Media Mentions

In the years since the first fleet telematics solutions were introduced, the ubiquitous black boxes have become the equivalent of a Swiss Army knife for optimizing vehicle and driver performance. Read on for five examples of newer telematics uses that are emerging to address the evolving needs of automotive and work truck fleets. 

Trailers have traditionally been a blind spot in fleet management, leaving operators without visibility into critical issues such as trailer location, maintenance needs and open cargo capacity. That means there has been less oversight of the moneymakers of the fleet – the reefers, box trucks and semi-trailers that carry the cargo that pays the bills – than of the tractors that generate no revenue on their own.

Driver scorecards have been used for over a decade for a variety of purposes ranging from measuring idling, number of trips, ELD compliance and time on site to identifying drivers who present a significant safety risk, but they have been an imperfect solution for safety monitoring. 

The use of artificial intelligence is bringing important new value to video telematics, adding functions such as real-time alerts that help drivers avoid collisions and smart event analysis that saves fleet managers hours of time by reducing false-positive reports of risky driving behavior. But the widely touted use of “edge AI” in which virtually all AI processing is performed on the camera has several downsides that affect driver visibility as well as fleet budgets.

Heavy goods vehicle drivers on the 117-mile M25 motorway in London are required to meet specific visibility standards after legislation was passed in 2019 because of the high number of pedestrian and bicyclist deaths involving heavy-duty trucks.

Today’s low truck inventory and high prices make it difficult to upgrade fleets, but aftermarket products can equip aging vehicles with new safety technology.

For this segment, CES 2022 tackled the world of autonomous robots through Ottonomy. The robotic startup discussed how these machines work as delivery bots for indoor and outdoor activities earlier this week.

Despite all the stories about big companies bailing out of CES 2022 amidst the latest surge in COVID-19 cases, the consumer electronics show in Las Vegas is still the place to be for robots, autonomous vehicles, smart gadgets, and their inventors — an opportunity to take stock of what’s required to build practical machine intelligence into a consumer product.

Earth-scorching electrified speed, fleet payment for fuel, and AI-driven telematics for driver safety and training are coming to ShowStoppers® at CES, the press event scheduled for 5 Jan. 2022 during the CES tradeshow in Las Vegas.