The gap breaks into two questions every shop now has to answer on a growing share of repairs: which calibrations does this specific collision actually require, and how do you prove the ones you ran actually worked?

Identification: OEM Procedures Tell You How, Not Which

Srisu Subrahmanyam, CEO of Repairify, frames the first half of the problem as identification — knowing which sensors need recalibration based on where the vehicle was hit and what systems it carries. Here's the catch most shops miss: OEM service information tells a technician how to perform a calibration, but it doesn't hand you a list of which calibrations a given crash triggers. You have to build that map yourself, from the damage to the affected systems to the required procedures.

That's not a job for assumptions. Ryan DeMarco, owner of All County Collision in Eustis, Fla., starts every repair with a pre-scan and full disassembly, uses software platforms to surface potential ADAS operations, then researches the OEM procedures for that exact vehicle to confirm what's actually required. He calls the software "only a starting point" and builds every repair plan around OEM documentation rather than generic guidelines.

John Melendez of JDM Collision & Calibrations in Thornton, Ill., works the same way — and is blunt that fault codes don't make the call. If a mounting bracket, sensor location, or camera surface has been impacted, his shop tests and calibrates even when the pre-scan shows no trouble codes. Identification tools and calibration partners help, but the final determination always traces back to OEM requirements.

How often does the need go unspotted? AirPro Diagnostics COO Josh McFarlin estimates that 40% to 50% of the time his team flags a calibration, the shop is hearing about it for the first time — and that number climbs for shops that only run post-scans. Get identification wrong and everything downstream, including the paperwork you'll lean on later, is built on a gap.

Verification: A Clean Scan Is Not a Green Light

The harder half is verification — confirming the calibration actually succeeded. As Subrahmanyam puts it, a blank screen doesn't mean the system is fine. A scan with no DTCs tells you the vehicle hasn't flagged a problem; it does not tell you the radar and cameras are aimed and operating within spec. Most vehicles carry no instrumentation that would tell a technician otherwise — and sensors can drift out of alignment from normal driving over time, with no crash and no warning involved at all.

DeMarco draws the line cleanly: "The absence of a warning light does not mean the system is operating as designed." Melendez goes a step further on what calibration actually is — it should be the final verification of a properly repaired vehicle, not the process you use to figure out whether the repair was done right. Before he attempts a calibration, his team pre-measures the vehicle, verifies alignment, and confirms structural and mounting points meet OEM spec. Calibrate a car that's still out of geometry and the results are unreliable, if they complete at all.

This is also the piece federal policy is starting to reach. On May 21, 2026, the House Energy and Commerce Committee passed H.R. 7389, the Motor Vehicle Modernization Act, with the ADAS Functionality and Integrity Act folded in as Section 221 — directing NHTSA to study ADAS impacts and develop guidance. SCRS executive director Aaron Schulenburg offers a measured read: the bill builds awareness around how vehicle changes affect systems like AEB and lane departure warning, but it stops short of establishing accountability mechanisms to ensure required calibrations actually get performed. The verification gap, in other words, is still mostly the shop's to close.

The Liability Gap Is Real — and Subletting Doesn't Close It

The numbers explain the urgency. Subrahmanyam estimates roughly 65% of vehicles moving through collision shops need some form of calibration, while only about 35% to 40% of that work is actually getting done. That gap is thousands of cars leaving shops with sensors that may or may not be working — enough that both the Collision Industry Conference and SCRS stood up formal ADAS efforts in April. CIC task force chair Sean Carey put it plainly at the Charlotte meeting: there are thousands of cars in shops "incorrectly calibrated or ADAS work that's not done."

CCC's data shows the same curve from the claims side. Calibrations appeared on more than 23% of repairable appraisals in 2025 — up from less than 1% in 2017 — and now land on nearly a third of direct-repair claims, at an average fee near $500 per vehicle. This is no longer a niche line item.

Here's the part shops most often get wrong about their own exposure: handing the calibration to a sublet provider doesn't hand off the liability. Subrahmanyam is direct that the sublet concept "doesn't absolve their responsibility," and AirPro Diagnostics COO Josh McFarlin frames it as a courtroom would — "first chair, always the shop." Whoever accepted the keys carries primary responsibility, whether the calibration ran in-house, at a dealer, or through a mobile or remote provider.

What It Means for Your Shop

The defensible position isn't complicated, but it has to be consistent. Three things separate a clean repair from a risky one:

• Build identification into every repair order. Pre-scan, disassemble, run your identification software — then confirm against the OEM procedure for that specific VIN. The software narrows it down; the OEM document makes the decision.
• Treat calibration as the last step, not the proof. Verify geometry, alignment, and mounting locations first. Then calibrate, then verify performance with OEM testing procedures and a road test where required. A clear scan is not the finish line.
• Document the whole chain. McFarlin's advice is the most portable line in the piece: "Have a process and follow it." When a liability question lands, the first thing anyone asks is why a step was — or wasn't — taken, and a repeatable, recorded workflow is the answer. This is the same discipline behind an insurance-friendly calibration report: identify, verify, and document so the file speaks for itself.

Where This Leaves You

The direction isn't ambiguous. Vehicle complexity is climbing, OEM position statements are tightening, and regulators are starting to move. The shops that win on ADAS aren't necessarily the ones with the most equipment — they're the ones with a repeatable identify-verify-document workflow they run the same way every time. That process is what protects the car, the customer, and the shop, and it's what gets the work paid.