It wasn’t so many years ago that a phone was just a phone—not a smartphone with everything from a high-definition camera to internet access and social media packed into it. You can say the same thing about video cameras installed in fleet vehicles. A dashcam can be just that—a video camera installed in a truck—or it can be much more. 

Dashcams with AI are “smart cameras,” and they can help fleets avoid accidents and save thousands of dollars in repair costs, legal bills, and insurance premiums. Here’s how they work. 

GPS Trackit’s VidFleet system integrates high-definition, night-vision-enabled cameras with powerful artificial intelligence. The system scans both the driver-facing and road-facing cameras in real-time to look for clues that a driver may be distracted or that an accident is about to happen. When the AI senses potential driver distraction clues—like a driver’s gaze shifting away from the road for more than a glance—it provides an audible warning to coach the driver into safer behavior. The road-facing camera records incidents and potential incidents as they happen and can trigger instant notifications for anything from aggressive driving to a collision. Instead of forcing you to sift through blurry footage after an incident to see what happened, dashcams with AI help predict and avoid those incidents and also keep that vital video record.

One example of a “smart camera” in action? A GPS Trackit customer outfitted his beer distribution trucks with VidFleet AI, and two weeks later one truck was in a collision. The driver of the car claimed the beer truck merged recklessly, causing the accident. The two-camera, AI-enabled system in the truck proved that not only did the car lose control and hit the truck, but that the truck driver had his full attention on the road and did all he could to avoid the collision. Dashcams with AI helped the beer distributorship head off a potential frivolous lawsuit, and the savings from that incident alone paid for video solution installation in the entire fleet for the year. 

Those kinds of cost savings aren’t an outlier, either. Video telematics users can see an almost 70 percent reduction in accident costs, and insurance providers can offer as much as a 10 percent discount on premiums for fleets that install dashcams with AI. 

To see how GPS Trackit can help your fleet avoid accidents and reduce costs, schedule a free demo with one of our Fleet Advisors today.