Mobile app provides nearby collision estimates to consumers following crash

A new mobile app, Otto, allows consumers to upload photos after a collision and receive estimates from collision repair shops located near their home. 

The app, in its early stages, is currently only working in California with a focus on the Los Angeles area. 

It was recently featured on KCAL, a Los Angeles CBS affiliate, with anchors discussing how the app could keep them from being “ripped off.” 

“I love the idea of leveling the playing field and not having to haggle,” Kristine Lazar, a KCAL anchor, says.

She later described the collision industry as one that “hasn’t really changed over the last half a century,” seemingly failing to realize the large technology leaps that have complicated and increased the cost of repairs in recent years. 

The focus of the newscast is on how consumers can save money through the app. 

Founder Ilan Mandil also says the app could help provide price transparency in the industry. However, he told Repairer Driven News that the app is not about price; it is about connecting consumers to auto body repair shops. 

“My No. 1 priority with Otto is to make is to make auto body repair more accessible to more people,” Mandil said. “There are a lot of people who find auto body repair daunting.” 

Mandil describes himself as coming from the “tech space” and previously worked as a project manager for Disney Streaming. He doesn’t have experience in the collision industry, but says he has been familiarizing himself with it since starting the app less than a year ago. 

“I don’t pretend to be an expert. I think that serves well because I get to approach this from an outsider [view], thinking of the consumer perspective,” Mandil says. 

When a consumer requests a quote, they upload a photo of the damage, their phone number, VIN, and ZIP code, Mandil said. 

“The whole point of this is providing them quotes from shops that are close to them,” he said. 

Currently, Mandil has a network of about 100 shops. Each shop has at least 100 online reviews and a 4.5-star rating on Google or Yelp, he says. 

Mandil said, as of right now, he’s a one-man business. He created and coded the app that has been live since April. 

He said the app doesn’t have additional features or functionality to automatically provide more information, such as shop certifications, yet. However, he does provide the information sometimes via his messaging with consumers. 

Mandil said he is personally receiving email requests from the app and then giving the app user three estimates after calling or emailing with shops in the user’s area. He will then add information about whether a shop is certified or not, he said. 

For example, one customer was receiving estimates that were in the $11,000 range, Mandil said. He provided information about certified shops to the customer. 

“Otherwise, I am reaching out to auto body shops that are closest to the person’s ZIP code that have great reviews,” Mandil said. 

Mandil said he’s not advocating for the cheapest shop; he is just giving consumers options. He said it is a consolidated version of a Google search. 

“There are a lot of people out there that just don’t know where to start; they may not have an uncle in the know or Dad or brother,” Mandil said. “In 2025, there are so many people in their 20s and 30s who go to their mobile apps for everything. This is an app that is going to allow people to take a simple photo of car damage and get their car estimates from a local auto body shop.” 

He said consumers are told that this is just an estimate that could change once a shop sees the vehicle in person, he said. 

“It is not about price as much as it is giving people access to auto body shops and doing a lot of the reconnaissance work for them so they can find an auto body shop they can feel comfortable going to,” Mandil said. 

Mandil said there is a disconnect in the industry at the moment, with a lot of people who have vehicle damage but aren’t getting their vehicles fixed because they don’t know what to do. He said there are also auto body shops that are trying to bring in more customers, but search engines like Yelp are not entirely satisfying. 

“There is a lot of repairs that would fall under the category of ‘not urgent but nice to have,’” Mandil said. “So you have a dent on your fender, you have a scratch you want to fix before you resell your car, or you have a leased car that you have to fix some sort of cosmetic damage. These sorts of things are not urgent, but consumers want to get them done.” 

However, conversations in the collision repair industry at national conferences have been focused on how new technology has made even simple tasks, such as fixing a fender, a complicated repair. 

Last year, a panel at a meeting of the Collision Industry Conference discussed how sensors, cameras, radars, and other components have made refinishing more than just a cosmetic job; however, they can make the difference between life and death. 

Recently, Rebekah Cooper, product liability attorney at The Cooper Firm, told BodyShop Business’s Jason Stahl during an “Under the Radar” video segment that lawsuits involving missed or improper ADAS calibrations are on the rise nationwide.

Mandil said he has been sourcing numerous customer requests and is seeing labor rates that are significantly different despite the fact that the area where the shops are located is the same. He said there can be three shops on one block with labor rates ranging from $50 on the low end to $105 on the high end. 

“You could argue for sure that there are certifications or a difference in the quality of work that is generating that $105 labor rate,” Mandil said. “My app is not purely advocating for people to go to the lowest-rate shop, but it is giving people options, and it is giving people price transparency. We are not trying to say that the shop that is going to charge you $2,700 is scamming you when there is another shop out there that is charging you $1,900.” 

Mandil said he intends to build the app out with additional features that create more transparency about why the price could be higher for one shop compared to another, such as certification. 

“My intention is that the best shops are going to get more business and the bad shops are only going to get less business,” Mandil said. 

Mandil plans to have an automated system that recommends people shops in their area that are the best for them based on multiple factors, not just price, he said. 

“As a technology founder, I am really inspired by past companies that have created two-sided marketplaces,” Mandil said. “Uber created a two-sided marketplace by connecting drivers to riders. Airbnb did the same thing by connecting homeowners to guests. I’m trying to do that for auto repair. I’m trying to connect auto body shops to people.” 

For Otto to be successful, Mandil said he has to make the auto body shops happy. 

“I want to get more customers to good auto body shops,” Mandil said. 

He added that, at this time, he has caveats in his messaging stating he is not responsible for the repairs made. He said he does not have liability insurance protecting the repairers or Otto for the suggestions.

Images

Photo of Ilan Mandil provided by Mandil. 

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