Lytx showed off next-generation technology designed to address distracted driving as its annual user conference began. Enhanced machine vision and artificial intelligence-powered risk detection could help reduce the crashes caused by the distracted driving epidemic.
Working like a co-pilot, the new technology constantly monitors the road and the driver to look for risky behavior. When risk is detected, the Lytx system triggers short video clips to offer fleets insight into what is going on inside the vehicle.
Lytx, a global provider of video telematics for fleets, has enhanced its machine vision and artificial intelligence (MV+AI)-powered technology to provide near real-time insight into risky behaviors like texting and driving. Those risky behaviors lead to 1,000 injured people per day — and nine deaths — on average in the U.S.
Third-party studies have shown that AI can be faster and more accurate than humans in reviewing and spotting issues. Studies also show AI performing with expert-level accuracy at scale. Lytx uses both MV+AI and professional human review.
Lytx’s risk detection technology is included as part of its Driver Safety Suite and includes the following four new MV+AI triggers: handheld device, no seatbelt, food or drink, and driver smoking. It can be coupled with Lytx’s Fleet Tracking Service to provide an integrated solution for fleets.
Because of the vast scope and scale of our driving data, we have advanced the use of MV+AI to unprecedented levels within the industry,” said Brandon Nixon, Lytx chairman and CEO. “We now have the ability to more fully and accurately capture and identify risk for the fleets we serve even better than before.”
Lytx said its view of risk is more than 95% accurate across more than 60 risky driving behaviors. In 2019, Lytx labeled more than 1.75 million minutes of video with cell phone use, driver unbelted, smoking and food/drink behaviors.
New triggers, new views
By using its 120 billion miles of driving data — that includes 100,000 risky driving events captured daily — Lytx was able to develop the MV+AI-powered technologies for detecting risk. This pool of driving data, validated by Lytx’s professionally trained analysts, the trucking tech company says it can ensure a high level of precision in training Lytx’s AI algorithms to understand which data points are most important in building an accurate picture of risk. The program delivers prescriptive and customized coaching insights to fleet managers.
The new triggers announced Feb. 24 are an extension of Lytx’s existing MV+AI road-view triggers launched in 2015: rolling stop, lane departure, following distance and critical distance. Both sets of triggers monitor for driving behavior patterns and select short video highlights to be analyzed and screened by Lytx’s artificial intelligence for accuracy. The validated video clips are then automatically sent via a 4G LTE cellular connection from the vehicle to the cloud, where they may be viewed by a client via their Lytx account from any internet-connected computer, smartphone or tablet.
Fleet managers and drivers then have the opportunity to view these video clips using Lytx’s coaching workflow. This program, according to Lytx, is proven to help change driving behavior and is associated with up to 50% reduction in collisions and 80% reduction in associated claims costs.
“Texting while driving and driving without a seatbelt, as well as industry-specific use cases, like smoking, eating or drinking while driving, are critical risky behaviors for clients,” said Jim Brady, Lytx vice president of product management. “Lytx’s MV+AI algorithms are the most advanced in the industry, so our clients only receive the most important clips that represent key coachable moments in a format that doesn’t overwhelm them.”
