Dashcams have been growing more and more popular in the field of fleet management over the past couple of decades for their use in keeping drivers safe and saving companies money. Traditional dashcams are now giving way to new and improved artificial intelligence dash cams, which use computer learning to provide more information about what is happening when drivers are out on the road. Dashcam AI is vital not only for keeping your drivers safe but also for offering immense savings down the road. Let’s take a look at how.

Safety on the Road

The main goal of a dashcam is, of course, capturing risky incidents on the road. They record all the time, looking for dangers both inside and outside the vehicle. Dashcam AI is key in detecting unsafe driving behaviors. A dual-facing, AI-driven dashcam can catch hard driving practices, including: 

• Swerving
• Sharp cornering
• Harsh braking
• Rapid acceleration
  

Of course, all drivers need to utilize these maneuvers occasionally to avoid accidents, and AI understands that. What it’s looking for is a pattern or an increased amount of these behaviors. When it catches a pattern of these behaviors, it will send a notification back immediately to the office with footage of what happened, so your managers can take corrective action as soon as possible to ensure safety of your drivers. It is especially important to monitor these behaviors in large trucks, as they cannot stop as easily as smaller vehicles and are more susceptible to accidents as a result.   

It should go without saying that distracted driving is a significant danger on the road, but it happens all the time. In 2017, distracted driving caused 3,166 deaths. The CDC predicts that every day, about eight people are killed in an accident involving a distracted driver. Therefore, it is vital to minimize distractions among your drivers to ensure that they’re not involved in one of these accidents. There are three types of distraction: visual, manual, and cognitive, and today’s dashcam AI has the ability to detect all three types. It can catch behaviors such as: 

• Eating/drinking
• Phone usage
• Smoking
• Yawning/fatigue
• Lack of focus
  

The dashcam will then alert the driver of these behaviors, and if they are not corrected, will then send an alert back to the office to notify you of repeated distractions on the road. Eliminating distractions is one of the most significant steps you can take towards ensuring safety for your fleet, so it is important to have dual-facing dashcams on hand to help you. 

Dashcams can even alert you to signs of intoxicated driving, such as going significantly over or under the speed limit, random braking, or erratic lane changes. These are important actions to be aware of in real-time, as they affect both the safety of your driver and of everyone on the road. 

An AI-driven dashcam can compile the information it gets from driver behavior and create a driver safety score. This safety score can be used to evaluate drivers and assign them praise or additional coaching. These driver scores encourage safer driving behaviors and can even be used by drivers to obtain additional job opportunities and increase morale. Most importantly, it keeps drivers accountable for their driving behaviors, so they are giving their best at all times without you having to micromanage them.  

Year-Round Savings

Accidents are a burden due to potential roadway dangers and a burden on a business’s budget. Reducing accidents can save your company thousands of dollars. Here is a breakdown of how much accidents can cost you: 

• Average cost without injuries: $16,500
• Average cost with injuries : $74,000
• Average cost with fatalities: $500,000

There are about 3,000 distracted driving accidents each year. Incredibly, about 100,000 accidents are caused by drowsy drivers each year. Drunk driving causes 28% of all fatal traffic accidents, and speeding causes 26%. All of these accidents can potentially be prevented with dual-facing dashcam AI, which will save you thousands of dollars. Keeping your drivers safe and accountable prevents them from ever engaging in unsafe driving behaviors, to begin with, lowering the risk of accidents significantly. 

If an accident does occur, the dashcam is there to testify on your behalf. Dashcams serve as reliable and accurate witnesses. One company found that they were able to exonerate their drivers more than 50% of the time using dashcam evidence, along with seeing a decrease in speeding and accidents. 

Furthermore, you can even get a discount on your insurance premiums if you have a dashcam installed! Reach out to your insurance provider to see if there are savings for you. 

The AI-Driven Dashcam AI for You

No matter the size of your fleet, you want to be protected, both from the dangers of the road and the immense costs that accidents can bring. Azuga’s dual-facing SafetyCam is a state-of-the-art AI-driven dashcam that streams both the road and the driver simultaneously. It has capabilities for real-time coaching and warnings when mistakes happen on the road — safety is the top priority! 

You can even upgrade to SafetyCam AI Premium Service to have a team of professional risk analysts look over your footage and tag risky driving events, combining human and artificial intelligence to create the ultimate protection package. There are over one million Azuga dashcams on the road right now — join them in protecting yourself and your fleet.