Digital Supply Chain podcast host, Tom Raftery, interviewed Netradyne’s Chief Marketing Officer, Barrett Young, on improving fleet safety with the power of artificial intelligence (AI).
In this blog, we’ll cover some highlights from the podcast. Want the whole story? Watch the full interview below!
The Drive to Support Driver Safety & Performance
What inspired Netradyne to focus on improving driver performance and safety and how has your mission evolved over time?
Netradyne wanted to move beyond the legacy dash cam’s core role which was to exonerate drivers. The way they did this was by providing video evidence of an accident or high-risk driving event – that is just not enough nowadays.
Exoneration is still needed, but taking proactive actions to improve driver behaviors has proven to work better. The main goal is to reduce accidents and improve behavior in the long run rather than doing so after an accident has occurred. So a lot of what Netradyne has built, and is already active now, is a predictive AI model that can actually see and observe certain driver behaviors with the ability to correct them in real-time to prevent accidents from happening altogether.
Tackling the Big Brother Concern
How do your customers deal with the “big brother” perception of in-cab dash cams?
The term “big brother” is understandable, but doesn’t represent how the Netradyne dash cam is set up. A more accurate term is “wingman”, the new AI dash cams are more than just to sit there and watch you. It’s like an in-cab coach that says, “Hey, watch out, that car is going to pull out in front of you, make sure you slow down.” Or when you create space between you and the vehicle in front of you, the dash cam is able to detect you are making a proactive safety decision.
The AI helps us to improve that behavior so that we don’t have the accident. So to go back and put an answer to that question, it’s the moment that a driver realizes that this camera just saved their life where they understand that it’s more like a wingman.
The Power of Positive Recognition
How accurate are dash cams when detecting negative driving behaviors?
One of the really important things within the entire evolution of AI dash cams is the switching of the script. So in some cases, drivers are constantly having their hand slapped for things they do wrong, right? How AI works is it learns to recognize objects and behaviors over time, making it more accurate over a long-term period.
The Netradyne system actually has the ability to recognize positive driving. Let’s say a car is merging onto the freeway, and you create that buffer space between you and a passenger car. We recognize that as a Driver Star, that’s a very defensive and safe move you want to make.
Driver Privacy and Dash Cams
What kind of measures do you take to protect drivers’ information?
Netradyne as a company has been awarded a Privacy by Design Certificate. We have gone through extensive lengths to make sure that privacy isn’t the alleged concern.
We have a dedicated officer within the company to make sure that is his number one priority as well. Outside of that, we give fleets the the flexibility to what level of privacy they want to have for their drivers. For example, we have a driver privacy mode, so the internal camera can actually be turned off. While there’s no recording, the AI will still analyze driver performance to issue the appropriate alerts. In addition to that, Netradyne has dash cam models that have no internal cameras.
About the Netradyne System
What makes Netradyne different?
The Geotab right now is a traditional ELD and fleet management telematics. Where we actually couple in and marry the two systems with a fleet safety angle and say, all right, we’re gonna be able to analyze your driver behavior and do all your real-time coaching.
And through positive recognition and everything we just mentioned, you couple that with your ELD and your Hours of Service (HOS) and your fuel management and things like that. And then you can marry the two together and actually see how it’s impacting each other. So one of the big things that’s a hot topic right now is costs and fuel.
You are able to analyze your driver’s driving style and asses things like braking too hard or accelerating too fast. You can use that information to determine what fuel consumption looks like. You can actually correct or fix unnecessary fuel expenditures by just addressing the way that people are driving themselves.
Final Thoughts
We’ve only scratched the surface of the challenges and benefits of utilizing AI technology. Learn more about customer success stories and how fleets have used their dash cam data to benefit their drivers here.
Want to learn more about how Netradyne’s fleet management system has helped countless fleets stay safe on the road? Explore your solution today!
