Why Breaqs doesn't provide AI-generated photos of your car

AI is everywhere these days. Every marketing department in the motoring industry has come up with a plan to make use of it recently. Enhancing photos with AI has become one of the most popular ways to do this. And it makes sense: less work, better-looking images and faster listings.

Naturally, we've tested it ourselves for our platform. And we've looked at what the competition is doing. Our conclusion: we're not getting involved for the time being!

The big problem with AI-generated car photos

Every car ends up in the same, non-existent photo studio. Perfect lighting, perfect background - resulting in perfect cars. And that's precisely the problem.

When you buy a car, you're not buying a picture; you're buying the car itself, with your savings. And that car has a history: a scratch on the bumper, paintwork that's slightly different after a repair or exposure to sunlight, wear and tear on the upholstery, a small dent that the previous owner never had repaired. These aren't flaws that need to be removed. They're information for the buyer. Exactly what a buyer of a classic or modern classic looks out for.

AI isn't smart enough to make that distinction. It sees a scratch and thinks: flaw, remove it. It sees an irregularity in the paintwork and makes it perfect. The result is a car that looks better in the photo than it actually is and has no visible imperfections. And that's exactly the opposite of what a marketplace for special cars should stand for.

What we do stand for

Breaqs is all about trust between buyer and seller. You don't build that trust with airbrushed images. You build it with photos that show what's actually there: the good points and the flaws, sharp and unedited.

A generic AI studio background makes every car look the same. With our competitors, you can search for, say, a BMW 3 Series and you'll find hundreds of exactly the same cars listed one after the other.  We, on the other hand, want every car to tell its own story.

Never, or just not right now?

We never rule anything out for good. If a time comes when AI photo editing genuinely adds value to an advert, without obscuring the car's story, we'll give it serious consideration. But that time simply hasn't come yet. For now, at Breaqs Pro, we're keeping it simple: good photos, taken by people, of the car just as it is.