Detecting unsafe driving behaviors and driving environment factors

Driving behavior: Smoking

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Smoking while driving is distracting, impairs visibility and reduces reaction times to road hazards and changing traffic conditions.

Our definition of smoking

The driver was smoking cigarettes or electronic cigarettes while driving. The driver held the shape of a cigarette close to their face for at least 2 seconds.

How smoking is detected

A Smoking tag is applied by:

Camera AI: The driving behavior is detected by the AI Dashcam in real-time, alerts the driver (if in-cab alerts are enabled) and triggers a video event in Fleet.

How to prevent videos falsely triggering

Videos can be falsely triggered, usually when an AI Dashcam lens is obstructed or in the wrong position.

Learn how to avoid falsely triggering videos.

How smoking affects a driver's safety score

When smoking is detected, it negatively impacts the Video driver safety score. Riskier behaviors impact the score more negatively than others.

Our AI model analyzes the common patterns of unsafe driving behaviors that occur months or years leading up to a collision. The model uses this data to predict which behaviors carry a higher risk of collision. Despite the classification level, riskier behaviors impact the score more negatively than others as they are more likely to lead to a collision in future.

High collision predictors are driving behaviors such as Hard braking, Tailgating and Posted speed exceeded. These behaviors will result in a higher point reduction of the safety score, compared to lower collision predictors such as Smoking.

Use the safety score’s Coaching opportunities section to identify these behaviors and prepare for a coaching session with a driver. Discussing these behaviors with a driver can reduce the risk of serious incidents. Keep in mind the following statistics:

  • 20% of collisions involved the driver with the lowest score.

  • Over half of collisions involved drivers with safety scores in the bottom quarter of the fleet. 

  • 80% of collisions involved a driver with safety scores in the bottom half of the fleet.

Driving behavior

Number of events

Likelihood of collision

Rolling stop

2+

260%

Tailgating

2+ classified as Major

230%

Posted speed exceeded

3+

230%

Phone distraction

3+

160%

Based on Verizon Connect customer data.

How to reduce smoking in your fleet

Follow up by initiating a conversation with your driver. You can:

Keep your fleet safe by enabling notifications, videos and in-cab alerts

A Safety Manager can customize their video notifications, video events detected by the camera AI and uploaded to Fleet, as well as the in-cab alerts a driver hears in real-time.

Customize video notifications

Set up and customize the desktop or email notifications you receive when a Critical, Major or Moderate video event occurs.

Enable video events

Video events of each unsafe driving behavior must be enabled in the AI driving assistance settings for the camera AI to detect the behavior and generate a video, which is then uploaded to Fleet and analyzed. Enabling video events allows a Safety Manager to:

  • Receive a notification, if enabled

  • Watch a video event in Fleet

  • Allow the video data to generate a more accurate weekly Video driver safety score and fleet safety score

  • View the event in a coaching session to facilitate a conversation about unsafe driving behavior.

Learn how to update video triggers and in-cab alerts.

Enable in-cab alerts

Enabling in-cab alerts allows a driver to hear an alert in real time, prompting them to rectify the unsafe driving behavior.

When in-cab alerts are enabled, fewer events are triggered compared with when alerts are disabled.

In-cab alert

Occurrence of events

Phone call detection

-50%

Tiredness

-50%

Distraction

-33%

Smoking

-30%

Tailgating

-25%

Based on Verizon Connect customer data.

Learn how to update video triggers and in-cab alerts.

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