Over the past decade, AI and automation have rebuilt nearly every step of how people shop — discovery, checkout, scheduling, follow-up. Car buying has been one of the last holdouts, particularly the test drive, still run on phone tag and paperwork at most dealerships. Test Drive To Go (TDTG) says it’s finally applying that same automation to the test drive itself — without automating the drive away.

Carvana and platforms like it already let buyers complete a purchase without ever getting behind the wheel. That’s convenient, but it cuts out a step research shows remains highly influential in the purchase decision: the test drive. Buyers don’t seem to want that trade-off: 66% of U.S. auto buyers say they would consider purchasing directly from a traditional dealership’s website, according to a 2026 Urban Science/Harris Poll. Where Carvana automates the sale so buyers never have to visit, TDTG automates everything except the one moment that still requires showing up.

TDTG’s AI targets a narrower problem: what makes scheduling a test drive slower than it needs to be. The platform’s scheduling engine matches buyer and dealership availability in real time, then collects license, insurance, and trade-in information before the buyer arrives. An automated email and text sequence handles confirmations and reminders, and lets buyers opt out of a finance-office pitch — all without a phone call.

The results suggest it’s working: dealerships on the platform report a 93% test-drive show rate and a 23% average close rate on scheduled test drives — meaning nearly one in four buyers who book through TDTG go on to purchase, with minimal human intervention required.

“We didn’t set out to build another platform that skips the car entirely,” said Khalida Cook, co-founder and CEO of Test Drive To Go. “We set out to apply the same AI-driven automation other retail platforms use for scheduling and follow-up, and point it at the one part of car buying that still happens in person. Buyers get the no-pressure, no-phone-call experience of online retail, right up until they’re behind the wheel.”

As automation reaches industries long considered resistant to it, TDTG’s bet is that the winning approach won’t remove the car from car buying, but automate everything else around it.

ABOUT TEST DRIVE TO GO

Founded in 2021 and fully trademarked by the USPTO, Test Drive To Go is a fast-growing, Fort Myers, Florida-based automotive technology company with dealership partners spanning Florida, New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Washington, and Texas, and continued expansion underway nationwide. Built to strip friction out of the test-drive process for dealers and shoppers alike, TDTG is a subsidiary of Digital Diagnosis Marketing, the automotive advertising agency also founded by Khalida and Taylor Cook. TDTG partners with dealerships and automotive vendors nationwide to streamline the consumer test-drive experience while lowering dealership overhead. Co-founders Khalida and Taylor Cook bring a combined 25+ years of experience across the automotive and technology sectors, including hands-on work inside dealerships, automotive agencies, and Google. Learn more at www.mytestdrivetogo.com.

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