper” systems that led to more advanced ones.
ADAS are safety and convenience features that help the car “see” what’s happening around you. They can warn you or even help control the car, using sensors like cameras and radar.
Subaru is brought up as an example that different car brands can set up their safety cameras differently. So the exact sensor layout can vary from one brand to another.
A front camera is a sensor that watches the road ahead. The car uses it to understand things like lanes and nearby cars so it can warn you or assist you.
Radar is a sensor that “pings” with radio waves to figure out how far away something is and whether it’s moving toward you. It helps the car judge distance for safety features.
A 360-degree view uses cameras around the car to show you what’s around it from above. It’s especially helpful when parking or pulling out of tight spots.
ADAS features are connected to other parts of the car. If something goes wrong with one sensor or camera, it can confuse the system and trigger warnings or problems.
An ADAS problem means the car thinks something is wrong with its safety tech. If the camera can’t see properly, the car may warn you and turn off some features.
If you put the wrong wiper blades on, they may cover or hit the camera area. That can make the car think there’s a problem with the safety camera system.
Automatic cruise control keeps your speed steady. Some versions also react to traffic ahead, and they can stop working if the car’s sensors can’t see clearly.
They’re saying today’s “assist” features are a stepping stone toward fully self-driving cars. Even before full automation, these systems can already help prevent accidents.
V2X is when cars “talk” to things around them—like traffic lights or emergency vehicles. That helps the car warn you or slow down before a dangerous situation happens.
It’s the idea that traffic lights can send information to cars. Then the car can slow down earlier and more safely instead of waiting until the last moment.
They’re talking about emergency vehicles being “seen” by other cars. The car could warn you or help you slow down so emergency responders can get through safely.
They’re talking about systems that help protect people walking near traffic. The car can detect a pedestrian and try to avoid hitting them or reduce the impact.
High beams are the bright headlights you use when there aren’t other cars around. Some cars automatically manage when to use them, and that can depend on the car’s sensors and correct headlight setup.
Automatic headlights turn the lights on when it gets dark and off when it’s bright enough. On newer cars, they’re connected to other safety systems, so replacing parts may require extra setup so the car’s sensors and computers still agree.
A module is a computer in the car that controls a specific system. If it’s not set up for your exact car after you replace parts, the car may get confused and turn on warning lights or shut down related safety features.
Calibration is the car’s way of “re-learning” where its sensors are aimed. If you replace parts or do work that changes how the car sits or how glass/sensors are mounted, the camera may need to be re-aimed so safety features work properly.
The ABS light means the car’s anti-lock braking system has a problem. Sometimes other electronic issues can cause it to come on too, especially if the car thinks sensors or modules aren’t working together.
Stability control helps keep the car from sliding out of control. If the car detects a problem with the sensors or electronics that it uses to manage traction, it can turn on a warning light.
Halogen is the older style of headlight bulb. If you replace halogen lights with a different type like LED, the car may need additional setup so everything stays aligned and properly controlled.
LED refers to light-emitting diode headlight technology. Converting from halogen to LED can require correct vehicle-specific control/module programming and calibration so the lighting and camera-based systems behave as designed.
Wheel alignment is the adjustment of suspension angles (like toe and camber) so the tires track correctly. With camera-based ADAS, alignment errors can shift the car’s geometry enough to affect how the camera’s view maps to the road, potentially degrading calibration and safety behavior.
Replacing a windshield can affect the car’s safety camera system. The camera needs clear glass and the sensor mounting needs to be placed correctly, otherwise the car may not calibrate and may warn you or disable features.
Thrust angle is a way alignment shops describe whether the car’s wheels are pointing straight down the road. If it’s off, the car can drift slightly, and that can confuse camera-based safety systems.
Negative camber is when the tire leans inward at the top. That can make tires wear unevenly, so alignment adjustments may be needed to bring the tire back to the right angle.
The upper strut mount is the connection point at the top of the suspension strut. Since it affects how the wheel sits, changing or adjusting it can help fix alignment and tire wear.
An eccentric kit is a special adjustable part that lets a shop change the wheel angle a little without replacing major components. Here, it’s used to correct camber so the tires don’t wear out unevenly.
A scan tool is a computer that plugs into the car to talk to its electronics. After certain repairs, the car needs to be “told” the new settings, and that’s usually done with this tool.
Emergency brakes are the car’s systems meant to help stop quickly in dangerous situations. If the braking hardware or settings aren’t correct after repairs, the emergency/assistance behavior can be affected.
Brake bleeding removes trapped air from the brake lines. Air in the system can make the brakes feel wrong or less effective, so the car needs the brakes “purged” after certain repairs.
Parking brakes are the brakes used to hold the car when it’s parked. On newer cars, they can be electronically controlled and may need re-setting after brake work.
This is the car’s way of keeping track of how worn the brake pads are. If you replace pads but don’t reset the reminder system, the car may keep showing brake warnings.
Tire pressure sensors tell you if a tire’s pressure is off. After you rotate or change tires, the car sometimes needs to be told the new tire positions so the warnings don’t stay wrong.
Modern cars have multiple safety features that can work together. If one of them isn’t set up right after a repair, the car might do something unexpected—like braking or steering when you didn’t intend it. That can make an already stressful situation worse.
These are the car’s “smart safety” features. They can help by warning you or even controlling things like braking and steering. If they aren’t set up correctly after a repair, they can act at the wrong time.
ADAS training is special training for mechanics on the car’s advanced safety features. Since these systems can sometimes control braking or steering, the shop needs to set them up correctly. The goal is to reduce the chance of the safety features acting wrong after a repair.
The hosts are talking about repair shops and whether they’re actually qualified to do the kind of work that affects the car’s safety sensors. Not every shop handles ADAS repairs the same way. Choosing the right shop can help prevent the safety features from malfunctioning.
Recalibration is like re-setting the car’s safety sensors so they’re accurate again. If the car was repaired or adjusted, the system may need to be re-checked so it can judge distance and lane position correctly.
ADAS uses sensors to understand what’s around you. A camera looks at the scene, and radar measures how far away things are and how fast they’re moving.
An alignment service adjusts how the wheels point. Since the car’s safety sensors are attached to the car, changing alignment can affect how accurately the ADAS system reads the road.
Automatic braking is a safety feature that can slow the car down by itself if it thinks a crash is about to happen. It depends on the sensors being set up correctly.
ADAS warning lights are the dashboard alerts that show the safety system has a problem. Sometimes the car warns you, but the speaker says it’s possible for issues to exist without a warning if the system is installed or aimed wrong.
An oxygen sensor is part of the engine’s emissions system. It checks exhaust gases so the car can adjust fuel delivery, and it can trigger warning lights if its readings don’t make sense.
The check engine light is a warning that something in the car’s systems may not be working correctly. In this discussion, it’s mentioned as an example of how the car alerts you when a sensor reading seems wrong.
Telematics is the car’s ability to connect to a phone/app and share information like location. If your car is being calibrated while driving, the app may show movement that surprises you.
Targets are the calibration “reference objects” the shop sets up in front of the car. They give the sensors something known to aim at so the system can be adjusted correctly.
Term
trihedrals
These “trihedrals” are special radar targets used for calibration. They’re shaped so the radar signal bounces back clearly, making it easier to confirm the radar is pointed correctly.
Hunter Engineering makes the equipment shops use to calibrate advanced safety systems. The goal is to make sure the car’s sensors and cameras “line up” correctly after repairs.
A Dodge Ram is a large pickup truck made for hauling things and everyday work. If someone mentions a Ram used by a delivery company, they’re usually talking about how it performs and what repairs or problems can show up with regular driving. It’s a practical example of truck ownership.
OEM procedures are the “manufacturer’s instructions” for repairs and calibrations. For safety tech, using the exact steps matters because it helps the sensors end up positioned correctly.
Term
camera technology
This is the car’s camera-based safety system. Since the camera has to “see” the road in a specific way, it may need calibration so it lines up with the car’s sensors and software.
Term
laser technology
Laser technology is used to measure very precisely. In calibration, it helps make sure the targets are placed exactly where the car’s sensors expect them to be.
An OEM approved tool is the “official” type of equipment the carmaker says should be used for certain repairs. It helps make sure the job is done the right way and can protect the shop if there’s a problem later.
Liability means the shop could be blamed if something goes wrong after the repair. Using the right approved tools and procedures helps show the work was done correctly.
Different car brands can require different calibration steps. That means a shop can’t always use one “universal” setup for every vehicle.
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and ready to take your call.
Safety is probably the number one concern driving an automobile.
Hello listeners, Ronanani and the Car Doctor at your service, and safety in automobiles has improved drastically over the years.
Right if you compare a nineteen fifties automobile, Oh, I'll make it. I'll make it a little easier a nineteen
sixties automobile to something modern day. The differences are night
and day, right, no kidding around. But in recent years,
and I don't think it's been that recent, and our guest will be able to probably give us a better idea.
I would say within the last ten to twelve years, a DOS has come along and this is a safety system that helps keep us on track, helps keep the car straight, and does a whole bunch of other things.
And if you've got a vehicle with a DOS, you know what I'm talking about. But before I go too
much further, Steve Dawson. He is the regional a DOS
training director for Hunter Engineering and we're happy to have him.
He is a nationally recognized expert. Steve, Welcome to the
car doctor, sir.
Thanks for having me Ron, I appreciate the opportunity.
Let's start at the beginning. What is a DOS. What
does it stand for? You know, if I'm a consumer,
if I'm driving a vehicle with ADOS, how will I know what are the signs?
Well, so let's start out with what is ADS. So
it's advanced driver assists systems, which ironically actually started back in the seventies when we started with some of our first cruise controls, and they've been functions we've used over the years of its cruise control or abs, brakes and those kinds of things, but as in recent years, it's really kind of come supercharged, and most of you will know that as you're driving a car, you'll have bells, beats, and buzzers, steeringwhel may vibrate, you might have a lighter ding because of a car passing you in your blind spot,
or you get too close at an intersection and the car beeps that he tells you to stop. So in
a lot of the cases people buy cars specifically, it was she had a dealership yesterday and asking the sales rep that how many customers come in asking for those systems?
And he said, over the last year it's changed drastically that people are coming in saying, I want to buy a car that has you know, the eight AS systems on it.
Do they I wonder if they ask for it by name, AID DOS or is it a safety system to them?
But I guess that's not necessarily relevant to this conversation.
You wonder how educated people are at this point because they get in the car and you know, if you're driving along in your car and you venture out of lane.
All kinds of things happen, right, and it just sort of wakes everybody up, like, you know, oh wow, look at this. It's it's telling me what I'm doing wrong.
Some of the common features Steve that a DOS may be there in there. You know, it's in their mirrors,
it's in it's there's a front camera, back camera. Can
you walk us through some of the obvious stuff.
So, so typically, when if a car's got ad as systems, it's gonna have a front camera, so you're gonna have a little triangle in the window. Less it's a Subaru,
than it's gonna have two cameras. It's gonna have a
radar unit in the front bumper or in the front grill that's measuring distance and that sort of thing. And
then you may have cameras or radars around on the corners of the car, so for blind spots, you might have them in a rear corners. Some of the newer
cars have them in front corners, and then you'll have cameras all the way around it. So you have that
three hundred and sixty degree view and everybody thinks that, man, how'd they get a drone flying over my car every time I put it in reverse. Well, that's an eight
ASA system that allows for parking assistance or for guidance as you're pulling in and out of a parking spot.
But all of those are eight AS systems, and all of those systems interact with all of the other systems of your car. You're braking, systems, steering, you name it.
Subsequently, you do something to one system, it can affect ADOS, right, So everything has to work together, communicate correct parts. I've
heard stories. I've seen it once, Incorrect wiper blades wipe
in front of the camera and create an ADOS problem.
Truth to that.
Steve absolutely was with one the other day that they put a twenty four inch wiper blade on instead of the twenty one that it called for, and it created an issue. It turned on some lights every time that
wiper would go across the camera. Absolutely, we've had them
where people have put on those the stickers, you know, back in the day in the seventies and eighties, we'd put those stickers across the top of our windshield. We
would put those kind of things on and all of a sudden, they have an eight ASS light. I had
my mother in law's a Subaru. She was driving up
to New Jersey and she put her easy pass on and she put it in the wrong spot, blocked one of the cameras, and her automatic cruise control didn't work, and her crisp control didn't work as well as she had about three or four lights on on the dashboard because all of the eight as systems couldn't work because one of the cameras was blocked.
ADOS isn't going away, right, Steve. For the people out
there thinking, hey, I want a simple car, I can't wait for the day when they get rid of it, AIDOS is really it's really the bridge between what we're driving now and the automated vehicle, right. I mean we're
going to see we see automated vehicles now, but they're going to become more mainstream in the coming years.
Correct, They're actually absolutely going to become more mainstream. But
it's also even without them becoming mainstream, the statistics are there that it's saving lives, saving injuries, and reducing the severity of crashes. So I don't see it going anywhere.
Every industry that's involved with it is getting benefits, and ironically that's why the dealership. When I asked him about it,
he see, you know a lot of people come asking for those systems because they know that they get an insurance discount if they have those systems on their cars.
Have you less likely to get in a severe crash?
Have you seen the stories that they pop up from time to time that theoretically they kind of expand on it and they say, you know, in the future world, if everybody had a vehicle that was automated, fully aid US equipped, you know, traffic lights would go away, traffic would go away, they would be able to synchronize traffic better, the amount of accidents would drop drastically to the point that you know, it would affect the industry that there wouldn't be as much collision work. And I've seen these
and I look at it and I say, is that fantasy, Steve?
Or is that a potential reality?
So actually, what's very near on the horizon is what we call vita X technology, which is Vehicle to Everything technology.
So I'm on a group in Maryland that is the Maryland Connected and Automated Vehicle Working Group that is built with the IAHS and NTSB and DOT and all of those, all of the federal alphabet SOUP agencies in and around traffic related things, and they're working to where the traffic lights would communicate with the cars. So imagine you're behind
a tractor trailer. You can't see anything in front of you,
but the traffic light tells your are that it's turning yellow and puts a notice on your dashboard to tell you that it's you know, it's turning yellow. And from
that point then the car can start interacting and slow down so that it safely comes to a stop at the red light. Same thing with emergency vehicles, ambulances and
fire trucks coming up behind you, putting an alert on your dashboard and letting you know that they're coming. And
that even goes the other way to a pedestrian walking down the street. It can communicate to them that hey,
here's a car coming that's not stopping.
Oh, you know the pedestrian thing in the dark, dark road, dark city street, back areas where lighting isn't great at night, And I've read those reports pedestrians somebody stepping in front of the vehicle not realizing and the car does. The
car does its best to keep that person safe and alive.
It's it's phenomenal.
You know, it's one of the ironic things when it comes to lighting like that is you know, a lot of new cars now have automatic headlights where it automatic the headlights are automatic coming on, but then they also the high beams come on as soon as light goes down, you know, as soon as there's not enough light. And
a lot of people think that, oh, that was added as a convenience factor. Well, the reality that was added
so that the aights camera has a better view of what's in front of it and can react better. So
you go and replace a head light bulb or a headlight assembly and you don't reprogram the module. You may
have ten lights on your dashboard because that module is not communicator, is not programmed to the car, and that means your eight S system doesn't work, which means your brake light is now on, your all your suspension and you know, your stability control, your ABS light, all of those lights come on because now that system doesn't have all the components that it's looking for on the whole m bus system.
So wrong length wiper blades, wiping in front of the camera and every day repair that can trigger a problem with a DOS incorrect headlight bulbs. If I convert and
I go from a halogen to an LED, or I change a module and I don't do a calibration, that can affect a DOS. What about what about other things?
You know?
Can a wheel alignment or an incorrectly done wheel alignment, can tire suspension work? Could windshield replacement affect a DOOS calibration?
Oh? Absolutely all of those will for various ways. Like
windshields is the number one thing that we see across the industry because if we don't have clean enough glass or clear enough glass. So if you think about glasses
really just pressurized sand, it gets polished. If it doesn't
get polished smooth enough, it will have distortions that the camera is looking through and it can't get a good image of what it's supposed to look at, and it will not interact or it may not calibrate. So that's
a factor. If the plastic bracket that was mounted to
the glass was not mounted correctly on that piece of glass, that can be a factor as well. As I had
one not too long ago in our training center that they wanted to do some calibration work on it, and I looked at the little window where the VEN number is at the base of the windshield, and the VEN number was crooked. And I looked at the windshield and
the wind shield was touching the roofline on one side and about three eighths of an inch off of it on the other side. And it was not installed properly.
That means the camera was twisted off to one side.
And when you're talking about an adjustment in a camera or like even you mentioned alignment, if the thrust angle is off on your alignment just to half a degree because you're you're looking so far down the road a half a degree at about two hundred yards, which is where these cameras are looking. That's six feet into the
wrong lane. Wow. Is it looking in and looking at
the you know, the side of the road or is it looking at oncoming traffic? And I'm not sure if
you've ever had an automatic braking experience, but automatic braking doesn't like, hey, I think I should slow down, maybe there's a cars on the brake and stobson immediately. And
even that, you know, one of the things that I try and help our shops with is, you know, if they're looking at an alignment print out that shows that they've got negative camber on the front wheels over the years, if we had negative camera on both front wheels, we'd go to the parks store and we'd get an eccentric kit for the upper strutmount and we'd adjust it and bring the camera up so we didn't wear the tires.
But now, when when that happens we have a negative cambra, that means the whole car has settled down. Might be
half an inch, might be a quarter of an inch.
With today's systems, with the radar on the front bumper and the camera on the windshield, if we drop the front end down a quarter of an inch, that might take us from shooting out that two hundred yards looking down the lane to maybe looking at the ground at one hundred yards out and all of a sudden, what's in traffic? Right?
All of a sudden, our a DOS is affected. Hey, Steve,
we're gonna pull over and take a pause, and we're gonna pick right back up. We're gonna talk a little
bit about di I wires and how maybe they can handle AID DOS equipped vehicles. I'm ronning any in the
car doctor, I'm here with Steve Dawson he's their regional training director for AIDOS for Hunter Engineering. We'll both return
right after this. So before we took the pause, we
were talking and welcome back, by the way, we're here with Steve Dawson from Hunter Engineering. Steve we were talking
about to get into for the di wires out there.
You know, they're working on their own cars, trying to do repairs on modern day vehicles, which I give him a lot of credit for. You know, the misconceptions working
on or around an aid DOS equipped vehicle. Where's the
hole that they're about to fall into, and where's the myth that's never going to affect them? Is it?
Well, there's really not a myth that's not going to affect them. It's tough to work on a car in
your own garage that is aid ASS equipped because you know, even if you're replacing a brake caliber that you might have done for years, you need to have a scan tool to be able to bleed the brakes, recalibrate the rear brake, of the emergency brakes, that sort of thing.
There's there's so many things in it, and all of the aiight asas systems require those mechanical systems to all be correct. So it's really getting to a point where
unless you know what you're doing with it and you have a scan tool on hand, it gets to be pretty hard to do some of this. Some of this work.
So for the consumers out there, then, you know, somebody said, hey, I just did breaks, is hey, did you calibrate my aid ass? You know, is that a good question to ask?
Very possibly? You know, it's not necessarily going to be
their eight ass, Like if they just did the breaks, they may not have to do the the eight ass itself, but they may have to recalibrate, like parking brakes or recalibrate the braking system. And there's a lot of times
text will do things you know or something you know that the guy down the street will do a repair and won't do that last step where it's resetting the you know, the depth of brake pad, resetting the monitor on the car, because if the monitor goes below a certain number, it's going to turn on again. It's gonna
turn on brake lights and eight ass lights and everything else because the car thinks, well, if I don't have good breaks, I can't operate correctly.
So it's sort of you know, I don't know if this is a correct analogy, but you know, a million years ago and we started rotating tires with tire pressure sensor systems, and a lot of guys just don't relearn position on vehicles that require relearn, you know, they missed that last step. This is really what AIDOS is, right.
They get to that last step, they do the brakes, they don't do the relearn, They don't recalibrate for ados or break, you know, and this is the pitfall they fall into. And then the consumers left with the vehicle
that may not really operate like it's supposed to write.
There may be a safety glitch somewhere.
Yeah, And the scary part with it is that it may not stop if a kid runs out in front of you. But if you're an attentive driver, no big deal,
you're going to stop anyway. What could happen though, and
what's been the more scarier part of eight ass not being repaired correctly is that the vehicles are now have systems on it that they interact, so they could be turning the steering wheel on you. They could be applying
the brakes that you were not intending, nor were any of the drivers around you, intending you to lock up the brakes in the middle of the highway or that sort of thing. So the not working when a kid
runs out in front of you. If we're a tent
of drivers, we should be able to compensate for that.
But it's those things where the car can take over from you that can be pretty scary if if the work is not done correctly.
And then the car is driving you in a sense got to be prepared for that and be able to handle it. Definitely a bad situation if you're texting right
or you're not paying attention to which you shouldn't be texting anyway, but it makes it even worse because now the car is going to overtake what you're trying to do and it could put you into a scary spot. Steve,
when we come back, I want to talk a little bit about you know, let's talk a little bit about the consumer. How do they you know, how do they
know a shop is qualified to handle aid us? And
you know, maybe I want to get into the difference between static and dynamic calibration because I know that's a big deal too. So when we pause, let's pull over
and take one. I'm running eighty In the Car Doctor,
I'm here with Steve Dawson of Hunter Engineering. We will
return right after this. Don't go anywhere.
From the city streets.
The city streets is the open roads.
And run he's help run.
Keep you.
Hey, thanks for staying with us this hour. I'm running
any and the car Doctor. We're here talking with Steve Dawson.
He is with Hunter Engineering. He's their regional ADOS training
director and we're talking ADOS Advanced Driver Assist Systems this hour. Steve.
When we pulled away and took the pause, we wanted to get a little bit into two things for the consumer.
Right they've had their vehicle repaired, it used to be having an AS patch was what we used to send people into repair shops looking for it to know they had qualified mechanics. How do they know they can work
on ADOS vehicles.
So that is one of the challenges right now. There
is not really any kind of standardized training or anything for it. There are some I car and some AS
certifications that would definitely be a good ask if you've got a car that has those advanced systems in it, to make sure that they're doing things the right way with the right targets. And the right tooling.
Should you know, consumers be concerned. I don't know what
the question really is here. I'm just trying to think.
So there's no real red flag. It's basically, if you
can hold a screwdriver, you're qualified to work on ados.
Maybe sort of kind of.
Well, that's the challenging part. It's not really that you're
qualified to work on it, but there isn't a lot of restriction to working on it. The best thing I
would say for a consumer is to educate themselves. If
they went to like Hunter dot com, there's actually an ad ASS portal there that we built for consumer education that is all focused on what these systems are, what they do, how they recalibrate, and you can on one of them. You can actually even click on your manufacturer
and it has all the marketing names for those systems and then it will tell you if it's a camera or a radar, and what needs to be calibrated and why it needs to be calibrated. It's always great to
be a consumer that's educated that can ask those questions to say, hey, I'm getting you know, I'm getting an alignment service done. Are you handling my aid ass calibrations
for it as well. Right, so there's a lot of
resources online for it. Chat GPT will find a lot
of information about about your eight ass systems. And I
would encourage every every end consumer to ask questions about, you know, how they're fixing their car and making sure that it's getting done done correctly because it can do some some crazy things. It used to just be that
it would be an annoying buzzer and a beep, or maybe a shaking steering wheel or a shaking seat. But
now with the automatic braking part of it, and the and the lane keep where the steering wheel can move from side to side, it can. It's a little bit
more more important that they asked the right questions to understand that that shop is prepared to be able to do.
The repair, because you may not out you've got a problem until you know, Heaven forbid, you're in a life and death situation.
Absolutely, because in most cases these systems will not turn on lights unless there is a problem the computer sees that it can't communicate, or we tried to calibrate it and it wouldn't calibrate based on where the target was and that sort of thing. Then it will turn on lights,
but if somebody takes it off and puts it on wrong, there won't be a light. It just isn't pointing in
the right direction. Because you know, on a lot of
our other systems, you'd say an oxygen sensor, an upstream oxygen sensor has five other sensors to tell if it's working correctly, and if it's getting an erroneous reading, the computer will turn on the check engine light and say, hey, something's not right. My oxygen sensor isn't right. And in
an ad ass system, it doesn't know where it's looking down the road until we put a target at a known distance, at a known image, you know, and all of the things that it's looking for to know that it's not pointed in the right direction.
So this is probably the segue into static and dynamic calibration, right, Steve, And if you're just joining us, we're here with Steve Dawson from Hunter Engineering. We're talking advanced driver assist systems
and you know from Hunter Engineering static and dynamic calibration. Steve,
what is it? You know, can you describe some of
the vehicles that take you know, some do this, some do that, and you know how do we get it done.
So the dynamic ones are the nice thing is just about any shop can do that. With a good scan tool.
They can do a dynamic calibration. It's driving it down
a road, typically a straight road that's got lines on both sides, maybe has some street signs, a couple of the cars. It has to have a vehicle in front
of you by a certain distance, but it goes through its own learning process seeing road signs and that sort of thing. To calibrate. It does require having the ability
to do twenty five to forty five miles an hour.
So as a consumer, you get your car back and an extra twenty miles on it, they're like, hey, what's going on? It's probably because they were calibrating it. If
you've got telematics on and you can see where your car is on your phone, you might be looking at going why is this guy driving around my car? Well,
he's probably doing a dynamic calibration. And then there's static calibrations,
which is like the word where the car is sitting still and we're setting that target at a known distance in front of the car, known height, with a known image for the car to the camera to kind of focus on it, or the radar to shoot its radar beam and back and make sure that it's pointed where it thinks it should be pointed.
Right, and we say targets for everyone out there. You know,
imagine a bullseye, right. I can't think of a better
way to describe this unless you've got something steep, but imagine cameras.
Yeah, the cameras are basically going to be some variation of a black and white bullseye type image. And the
radar units are usually I like to call them trihedrals.
They're a little triangle basically that the radar shoots into it and it bounces back and it gets a good reading on it.
So when we talk about calibrating ados, it's either static or dynamic. If we're doing static, we need targets, we
need probably more specialized equipment than dynamic. Dynamic is self learning,
but it still requires somebody to drive the vehicle with a scan tool that's taking them through the process.
Fair comparison, yep, Absolutely dynamic. You're just putting it into
using a scan tool to put it in a learn mode basically, and then go and drive it in a path that it can learn what it needs to learn.
So from Hunter Engineering's perspective. And I've seen the Hunter
system work and it works really well. The scan tool,
the targets, the way you guys have created you know, you know the system I saw probably two years ago.
I'm sure it's been changed because Hunter is always improving.
It collapsed, it went into a corner. It would fit
into just about any size shop. There was some depth
of space space issues, but you know, this is something the average shop can do, correct. I mean, it's not difficult,
it's just becomes another part of the process.
Yeah, I mean, really any shop can do it. There's
sometimes there are some space constraints. If you've got a
shop that's you know, a traditional two bay three bay gas station, it might be a little bit of a challenge to be able to do it because you don't have the space for the static calibrations. But you might
be able to get fifty percent of the cars done that are coming into your shop, maybe even more if you're doing a lot of domestics, or you're doing a lot of Mercedes or BMW or Volvos where they are historically much more dynamic based, so you can get a lot of them done without having any space concerns when it comes to the statics depends on what you're doing.
You know, if you're doing a rearview mirror or a grill, you probably have to have a little bit more space because you have the three sixty cameras in turg It's are pretty big. If you look at like a FOURD truck,
those mats are five feet wide. Each one of them
went on either side, so that's ten feet. They're about
a foot off of the truck on either side or the vehicle and their biggest truck, the biggest thing would be like a truck, which is another six feet wide, So you're talking about with eighteen feet wide, and I think the mats are forty five feet long or forty eight feet long something like that. Right, So there's a
sizeable amount of space that needed if you're doing some of those static calibrations.
You know, you mentioned something real quick before we take another pause. We had a customer this week come by.
He has a fairly new I think a twenty five RAM pickup a FedEx truck. Took off the driver's side
review mirror and I had to explain to him it needs a mirror, but obviously it's going to need an ADOS calibration. It's an ADOS equipped vehicle and it has
to be done, and it kind of puts a whole nother light on it for everybody out there. Well, I
knock my mirror off, what's the big deal. But it's
all part of it, right, yep.
Absolutely, And so there's times he might have to say, hey, I can't do your repair. Or there might also be
times we say, hey, I can do your repair, but I got to do a dynamic calibration and is raining tomorrow and I can't do it in the rain, or I can't do it in the snow. So we're gonna
have to wait and do it a week or two later, so we can have some different conversations.
Right, Yeah, it's these are the challenges we're facing. Hey, Steve,
we're gonna pull over and take a pause. When me
come back, I want to talk about some of the OEM procedures. I want to talk about calibration equipment. Also
want to talk a little bit more about Hunter, because they are at the forefront of this technology and what you guys are doing to try and help and improve the industry and keep us all safe. You sit tight,
I'm runing any in the car doctor. We're here with
Steve Dawson of Hunter Engineering. We'll return right after this.
We are kind of winding it down this hour. We've
still got a little bit more to go here with Steve Dawson of Hunter Engineering, talk about ADOS, what it is and how it affects you and your automobile. Steve Hunter,
Hunter Engineering has been at the forefront of ADOS technology.
You know, I see it and I'm not surprised, right, you guys have the best wheel alignment equipment, the best tire machine equipment, tire service equipment. You know how has
calibration equipment evolved as ADOS systems have become more sophisticated and Hunter has kept up. Hunter has really led the pack.
And you know, how do you do it? What's cooking?
Well, you know, a lot of it is is the technology, the camera technology, laser technology, it's you know, it's building a tool that follows the OEM process that exactly how the OEMs do it. And our tool is certified by
many of the manufacturers as the way they want it done because it helps the technician place the target in the exact right place. It verifies that they put it
in the right place. And then it documents exactly where
it is in relationship to the car, so it protects the shop, you know, makes it easy for the technician and protect the shop to make sure that that target is right and it's documented, so god forbid they got pulled in a cord or something like that, they'd have the documentation for exactly where it is. And quite frankly,
like you said, with the alignment equipment, Hunter is a measurement company. We've always you know, that's our main thing
is is measuring very finite measurements on our vehicle. And
that's exactly what we're doing here with with ADS calibrations is making sure the targets are any exact right place to make sure that the car is calibrated correctly, easier for the technician, and it makes it that it's we make sure that we're doing the right thing for our customer.
And we're utilizing equipment that is you know, backed by the OEMs, that is that is using the right protocols and things. It's not some you know, some scan tool
that you bought off of of some kind of an online place or something like that. It's, uh, we we
actually have all the OEM data and truly, you know, the manufacturer that makes our scan tool for us makes a lot of the sensors that we're calibrating. I mean,
I guess we're following the right tool.
You know, that's a fair point. Real quick. You buy
something online, it's it's it's it's a it's a it's a cheap knockoff of something maybe made in China. Not
to pick on China, but let's face it, that's where they're come from. You go to court, you know, you've
got to show that the calibration was done correctly with an OEM approved tool. Otherwise you've got a liability issue. Yep, absolutely,
and all of a sudden you're at risk. So the
big question and the big question Steve in our last couple of minutes, right, we're down to about a two minute time period here, how much what's the cost for a shop to get involved in ADOS?
So it can be as low as, you know, a few thousand dollars for a scan tool to be able to do diagnostic calibrations or i'm sorry, dynamic calibrations, or it could be you know, probably getting close to six figures if you're going to do everything and it's out there and you want to be able to do alignments, calibrations, everything all with the with one machine. It can add
up pretty quick when you look at all of the different manufacturers and there's no standardization amongst manufacturers, so there's different targets for every single one of them. Right, it
adds up that cost. And the other side of it
is if you're getting into this business that one of the big critical pieces is training. That it's you know,
buying the equipment is one thing, building a process in your shop is another, and then training your technicians. And
these systems change every model year as they come out, so training needs to happen all the time, and it's.
It's just going to become an ongoing process that Hey, listen, like we said in the beginning of this conversation, right, this is this is the gateway to much more automated vehicle driving systems, right, and that's really where we're headed.
And it's all about safety and getting out of trouble and you know, less accidents and obviously so important because everything they go wrong on an automobile stay It's been a pleasure. If the listeners are looking for more information,
there's a website.
Yep, So if you go to Hunter dot com, if you're a shop, there is resources for the equipment. There's
actually training on there. And if you're you know, somebody
that's driving a car with they'd ask there's also a whole page in there dedicated just to you, you know, and it's Hunter dot com right online.
I'm perfect, and we'll we'll we'll put that point across to in my closing comments right after we come back from this, you know, Steve, I just want to point out right here on are we had written out a bunch of questions. We still have eight more to go,
so we're gonna we're gonna have you back. How's that, buddy?
All right, that's all right anytime, Steve, you're very well.
I'm ron an Ay in the car doctor. Some closing
thoughts right after this. I want it once again, thanks
Steve Dawson for taking the time today Hunter Engineering, you know, to come on the show and talk to us about a DOTS. I hope you got something from it. I
learned stuff things I hadn't thought about, different angles. I
love the conversation about using a cheap scan tool. R
I hear it a lot, right, everybody wants to fix rocket ships with cheap tools, and I don't know that that works anymore. But the angle of you know, the
liability factor, because you've got to understand, as I'm sure you do after listening to this interview with Steve, that there's a liability involved with ADOS and fixing it properly, and you won't know there's a problem in a lot of cases until you're counting on the system to keep you in the vehicle on the straight and narrow and out of trouble, and to be able to have a piece of equipment like Hunter has where they can prove the calibration how it follows the OEM procedure, original equipment manufacturer.
Can.
You can't ask for more because it is critical. You know,
it's I've said it for years, right, mechanics hold the passengers lives in their hands. Well, now the vehicle holds
the passengers' lives in their hands, provided they're calibrated properly and repaired properly. When it comes to the ADOS systems,
it's just that important. So once again, thank you to Steve,
and I hope everybody enjoyed it. The website again is
Hunter dot com. That's where you want to go hunter
dot com. They've got training videos out there. They've got
a ton of information about ados and you can find it their Hunter dot com. I'm ronnin Andy in the
car Doctor. I want to thank you for taking the time,
as I always do. I appreciate being here for you guys.
Till the next time. Good mechanics aren't expensive, they're priceless.
See dot car advice to write
About this episode
Ron Ananian and guest Steve Dawson dig into how ADAS is reshaping modern driving, from cameras and radar to the way a simple windshield or wiper change can throw systems off. They walk through calibration basics, including static versus dynamic setups, and explain why OEM procedures matter for safety and liability. The conversation also looks ahead to vehicle-to-everything communication and the growing training and equipment demands shops face as these systems become more common.
Advanced Driver Assistance Systems—better known as ADAS—are changing the way we drive, repair, and think about our vehicles. This hour of Ron Ananian, The Car Doctor takes a deep dive into what ADAS really is, how it works, and why it matters more than ever.
Joined by Steve Dawson of Hunter Engineering, Ron breaks down everything from lane departure warning and adaptive cruise control to the critical importance of proper calibration after even the simplest repair.
If you’re a consumer, you’ll learn why that windshield replacement or minor fender bender could directly impact your vehicle’s safety systems. For the DIYer and professional technician, this conversation highlights the specialized tools, procedures, and training now required to service today’s increasingly complex vehicles.
Whether you’re behind the wheel or under the hood, understanding ADAS isn’t optional anymore—it’s essential.
