Inward Facing Cameras & AI

I didn't see any recent posts. Does your company have inward facing cameras? With or without AI?

Prime announced they are installing inward and outward cameras with AI. These are supposed to track our hand movements, eyes, seat belts with AI. The outward will pick up U Turns, stop signs and following distance.

Some think they want to have "gotcha" moments to fire us.

I am finding that many other companies already have these cameras. What is your experience?

We have outward cameras that look for stop signs, stopping on a red light, and following distance mostly.

When we first got them 3? Years ago they started firing drivers on their phones because they could see their reflection in the windshield. Most of them were offered their job backs( some by court order), since we had been told they do not record inside.

Knight trucks have a forward-facing camera, not sure if it's AI-powered, but it probably is. We have a running "smart-drive score" a numeric value based on following distance, hard braking, etc. that affects whether or not we receive a monthly safety bonus.

No inward cameras yet. The day they stick a camera in my face I'm out.

I have both hooked through my eld. I get a nice insurance break for it and also has come in very handy on a couple occassions.

One incident was a guy broadsided me for whatever reason in a rental car. His girlfriend rented the car, didn’t take out the insurance and was going to go after me. I had the entire thing on video and it showed my speed which was slightly below the speed limit.

Another was a lady claimed I almost hit her and it was my fault she it a curb and damaged her car. The video showed her and my actions. GSP had nothing else to say to me once they watched the video. Again I was just under the posted speed limit and it clearly showed she rolled a stop sign and pulled directly in fron of me before accelerating and hitting a curb.

The way these lawyers go after trucking companies in lawsuits it doesn’t make any sense to me not to have it these days.

My issue is the "Trickle Truth" that has been brought out.

First it was "outward only."

Then they said "AI only." And got called for BS on it, because how does AI pick up what we are doing?

Then they said "it only has 3 minutes of data, and only saves the clip if triggered by an event."

THEN Mr Finger Up His Nose safety guy posts about "recoverable footage for 4 days."

I am seriously reconsidering my position due to feeling like they lied to everyone about it. I still have time to decide though. I def no longer trust my FM , or the company itself. I have never been the Kool-Aid gulper, just a sipper, but being actively lied to about it is unacceptable.

As said, at Knight we have outward facing. Our "bonus" structure is 2 com for safety, 1 for fuel, 4 for productivity and if you get all 3, a 2 cpm kicker.

It's arranged so that most drivers will fail fuel or safety, costing the driver 3 cpm on miles for the month.

The standards for the "offenses" are varied and basically an interpretation of a recorded event. The scoring is very vague and ambiguous.

There is no path to appeal the charges and the ai in the camera Is frequently wrong. I have my own outward facing cam and it is more accurate.

In addition to the insurance savings, although we're self insured, by denying drivers 3 cpm on miles, the company makes 660k to 1.2 million per month off 2000 to 3000 drivers by fleecing them out of wages in this manner.

My experience is that I won all 4 bonuses for 13 months in a row, I deleveloped a spreadsheet that calculates mpgs real time based on their confusing methods. It allows any driver to game the system and achieve the mpg threshold even with idling in most conditions.

I published the spreadsheet on our work social media to help our other drivers accomplish the stated goal, of course they don't want us to attain the goal, just get close but fail. Immediately after publishing, my smartdrive score went from an average of 4 for 13 months to 25. Multiple dings something daily. There is a direct link between beating the house and punitive action using the camera and smartdrive.

In effect, the corporation knows that it's almost impossible to systemically combat the system if it's vague and ambiguous. I've been recording data though and will be able to find the parameters of what leads to an event, then modify vehicle input to match the parameters, in effect negating the event being recorded.

My experience with the use of the camera is obviously negative based on my company's nefarious behavior with the system.

I watched a video on YouTube put out by an obnoxious guy called Tim Travels who says he used to be an attorney. The video was all about this new camera policy at Prime and a company safety meeting held to assure drivers that the new system was to their benefit. I’m certainly not that familiar with the inner workings at Prime but I guess this issue has caused a major ruckus.

At Helwig we have the driver facing cameras and it’s a non issue for me. I’ve never heard anything about AI being used with the camera system, but we seem to be slow to implement new technology, probably because of the cost. Heck, I think our Omnitracs and navigation program came over on the Mayflower in 1620. (AD, not BC). Maybe that’s a blessing in disguise.

Had the reflection thing happen once @ CRST. Used youtube music, cell mounted to center of dash panel. Safety called me saying they seen my cell reflection, BUT, I was not touching it. I said yep so why you calling me? I set it n forget it no need to touch it. Suggested to use Pandora since the screen shuts off during play, where as u-tube dont.

Better fix, we taped a notebook cover over the top of dash to hide the cell screen....1 time our camera cable fell out (was loose) right away the DM was calling me about it....Ok boss fixed loose connection ! They hid the mics in the A pillars of the cab, and not very well hidden either haha....

To Bruce....

He was fired because he is always like that. I am shocked he wasn't fired before. He is still complaining about things from over a year ago. Been at like 4 or 5 companies in 4 years i think.

"

My experience with the use of the camera is obviously negative based on my company's nefarious behavior with the system."

My smart drive score used to be always off the charts and then one day some dude at the Tulare terminal said "You just need to tap on the brakes anytime someone gets over in front of you. It's been 0 ever since.