Artificial Intelligence Matches Buyers With Cars

There's nothing more frustrating for many consumers than the process of finding and buying a new car. Navigating through all the different options to identify the right vehicle at a good price can be challenging, and even consumers who do all of their research could end up making a bad investment if the car turns out to be a lemon. That's why it is so important for consumers to reach out to a Los Angeles lemon law attorney to find out about legal remedies available to them in circumstances where cars have serious defects.

While many of the problems with the car-buying process – such as the risk of getting a vehicle with defects – cannot be easily solved, other aspects of purchasing a car may be improving. For example, Venture Beat recently reported that Cars.com has developed artificial intelligence (AI) technology in order to match car buyers with potential new vehicles that could be best suited to meet their needs.

Cars.com Uses AI to Match Car Buyers With The Right Vehicles

Cars.com developed its AI technology because many early-stage car buyers are not certain exactly what type of car they are interested in purchasing. As Venture Beat explained, a majority of visitors to Cars.com are not sure what make or model they want to buy. This is a problem because when you visit most websites aimed at selling vehicles, one of the first choices consumers are asked to make in their search is the make or the model they're looking for.

Cars.com will work differently, and will target the 70% of car buyers who don't know what kind of car they want. The AI technology uses natural language processing and leverages sentiment analysis in order to help car buyers determine what vehicle would be best. It is able to offer an algorithmic approach to making recommendations so it is more likely to find cars that are right for the would-be buyers.

Visitors to the site will use Cars.com's search tool to enter a price range, to detail the features that they feel are essential criteria for any vehicle they would buy, and to provide insight into a dozen lifestyle preference categories such as whether the car will be used as a “daily commuter” or a “family taxi.”

Cars.com then processes this information behind the scenes, with machine learning algorithms considering eight different categories and 28 subcategories of behavioral data. The algorithm is so smart that it is even able to overrule the stated preferences of shoppers who might be willing to consider cars similar to the ones that they have viewed.  And, Cars.com factors in dealership data to so when a car model matching a consumer's needs is only available from a dealer with low approval, it may not show the consumer the option.

The chief product officer of Cars.com expressed excitement about what its new matchmaking technology could do to help consumers find the right vehicle. He commented in a statement, “We’re treating people like human beings with distinct emotional nuances, not just site users, as we build a more relevant, personalized car shopping experience.”