SAN DIEGO — Select Freightliner and Western Star tractor models will soon be equipped with a new telematics and camera system designed to improve safety.
Lytx Inc. made the announcement about its partnership with Daimler Trucks North America at this year’s American Trucking Association’s Management Conference and Exhibition in San Diego.
“The solution will leverage Lytx’s Lytx DriveCam components, which will be integrated in the vehicle during the production of those models,” a news release stated.
Customers can begin placing orders later this fall, with the first Lytx-equipped trucks to be built in early 2023 for the Freightliner Cascadia and Western Star X-Series line of 47X, 49X and 57X models.
“Combining our business strategy of offering customer-first solutions with the configuration options within the Lytx Vision Platform,” Brandon Nixon, chairman and CEO of Lytx, said. “This integration partnership highlights our passion for leveraging our technology and expertise to provide companies with custom solutions to fit their needs.”
Parked Feature
“One of the lesser-known safety hazards that commercial drivers face is the challenge of locating a safe place to pull their rigs over,” the news release stated. “Drivers are often forced to park on the shoulders of interstates/highways or on/off ramps if no other options appear available. This type of risky parking can increase the chances of devastating collisions, serious injuries and financial liability risk for companies. The safety issue has received increased attention recently due to an announcement by U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg that over $37 million in federal funding has been awarded to expand safe truck parking in Florida and Tennessee.”
To help mitigate this rising risk, in the coming weeks, Lytx will provide a new feature for fleet managers looking to increase their vehicle parking visibility, as well as improve their operational efficiency and driver safety.
The feature, called Parked-Highway/Ramp, triggers when the Lytx DriveCam event recorder identifies a stopped vehicle (for 10 minutes or more) and assesses if it is located on the shoulder of an interstate or highway or on an off/on ramp where other vehicles may be passing by.
When a Parked-Highway/Ramp event occurs, the fleet manager is notified so that they can quickly intervene by sending nearby safe parking locations via GPS directly to their driver.
Development of the Parked feature was initiated through a close collaboration with customers within Lytx Lab, an idea incubator and a way for Lytx engineers and safety experts to work directly with customers to address market needs.
“The primary mission of Lytx Lab is to work closely with our clients during the research and development process in order to get a better understanding of what the market needs, enabling us to accelerate innovation and quickly deliver new tools powered by the Lytx Vision Platform that companies can use to improve their safety programs and operations,” Rajesh Rudraradhya, Lytx’s chief technology officer, said. “With the incredibly insightful feedback we received from customers using the feature in its early stages, we were better able to iterate and refine the final version of Parked-Highway/Ramp, the first official experiment to originate from Lytx Lab and be publicly released.”
The Trucker News Staff produces engaging content for not only TheTrucker.com, but also The Trucker Newspaper, which has been serving the trucking industry for more than 30 years. With a focus on drivers, the Trucker News Staff aims to provide relevant, objective content pertaining to the trucking segment of the transportation industry. The Trucker News Staff is based in Little Rock, Arkansas.
