AI in automotive came up on Built This Week in two ways: dealers using AI to buy and price cars, and the race to autonomous driving. Anthony Monteiro, who has built software for car dealers for about 30 years, runs Auto Acquire AI. It gives everyday dealers instant offers and phone-camera inspections so they can compete with CarMax and Carvana. On autonomy, we debated Waymo vs Tesla twice, and Jordan and Anthony both lean Tesla.
The automobile industry and especially what we do with vehicle values, it's very structured data.
— Anthony Monteiro, Episode 25
How companies we talked to use AI in automotive
Auto Acquire AI: buying cars from customers' driveways
Anthony's diagnosis: big buyers like CarMax and Carvana send teams to auctions and buy everything, so average dealers face auction and transport fees and thin margins. His fix is to buy from the dealer's own customer database. A dealer that needs five F-150s may have 22,000 F-150 owners on file and can message them with a price attached. (Episode 25, from 12:08)
The AI does two jobs. Pricing: using that structured data, Auto Acquire checks every vehicle listed online to value a car in real time instead of waiting for lagging auction data. Inspection: from the offer certificate, the seller launches a guided photo flow that works "like depositing a check," with 14 exterior and 4 interior shots. Computer vision then zooms in for scratches, dings and seat tears. Anthony even adjusts self-reported condition: if you say "excellent," he moves it toward average.
He was blunt about the label, though. At 15:15 he said he sometimes wants to take AI out of the company name, because many "AI companies" are an app sitting on old legacy software.
Speed is the product
Sam was selling two cars that week. His dealer promised a price, and 24 hours later still hadn't sent one, so Sam moved on to CarMax and Carvana. Anthony's reaction: "It's math. It's algorithmic." There is no reason a human should be needed for a website price.
What we built
For the episode, Jordan vibe coded a dealer lead intent-to-action workflow builder. A web form triggers a webhook, AI scores the lead's intent, and high-confidence leads get an automated SMS. In the demo, "Is the 2021 F-150 still available?" got a reply offering a test drive. Low-confidence leads go to an email drip. Jordan's design goal was an interface non-technical dealers could edit, with A/B tests on templates and different flows for a small-town dealer (phone call) vs a Manhattan one (text). Anthony suggested flipping it to acquisition: "would you like to sell it to us?" with a cash offer, plus a voice agent for dealers without a big call center.
What's still hard
- Dealers are non-technical. Jordan built for that, and Anthony said it depends on each store's staffing: some can hand calls to a call center, others need AI to make the calls.
- Weather and chaos for robotaxis. When Lyft and Waymo announced Nashville, Sam, a former Lyft employee who lives there, noted that Waymo's markets have mostly been warm, stable climates. Nashville has icy roads and a busy downtown. (Episode 13)
- Hardware cost. Anthony thinks Waymo's sensor-heavy vehicles cost far more to build than a camera-only Tesla. Jordan cited a figure of about $150K vs $25K he'd seen that morning, and expects Tesla to license FSD to other manufacturers.
- What "full self-driving" means. Jordan, a Tesla owner who called FSD 14.2 life-changing, still said it isn't full self-driving until he can sit in another seat. Anthony called it "augmented" or "assisted."
Episodes on AI in automotive
- Episode 25: Car Dealers Are Losing Inventory — AI Is the Only Fix with Anthony Monteiro of Auto Acquire AI, plus Waymo vs Tesla (December 2025).
- Episode 13: news segment on Lyft and Waymo launching robotaxis in Nashville (September 2025).
Related: AI in sales, where Auto Acquire's lead handling also comes up.
FAQ
How is AI used in the automotive industry?
On our show, Auto Acquire AI uses AI to price used cars in real time from listings and vehicle data, guide sellers through a phone-camera inspection checked by computer vision, and reach out to a dealer's existing customers to buy their cars.
Why is car pricing a good fit for AI?
Auto Acquire AI founder Anthony Monteiro says vehicle data is very structured: year, make, model, trim, color, options, mileage and service dates. That makes it a fit for machine learning, which he uses to value cars against every listing online in real time.
Will Tesla or Waymo win robotaxis?
Anthony and Jordan both lean Tesla because a camera-only system is cheaper to build at scale, and Jordan expects Tesla to license FSD to other manufacturers. Jordan also called Waymo life-changing and said FSD isn't truly full self-driving until he can sit in another seat.
Can AI help car dealers get more inventory?
Anthony's answer is to stop relying on auctions and buy from existing customers: a dealer with 22,000 F-150 owners in its database can message them with a price attached.