When it comes to safety, today’s fleets face more challenges than ever before. Samsara data shows that there has been a 20% increase in severe speeding over the past few months—which is a leading cause of preventable accidents, along with distracted driving and tailgating. In addition to being a safety hazard, these risky behaviors can put a fleet out of business. In fact, a recent Frost & Sullivan report found that fatal accidents cost $10.8M on average.

We believe the future of fleet safety lies in a combination of preventative technology and data-driven insights. That’s why today, we’re excited to announce several new safety features that bring artificial intelligence (AI) into the cab and offer more advanced reporting tools for safety managers:

• Tailgating Detection: Automatically detect when drivers are following other vehicles too closely at high speeds and auto-upload these incidents to the dashboard for video-based coaching.

• Distracted Driving Detection: Gain visibility into the prevalence of distracted driving within your fleet and gather insights to positively change this behavior. 

• Preventative In-Cab Alerts: Deliver in-cab alerts to drivers when tailgating and/or distracted driving is detected to help adjust risky behavior. 

• Configurable Safety Score: Customize how your driver and fleet Safety Scores are calculated by assigning specific weights to harsh events, speeding severity, defensive driving, and more.

• Enhanced Safety Report: See even more detailed data on speeding severity and behavior trends across your fleet.

Altogether, these new features make the Samsara platform more advanced than ever. They help safety managers prevent accidents before they happen, identify critical safety data, and tailor their safety program to their unique goals. See how SeniorCare EMS—one of our customers who is on the front lines of the fight against COVID-19—is leveraging these new features to help their drivers avoid accidents in real time, or keep reading to learn more.

“It’s just amazing. We’re able to coach employees on the road… We have seen many instances where the camera alerts the driver to distracted driving or tailgating, and they're able to avoid an accident.”

<br> — Robert Ackerman, Safety Director at SeniorCare EMS

Embedded AI for real-time accident prevention

87% of all commercial motor vehicle crashes are the result of driver behavior or driver error, according to the NSTSCE. With this new feature launch, Samsara’s advanced AI can now detect high-risk behavior (tailgating and distracted driving) without a harsh event occurring. Combined with optional in-cab alerts, this makes it possible to minimize risky behavior and prevent accidents before they happen.

Tailgating Detection

Tailgating is the leading cause of rear-end collisions, causing more than 1,700 deaths and 500,000 injuries  per year. In our continued effort to reduce high-risk driving behaviors and improve safety outcomes for fleets, Samsara AI Dash Cams (CM31 or CM32 models) can now detect when drivers are following other vehicles too closely and auto-upload footage to the cloud. Safety managers can also turn on optional in-cab alerts to warn drivers when they are tailgating at an unsafe speed, based on a minimum speed threshold that you can configure in your dashboard.

Distracted Driving Detection

Distracted driving is the leading cause of avoidable driving incidents, causing over 2,800 deaths and 400,000 injuries annually. This is a risk to the general public and drivers themselves, too—in fact, truck drivers who are distracted are 23.2 times more likely to be involved in a crash or near-crash. Without visibility into distracted driving on the road, it can be difficult to coach drivers on this risky behavior until it’s too late, and a collision has already occurred.

Our dual-facing AI dash cams can now detect distracted driving without a harsh event (like a harsh brake or turn) occurring. Similar to tailgating, safety managers can also turn on optional in-cab alerts to remind drivers to stay focused on the road when they become distracted, so you can help encourage safer behavior in real time.

More customizable metrics and reporting tools

When combined with telematics and dash cams, driver safety programs have been shown to reduce severe safety-critical events by 59%. That’s why it’s so important for safety technology like Samsara to go beyond the cab. With this new feature launch, we’re enabling safety managers in the back office with more robust reporting tools than ever—so they can more easily identify areas for improvement and tailor their program to their unique priorities, culture, and goals.

Configurable Safety Score

We know that your safety program is unique—and we believe your Samsara Safety Scores should be, too. You can now adjust how Safety Scores are calculated based on your program’s priorities, goals, and desired incentives. Set specific penalties for different categories of harsh events and speeding severity, and positively reward drivers for defensive driving.

Enhanced Safety Report

Speeding is a factor in nearly 20% of fatal large truck crashes. With the enhanced Safety Report, you can go beyond simply understanding whether speeding is occurring and see more granular data on speeding severity. Plus, with new aggregated event labels, you can gain visibility into not just one-off safety events, but insights into their trends and root causes. These enhancements allow you to easily understand repeat behavior in the context of frequency and severity and offer more effective, targeted coaching.

Try out these new features today

These new safety features are available now for Samsara customers. Join today’s live webinar to see a walkthrough from a Samsara product expert, or try them out for yourself:

• If you have AI Dash Cams, Tailgating and Distracted Driving Detection will be available in your dashboard settings (Settings > Cameras & Safety) at no extra cost over the course of next week.

• If you are using our older camera models, reach out today to try a CM31 or CM32 for free.

• If you don’t have cameras yet, get in touch with our team for a free trial. If you have Samsara Vehicle Gateways (VGs) installed, you can still use our configurable Safety Scores and enhanced Safety Report based on harsh event data from your VGs.

If you’re not a Samsara customer yet and you’re interested in learning more about our solutions, get in touch with our team today. We can show you a demo of our fleet management platform and explore how Samsara AI Dash Cams can help you increase fleet safety.