The automotive industry has a proven track record of improving vehicle safety in the event of a crash thanks to better materials, smarter design, and ever more sophisticated protection systems. Advances in engineering - everything from seatbelts and airbags to advanced braking systems and energy-absorbing structures—are responsible for saving countless lives.
But there’s a growing consensus that Artificial Intelligence (AI) could deliver the next big leap in vehicle safety. How? By preventing accidents from happening in the first place.
That was just one of the themes to emerge from Samsara’s recent Go Beyond London’25 conference, which explored the latest technological breakthroughs for commercial fleets, and how AI is transforming physical operations to make them safer, more efficient, and more sustainable.
AI-powered technology is making roads safer
Attendees heard how a new AI multicam system has been developed to address blind spots around heavy goods vehicles. Four high-definition cameras mounted around a vehicle give the driver a 360-degree view of their immediate surroundings.
The smartest part is that AI is used to fill in any gaps in video coverage, enabling the driver to see - and be alerted to - a cyclist or pedestrian appearing in a blind spot.
Similarly, AI-powered dual-facing dashcams don’t just record what’s happening on the road or in the cab. They can spot when drivers are distracted, drowsy, or using a mobile phone and then issue an alert there and then so that they can refocus on the road ahead.
What links both these solutions is that situations that could have led to something more serious—such as a lorry turning left with an unseen cyclist undertaking or a driver using their mobile phone while driving—are prevented before things get out of hand.
It is this shift toward prevention that is attracting such strong interest from business leaders. It’s not just about saving lives or preventing serious injury.
Good safety is good business.
A safer fleet - one that identifies and reduces risks across its operations - is also able to cut costs in terms of lower insurance premiums and payouts, vehicle repairs, and lost productivity. In other words, good safety is good business.
Indeed, a new Samsara Fleet Safety Report shows a clear correlation between a decrease in risky behaviours and a fall in crash rates.
Based on anonymized, aggregated data from thousands of fleets worldwide, it found that mobile phone distraction - still one of the most common causes of serious road incidents - fell by 84% in the first six months of deploying AI cameras. By 30 months, that number had fallen by a staggering 96%.
Similarly, harsh driving events, such as sudden braking or sharp turns, dropped by 48% in six months and by 69% over 30 months, while speeding time was cut by nearly a quarter.
Overall, the research found that fleets that deployed the full range of AI safety solutions - dual-facing AI dash cams, in-cab alerts, and coaching - saw a 37% reduction in crash rates after six months, rising to 73% after 30 months. That is some safety record.
Technology for the real world
For instance, food distribution giant Sysco GB - part of the world’s largest food service company - recorded a 40% reduction in on-road incidents in just three months, with drivers regularly logging individual performance scores of over 90%.
It’s a similar story at wastewater management specialists Cappagh Browne, which serves more than 1.5 million customers across Hampshire, Sussex, and Kent.
Within just one year, Cappagh Browne cut at-fault accidents by 88% dropping from over 30 claims to just four. The company also saw a 95% reduction in adverse driving behaviours, including mobile phone usage and distracted driving, while speeding incidents decreased by 17%.
Matthew Reid, Head of Plant & Transport, says -
There’s no waiting around. As soon as the system registers a risky event, I’m notified for review. It’s seamless. Now, we know where the vehicle is, who is driving it thanks to the AI, and how they’re driving it. If there’s an instance where a driver needs coaching, I can pull up the footage, speak to the driver, and hold them accountable. One week after our first stand-down safety session, we reduced adverse driving behaviours by 95%. It’s all about awareness. Once drivers understood the risks, they were motivated to self-correct unsafe habits themselves.
What’s clear from both the research and the use cases, if fleets can lower the risk profile, they also reduce the chances of things going wrong. And that is a game-changer in terms of safety.
So, while technology has led to the creation of safer vehicles, AI is now able to take things to the next level and identify risk to stop it from escalating into something more serious. And the data that is generated by all these individual journeys is also being used to coach and train people to be better, safer drivers.
And it's that combination - safer vehicles, AI-powered tools, and safer drivers–that many believe supports the claim that AI will ultimately save more lives and prevent more serious injuries than traditional safety features such as seatbelts and airbags on their own. That’s not just smart. Or even AI-smart. It’s signalling the start of the age of intelligence.