SmartDrive Systems, a global provider of video safety and transportation intelligence, has launched SmartDrive SmartSense™.
The system is a new line of intelligent driver-assist sensors for waste and recycling vehicle fleets, designed to identify the most dangerous driving risks and intervene with drivers before a catastrophe occurs.
By combining purpose-built sensors with engine computer data, telematics, accelerometer and SmartDrive® analytic data, the company has developed ‘smart sensors’, delivering new levels of accurate risk identification.
Aidan Rowsome, VP EMEA of SmartDrive: “It’s estimated distracted driving accounts for 10 percent of all fatal crashes, while 17 percent of all collisions causing injuries at a cost of billions of pounds, annually.
“With SmartSense™ for Distracted Driving, we’re tackling this issue head-on, delivering intelligent sensors tuned specifically to this risk. Because it’s delivered with our video safety programme, fleets finally have both a comprehensive view of the frequency, severity and impact of distracted driving, and a solution to an industry epidemic that costs lives.”
With the benefit of reviewed video and a training database of over 200 million analysed risky driving events, the sensor algorithms can be rapidly tuned to optimise triggering efficacy and system performance.
The first sensor in the suite, SmartSense™ for Distracted Driving, uses these advanced computer vision-based algorithms, paired with the SmartDrive video analytics platform, to address the epidemic of distracted and inattentive driving.
SmartSense™ for Distracted Driving includes, distraction and inattention triggers that detect when eyes are off the road for a defined time period or a driver has exceeded a specific number of distracted incidents. It also provides a purpose-built hardware with infrared sensors to capture distraction even when sunglasses are worn; in-cab alerts when distraction or inattention occurs, with prioritised review and risk scoring for video of distraction events and integration with the proven SmartDrive video safety programme.
When combined with the SmartDrive programme and its Extended Recording capability, SmartSense™ offers waste and recycling fleet management the most complete picture of what led to driver distraction, how it manifested and what the outcome was, enabling fleets to provide detailed feedback and actionable coaching to improve driver safety.
Instead of relying exclusively on vehicle manoeuvres, such as hard braking, aggressive swerving or lane departure to capture driver mobile phone use or other causes of distraction, the SmartSensor interprets driver cues proven to accurately indicate distraction, such as head and eye movements.
When the sensor detects distraction, inattention or drowsiness, it triggers a video, which is prioritised and offloaded for immediate verification and intervention, allowing fleets to act quickly.
Video evidence from the SmartDrive library confirms that drivers who engage in distracted driving frequently demonstrate an over-reliance on their ability to respond to dangerous situations, should they occur. Prior to texting, for example, drivers often put themselves in perceived ‘safe modes’, by moving to the inside lane, using cruise control at or below the speed limit, and positioning themselves in limited surrounding traffic or at a following distance that initially appears safe. Additionally, drivers regularly misjudge the length of time and frequency of their distraction, texting for a longer time period than estimated for example, as well as diverting their eyes from the road more frequently and for more time than perceived.
Aidan concluded: “Today, the majority of computer vision-based technologies operate in isolation from other systems and sensors on the vehicle, which means they are acting on data only available from their own system.
“This is a missed opportunity that will limit options for fleets in this new age of intelligent transportation.
“With the SmartSense™ product line, we are taking a different approach by fusing sensor, vehicle and environmental data – creating a convergence of information that makes the entire system smarter and better able to help fleets prepare drivers for a world of more autonomous technology.”
SmartSense™ for Distracted Driving will be available to UK fleets in the second quarter of 2018.