eBay Motors is a new app from the auction site aimed at streamlining the process of buying and selling used cars, and it includes a couple of AI-powered features that eBay claims will help sellers list a car in under five minutes. The app is available in the US for both iOS and Android, and replaces the old eBay Motors app that was discontinued back in 2015.
There are a couple of different features that eBay claims will help you list a car in minutes. You start by taking a photo of your license plate, after which the app automatically pulls in basic information about your car like its make, model, and VIN. Then you can upload photos and videos of your vehicle directly from the app and eBay’s algorithms will automatically sort them into categories like exterior, interior, and drivetrain/engine.
As well as being the first time an eBay app has offered direct video uploads, according to VentureBeat, these categorization features could potentially boost sales. eBay says that photos that are well-organized increase the perception that a listing is trustworthy, and that its algorithms, built using Google’s Firebase platform, have a 95 percent accuracy rate.
To help buyers find what they want, the app includes a personalized homepage and new filtering and search tools to help you find the exact listing you want.
In the future, eBay is also hoping to let its AI-tools loose on a listings’ descriptions, reports VentureBeat. Users could one day be able to input basic details about a car’s condition or modifications, and allow the software to flesh this out into a description. It’s an approach that’s similar to the news-writing bots being used by papers to create rote stories.
The new eBay Motors app is available now on both iOS and Android.