Unfortunately, those words turned out to be misleading. The truth is that Lytx has developed a product that will inform a client–carrier when a driver parks in an area deemed “unsafe,” such as the shoulder of a highway or an exit or entrance ramp. The notification can include video of the area. The carrier representative, whether fleet manager, safety professional or someone else, would then contact the driver to discuss parking options.
The Lytx product offers no “help” to find parking and does not alert the driver that a chosen parking space may be unsafe.
According to Tamara Prewitt, Lytx vice–president of product marketing, the company’s Parked–Highway/Ramp solution will help carriers avoid some of those situations.
“If drivers have concerns about privacy, fleets can activate the video privacy mode setting for Parked–Highway/Ramp. This gives clients visibility outside the vehicle while addressing driver privacy concerns. When privacy mode is enabled, the in–cab view is blacked out.”
One issue with this is that the carrier has an option to black out the driver-facing camera while the driver does not. Drivers may not be aware of carrier policies or when someone might be viewing video of the driver.
Another issue is the timing of notifications from carrier to driver. A driver who has parked and begun a rest break may be woken up by a phone call or satellite message from the carrier. Moving the truck to another location may require an Hours of Service (HOS) violation if the driver is out of driving hours, and would require restarting the rest break period once parked in a more suitable location. And if the driver chose the parking spot after exhausting other options, getting back behind the wheel to explore those options again doesn’t seem productive, or safe.
In-cab video systems are, of course, designed to improve safety for both drivers and for other motorists. They provide a method for carriers to identify and correct unsafe behaviors, hopefully before they result in accident or injury. According to Prewitt, “Lytx technology is validated and backed by the largest and fastest-growing driving database of its kind, which is currently growing by approximately 350,000 new driving events each day, further training and improving its algorithms.”
The system is far more than cameras recording video. “We apply sensor fusion, machine vision, artificial intelligence, and scientific behavior change models to help our clients improve safety and increase operational efficiency so they can thrive in today’s ultra-competitive environment,” explained Prewitt. “Lytx uses the best technologies available to identify high risk behaviors that matter accurately, quickly, and comprehensively.”
Those technologies are also used to identify behaviors that aren’t high risk so that false alerts can be minimized. Drivers have benefitted from counselling and training, and many have improved their driving performance and become safer drivers today due to information provided by Lytx systems.
Features like Parked-Highway/Ramp certainly have a part in correcting unsafe behaviors, but if the alerts result in other unsafe behaviors like driving while fatigued, the benefits might be questionable.
In the meantime, the days of the independent truck driver hitting the road with the only carrier contact achieved in a daily phone call are long gone. Those who chose the open road to be free of the watchful eye of the boss have discovered that, thanks to technology, that watchful eye now accompanies them on every trip.
Cliff Abbott is an experienced commercial vehicle driver and owner-operator who still holds a CDL in his home state of Alabama. In nearly 40 years in trucking, he’s been an instructor and trainer and has managed safety and recruiting operations for several carriers. Having never lost his love of the road, Cliff has written a book and hundreds of songs and has been writing for The Trucker for more than a decade.
