Sheryl Sandberg has led a $10 million investment in Self Inspection, a San Diego-based startup that is also backed by former Tesla CEO Jon McNeill’s DVx Ventures.

The startup, founded in 2021, has spent the last few years trying to disrupt the vehicle inspection process by making it possible to properly assess damage to a car’s body with as little technology as a smartphone camera. Self Inspection told TechCrunch that it has already completed more than 1 million vehicle inspections for rental fleets, auto finance companies, auctions and marketplaces, and that Stellantis’ financial services arm uses the platform for corporate-owned vehicles and end-of-lease inspections.

“The largest technology companies are built by transforming industries that are massive, essential, and ripe for change,” Sandberg said in a statement to TechCrunch. “Vehicle health affects billions of dollars in automotive decisions each year, but data remains fragmented. That’s changing. We believe self-inspection will build the system of record the auto industry needs.”

The financing round was led by its family office, Sandberg Bernthal Venture Partners, with strategic investment from tire distributor US AutoForce and auto lender Westlake Financial. Also investing were early-stage funds Costanoa Ventures, Rebellion Ventures and BrightCap Ventures.

Self Inspection is one of several startups trying to use AI to modernize the automotive industry. Toma and Flai are trying to improve the dealership’s communication with voice agents. BidBus is making it possible for dealers to place competitive bids on privately owned cars.

Other startups like UVeye have taken a broader, infrastructure-level approach to modernizing vehicle inspections.

But a big part of Self Inspection’s pitch is simplicity. The company sells its software to clients like Stellantis, and that software allows the client to send a link to anyone with a smartphone so they can upload photos of a car. Self Inspection software guides the user through the process, ensuring the entire vehicle is covered.

Basically, the company is taking advantage of the fact that “everyone has a good camera” and “knows how to capture photos,” CEO Constantine Yaremtso told TechCrunch last year.

From there, the photographs are compared to what Self Inspection has described as “one of the largest data sets of damaged vehicles” to detect the presence and severity of any damage. The startup’s software then generates a cost estimate and a detailed inspection report.

“What we deliver is actually a fully detailed PDF report that you normally only get at a body shop, which will tell you what labor needs to be done to repair the damage, how much it costs to repair it, how many parts are needed, etc.,” Yaremtso said. He added that the self-inspection can also pull data from an OBD2 computer for even more detailed information.

Self Inspection told TechCrunch that its platform has already helped its customers reduce their costs by more than $80 million and save more than 300,000 operational hours. The startup plans to use the new funding to create more products, reach more enterprise customers and expand into Europe.