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Why Your Next Liability Claim Could Start With a Missed Calibration

For decades, fleet managers have understood a fundamental truth: proper vehicle maintenance isn’t just good business practice, it’s also legal protection. You’ve built your operations on meticulous documentation, trusted service partners, and rigorous maintenance schedules because you know that when something goes wrong on the road, juries don't just ask what happened—they ask what you did to prevent it. That standard is about to expand. The same principles that have protected your organization from brake failure litigation and tire-related liability claims now apply to something most fleet managers are just beginning to understand: Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) calibration.

An $88 Million Verdict Due to Maintenance Negligence

Courts take neglected maintenance seriously. Cutting corners can be both tragic and expensive. In California, a jury recently awarded $88 million to families of victims killed in a commercial truck crash. The verdict included $20 million in compensatory damages and a staggering $68 million in punitive damages. This was a clear signal that the jury viewed the company’s deferred brake maintenance and driver exceeding federal shift length maximums as negligent, even reckless.

Courts hold organizations accountable for maintenance decisions they make—or fail to make. Juries have repeatedly determined that poor maintenance is a form of neglect, and when that neglect contributes to collisions, the financial and legal consequences are severe.

As a fleet manager, you already know this. That’s why you’ve built your operations around rigorous documentation, trusted partnerships, scheduled preventative maintenance, and clear chains of accountability with regards to vehicle upkeep. 

These practices haven’t just protected your vehicles; they’ve also protected your organization from the kind of verdicts we just discussed. You demand transparency from your maintenance partners because you understand that in a courtroom, documentation is your strongest defense.

ADAS Creates a New Safety Standard 

While you’ve been perfecting traditional maintenance protocols, the automotive landscape has undergone a fundamental transformation. According to research from MITRE Corporation’s Partnership for Analytics Research in Traffic Safety (PARTS), performed on behalf of the National Highway Traffic Safety Association, over 93% of new vehicles three years old or less are now equipped with multiple critical ADAS safety technologies, such as forward crash prevention, including safety-critical automatic emergency braking (AEB), lane keeping assistance (LKA), blind spot monitoring and/or protection (BSM and BSP), and pedestrian detection and avoidance. 

The vehicles in your fleet today are fundamentally different from those you managed just a few years ago. They’re equipped with sophisticated sensor arrays, cameras, and radar systems that constantly monitor the road environment and intervene to prevent accidents.

These systems work, but only when they’re properly calibrated. Studies have shown that ADAS technologies reduce certain types of crashes by as much as 50%. But here’s the critical point that should concern every fleet manager: after a collision repair or even a windshield replacement, these systems often require recalibration to function correctly.

Testing Miscalibrated ADAS 

A misaligned camera. An improperly calibrated radar sensor. A lane-keeping system that’s off by just a few tenths of a single degree. Let's take a look at the results of industry-expert testing on miscalibrated ADAS:

• The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) tested the impact of camera misalignment on both Lane Departure Warning (LDW) and Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) systems. They found that a camera misaligned by 0.6 degrees caused the LDW to be off by as much as 27 inches, cut the driver‘s collision warning by 17.6%, (from 3.4 down to 2.8 seconds), and caused the AEB system to engage 20 feet too late, resulting in a collision. (RepairerDrivenNews)

• Testing performed by American Honda Motor Company found that when the flooring of the environment exceeded specifications by just half of a degree, calibration would show as completed—with no warnings or errors—but the system would be calibrated incorrectly, resulting in a collision at full speed. It’s worth noting that half a degree is too small for the human eye to detect. (Caliber INSIGHTS)

• 2024 testing by Ascential Technologies revealed that the ADAS in an uncalibrated vehicle completely failed during a simulated collision, with both the LDW and AEB systems failing to engage, warn the driver or slow/stop the vehicle. (Ascential Technologies)

Any of these seemingly minor issues can render your vehicle’s safety systems ineffective—or worse, actually increase the likelihood of a future collision.

The Maintenance Parallel Makes ADAS Your Next Liability Frontier

Let’s connect the dots explicitly: ADAS calibration is the new brake maintenance.

Just as those trucking company executives learned that deferring brake maintenance could cost them $88 million, fleet managers must now understand that neglecting ADAS calibration creates similar, perhaps even greater, liability exposure.

Consider this scenario: One of your fleet vehicles is involved in a rear-end collision. Your driver claims the automatic emergency braking system failed to engage. During discovery, the plaintiff’s attorney uncovers that the vehicle had windshield replacement months earlier but no subsequent calibration of forward collision warning systems were performed, despite calibrations being a part of the OE’s repair procedures.

This actually happened, resulting in a multi-million dollar verdict.

How would a jury view your organization’s failure to ensure proper calibration? Do you think they would see it differently than they saw deferred brake maintenance?

The legal principle is identical: When you know about a safety-critical maintenance requirement and fail to address it, you’re creating a documented trail of negligence.

The same standards of care that protect you from brake and tire liability claims now extend to ADAS calibration:

• Documentation: Just as you document brake inspections and tire rotations, you must now document ADAS calibration after every qualifying repair

• Trust: Just as you've built relationships with trusted maintenance partners, you need partners who understand ADAS calibration and can perform it correctly

• Accountability: Just as you require transparency about mechanical repairs, you need clear reporting about what ADAS systems were identified, what calibrations were performed, and verification that they're functioning correctly

This is where  accurate reporting becomes your legal protection. This documentation doesn’t just show that a calibration was performed—it shows that the need for calibration was properly identified, that the correct procedures were followed, and that the systems were verified to be functioning correctly after the repair.

The Calibration Gap is an Unrecognized, Industry-Wide Crisis

Recent data reveals a troubling reality that should concern every fleet manager. According to Caliber’s estimatics data, over 65% of collision repairs in Q2 2025 required mandatory calibrations, based on OE requirements. That’s not a projection—that’s actual repair data showing that two out of every three collision repairs now require ADAS calibration. Meanwhile, according to an analysis from CCC intelligent Solutions, the collision repair industry as a whole is performed calibrations on just 23% of repairs during the same time period.

Let that sink in: Industry-wide, almost two thirds of necessary ADAS calibrations are being missed.

This is both a service quality issue and, more importantly, a massive liability exposure. Thousands of repaired vehicles are being returned to service every day with uncalibrated or improperly calibrated safety systems. For fleet managers, this represents an unprecedented risk: Your vehicles may have safety systems that won’t work when needed and you may not even know it.

Make Caliber Fleet Solutions Your Trusted ADAS Partner

ADAS calibration requires specialized expertise, equipment, and partnerships. The Caliber Fleet Solutions network of service providers includes the industry's leader in ADAS calibration, and Caliber centers offer the most comprehensive calibration capabilities in the collision repair industry.

Industry-Leading Calibration Infrastructure

• Our network performs more post-collision ADAS calibrations than any other network of U.S. service providers, bringing unmatched experience to every repair

• Caliber operates the collision industry’s largest network of bays certified for static ADAS calibrations, ensuring that your vehicles receive proper service regardless of location

• Our tooling is over 97% accurate at identifying needed calibrations, and every repair order is verified by an ADAS expert, eliminating the guesswork that leads to missed requirements

The Caliber Fleet Solutions network built specifically to address the calibration crisis the industry is facing.

What Makes Caliber Fleet Solutions Different

Caliber is tackling this issue head-on. Not only are we drawing industry attention to the calibration gap, but we’ve also invested heavily to ensure we’re performing the necessary, required calibrations on every vehicle repaired in our centers or by our mobile teammates.

How we're addressing the calibration challenge:

1. Infrastructure investment: Building the largest network of certified calibration bays in the collision industry, involving leveling floors, removing obstructions, repainting with compliant paint, updating electrical and lighting systems, upgrading Wi-Fi speed and performance to support diagnostic tools, and more

2. Partnership expertise: Caliber Fleet Solutions’ network of service providers includes the leader in ADAS Calibration, leveraging both OE and proprietary tools and technologies

3. Training and support: Our technicians are not only highly trained, with proprietary training and certifications from ASE, I-CAR and more, they’re remotely backed by the largest and most experienced team in the industry, providing troubleshooting and diagnostic support

4. Documentation standards: Providing comprehensive reporting that documents not just that calibration was performed, but why it was necessary

When you partner with Caliber Fleet Solutions, you’re not just getting collision repair—you’re getting the same level of systematic maintenance protection you’ve demanded for brakes, tires, and every other safety-critical system.

The Call to Action: Protect Your Fleet, Protect Your Organization

The legal precedents are clear. The technology reality is undeniable. The industry gap is documented. The question for fleet managers is simple: Will you be proactive or reactive?

Proactive fleet managers understand that ADAS calibration is no different from any other safety-critical maintenance requirement. Reactive fleet managers wait until after the collision, after the lawsuit, after the discovery process reveals that a required calibration was never performed.

The maintenance standards you’ve built your career on—documentation, trust, accountability—now extend to ADAS calibration. The liability exposure is identical. The legal precedents are being set right now. And the industry gap means that choosing the right repair partner has never been more critical.

Partner with Caliber Fleet Solutions to ensure your fleet vehicles receive proper ADAS calibration after every collision repair or glass replacement. Don’t become the next case study in maintenance negligence. Don’t wait for the jury to tell you what you should have known.