Telematics sounds like the newest phone app with a free link to the latest viral video.
Instead, it’s the collection of data from thousands of remote sensors that with computer analysis can quickly be used to identify trends and tendencies. Traffic safety experts meeting at the Governors Highway Safety Association’s annual conference in Pittsburgh Tuesday said massaging millions of pieces of road and driving data collected from vehicles could dramatically improve road safety in the next few years.
For about the past 10 years, most new vehicles have been equipped with sensors that can detect everything from roads with potholes to locations where drivers routinely hit the brakes too hard or are likely to look at their phone or otherwise become distracted. Drivers can voluntarily allow insurance companies to view the data anonymously to identify general safety concerns or individually to provide rewards programs for safe driving.
Fleet managers and companies such as Uber can use the information to monitor how their drivers are performing, offering bonuses for safe behavior or increased training when problems are identified.
But participants in the GHSA panel Tuesday said state highway safety offices have been slow to take advantage of help telematic information could provide in identifying potential problems before serious crashes occur. Pam Schadel Fischer, GHSA’s senior director of external engagement who moderated the discussion, said there is “an unprecedented depth” of data that can allow safety officials to be proactive with road design and safety programs rather than reacting after a serious crash.
For example, Ryan McMahon, senior vice president of strategy and corporate development at Cambridge Mobile Telematics, said data showed hard braking by drivers at a particular intersection. When local officials went to the site to try to identify the problem, they found that growing trees were blocking the view of a stop sign until drivers were close to the intersection.
McMahon said government officials have given Cambridge “incredible response” when they learn the company has aggregate information from 52 million drivers across the country. Some states are “starting to open that door” to use telematics to identify risk and develop solutions.
Federal and state programs that spend about $6 billion a year on safety programs are anxious to find low-cost solutions such as trimming trees to eliminate potential problems, he said.
“We’ve got to get moving,” he said. “If we need to get more dollars [for agencies to buy telematic information], let’s get the information we need to get it done.”
Anderson Abernathy, president and COO of Michelin Mobility Intelligence, said his company has worked with GHSA to award four grants of $100,000 each to states that want to use telematic information to attack particular problems. The work included developing improvements for four particularly dangerous intersections in Washington by increasing police enforcement and analyzing the results, and a work-zone safety program in Connecticut.
A key to more widespread usage and sharing of information is convincing the public that the effort uses information gathered by “aggregation and anonymization,” not Big Brother watching individuals, Abernathy said.
Judy Stover, director of telematics – personal lines at Nationwide, and Kristen Smith, head of global road safety policy at Uber, said telematic data can be used to change driver behavior.
Stover said the insurance carrier offers discounts of up to 40% for customers who show they are safe drivers by allowing the company to monitor how fast they are driving, if they brake too hard or use their cellphone while driving. The company has seen thousands show improved driving skills to get a discount on their insurance rate.
At Uber, the company monitors its drivers with telematics and offers financial rewards for safe driving. If Uber identifies drivers holding their phone while driving, it sends them a stand for mounting the phone, Smith said.
“In the last 12 years, the response from the public has grown exponentially,” Stover said, noting that about 70% of auto insurance customers are part of the incentive program. “It’s just consistency and building trust.”
Tom Glass, chief of highway safety for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, said the state hasn’t taken the plunge yet to use telematics, but it believes there can be safety benefits.
“We’re still learning more about it and which system is best for us,” he said. “We’re working to see how we can best use it.
“If we find [through telematics] there’s a history of hard braking and distracted driving on a ramp, then we can address that.”
Ed covers transportation at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at eblazina@unionprogress.com.