Samsara has unveiled more than a dozen new solutions and tools powered by artificial intelligence to help trucking companies improve fleet safety and efficiency.

Using Samsara's open Connected Operations Platform, these new solutions include AI-powered safety tools, a new connected wearable, advanced routing and navigation capabilities, and enhanced maintenance tools.

“We’ve entered the age of intelligence, and AI is helping our customers operate smarter,” said Sanjit Biswas, CEO and co-founder of Samsara, in a news release.

“We’re partnering with our customers to build products that help them run safer, more efficient operations and protect frontline workers while saving millions of dollars.”

AI Safety Intelligence: Reward Drivers, Spot Risk, Prevent Incidents in Real Time

Driving ranks among the top 10 most dangerous jobs in the U.S. Over the past decade, there has been a 49% increase in fatal crashes, coupled with a 40% increase in insurance premiums.

Samsara already offers advanced technology to help detect risky driving events, such as phone use or speeding, and it has added several new AI-fueled features to improve fleet safety and reward safe driving:

• AI multicam: Drivers can now add up to four additional HD cameras, providing a 360-degree view to reduce blindspots, all accessible through an in-cab monitor. In addition, the AI Multicam actively notifies drivers in real time of hazards, such as pedestrians and cyclists. Whether using a Samsara camera or a third-party device, administrators can retrieve historic video footage and corresponding audio to help quickly resolve incidents.

• Weather intelligence: Administrators can now overlay real-time weather data pulled from the National Weather Service onto the existing dashboards to view and alert workers of imminent threats such as fire risks, heavy rain and more.

• Safety coaching for lean teams: A new set of customizable features help administrators with lean safety teams scale driver coaching and recognition with AI and automation. AI analyzes hundreds of risky driving events, considering factors such as severity, frequency, road conditions and total drive time. Then it automatically sends low-risk behaviors to drivers for self-coaching and escalates higher-risk events to managers. AI also provides insight into big picture behavioral trends across drivers and trips, so managers can coach based on driving patterns, not just isolated incidents.

• Revamped driver app: The Samsara app now includes TikTok-style training videos to boost engagement and end-of-day reviews to help with driver coaching. Designed to act as a companion for drivers throughout the day, the app now offers new gamification features and recognition tools to reinforce positive, safe behavior. For example, administrators can send gift cards that can be redeemed at popular dining, entertainment and shopping locations directly through the app.

Worker Safety Beyond the Vehicle: New Wearable Joins the Fleet

The need to keep frontline teams safe extends beyond the vehicle to both local jobsites and remote locations. According to the National Safety Council, a worker is injured on the job every 7 seconds in the U.S., from a range of threats such as severe weather, crime, falls from heights or icy sidewalks, equipment injuries and more.

To help protect frontline workers outside of the vehicle, Samsara is introducing the Samsara Wearable. 

The new connected device is powered by the Samsara network of millions of devices and enables quick response and protection in any environment. The new Samsara Wearable offers several benefits, including:

• More than one year of battery life: The Samsara network replaces the need for cellular connectivity, equipping the Samsara Wearable with a battery life of more than one year. This charge life far surpasses the industry standard of 24 hours, according to Samsara.

• One-click protection: With one click, workers can connect to emergency services, which can immediately pinpoint their precise location and access a real-time audio recording of the situation. 

• Fall detection: The Samsara Wearable can automatically detect and respond to falls in situations such as slips on icy sidewalks, or falls from heights like scaffolding, cranes or trailers.

• Proactive threat alerts: In the case of severe weather or wildfires, fleet managers can proactively check in on workers and alert them of the unsafe conditions through push notifications to the device.

• One platform: Samsara connects driver and worker safety in one system, allowing for faster response time and visibility across the entire fleet.

Univar Solutions, which transports specialty ingredients and chemicals, already uses Samsara products such as its AI dash cam to help it build a strong safety culture, said Rob McRae, VP of Transportation at Univar Solutions. 

“With the Samsara Wearable, we’re extending that protection to workers in high-risk and remote environments. It’s innovations like these that support our commitment to reliability that delivers — safely and consistently."

Route Planning and Commercial Navigation Drive Greater Fleet Efficiencies

Historically, commercial fleets have relied on a patchwork of incomplete maps and manual processes to plan routes and guide drivers. These legacy maps are updated as infrequently as every one to five years, according to Samsara. That can mean inefficient routes, missed delivery windows and increased driver stress. 

Samsara said its new Route Planning and Commercial Navigation products offer a modern, integrated alternative that helps fleets cut costs, stay compliant and deliver more reliably.

• Route planning: Building on existing routing capabilities, Samsara now integrates directly with fleet operators’ sales systems to pinpoint the most efficient routes and delivery schedules for customers’ fleets. These advanced routing capabilities consider variables such as vehicle limitations, compliance requirements for drivers, customer delivery windows, and traffic and weather patterns to stay within promised delivery windows and avoid unnecessary fuel usage. Early Samsara data suggests a 15% reduction in the number of vehicles required for deliveries and a reduction of manual back-office routing time.

• Commercial navigation: Samsara can now overlay fleet-specific restrictions such as weight, height and hazmat directly onto standard digital maps to provide more accurate turn-by-turn directions. By combining this insight with information such as hours-of-service within the Samsara Driver App, drivers can access everything they need in a single location to remain compliant and on time.

"Samsara has made a significant impact on our operations, saving $7.75 million annually across our three fleets by helping us optimize planned versus actuals route improvements," said Andy Yearout, VP of Transportation & Logistics at Mohawk Industries, in a news release. 

"With the new Route Planning capability, we expect to see a reduction in daily route planning time from hours to minutes.”

Asset Maintenance and Visibility: Streamline Repairs and Lower Costs

Vehicle maintenance violations make up 60% of all Department of Transportation offenses, according to Samsara, resulting in substantial financial penalties and costly vehicle downtime. 

To help minimize these disruptions, Samsara has introduced several new preventive maintenance features, including DVIR (driver vehicle inspection report), fault code Intelligence, automated work orders, and level monitoring.

• DVIR: Now, drivers can simplify the vehicle inspection process by automatically converting inspection notes from voice to text. In turn, managers can ensure reports are properly completed by viewing drivers’ walkaround paths, the duration of the inspection and quality of the report photos. The platform triggers real-time alerts for missing DVIRs. It monitors FMCSA data; reviews inspection results; and audits driver behavior. This AI-powered functionality works in low connectivity and loud environments and results in faster inspections and streamlined repairs and maintenance.

• Fault code intelligence and automated work orders: This optimization extends to the back office, where fleet administrators can view the DVIRs in a unified dashboard. Fault code intelligence automatically deciphers the codes and uses AI to create maintenance work orders. In addition, Samsara now offers AI invoice scanning to help quickly upload external vendor invoices into the platform, reducing administrative time and errors associated with manual entries.

• Level monitoring: With level monitoring, organizations have near real-time visibility into levels across a wide range of tank types. This insight enables improved tank utilization and the ability to optimize inventory.

Rolfson Oil has a mixed fleet of more than 700 assets, all with different maintenance and compliance requirements.

“With Samsara’s enhanced AI-powered maintenance solutions, I am able to remotely monitor asset health and driver inspection reports across dozens of locations nationwide," said Cody Floyd, Vice President of Assets at Rolfson Oil. 

"In addition, the new AI invoice scanning functionality enables us to quickly convert external vendor invoices into actionable maintenance reports so we can see the full picture of maintenance needs across our organization."