Nauto, an SaaS provider of enterprise AI and computer vision solutions for commercial fleets and the automotive sector, announced several new artificial intelligence (AI) and feature enhancements to its Driver and Fleet Safety Platform.

The latest advanced AI capabilities from Nauto include automatic detection of four new, high-risk driver behaviors in the vehicle that trigger real-time alerts for greater driver and fleet safety and risk reduction, while also helping to streamline operations.

Market data suggests that driver and fleet safety has become more important than ever. An analysis of data reported by State Highway Safety Offices (SHSOs) estimates that more than 6,700 pedestrians were killed on U.S. roads in 2020, up 4.8% from 2019. And, according to the National Safety Council, in 2020, motor vehicle deaths spiked by 24%, the highest increase in 96 years. For fleets, insurance costs in 2020 also increased between 10% and 15% for the third year in a row. Driver safety has become both an ethical and economic imperative, with collisions and accidents costing the industry hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

Nauto announced advancements in its AI technology and new features that can help prevent risky behaviors that lead to collisions, including notifications and warnings for:

• Pedestrian collision

• Speeding over the posted limit

• Progressive fatigue and drowsiness

• Intersection violations

Nauto's AI technology is able to track and analyze risk in real time, and when it detects covered risks it can provide preventive warnings that may give drivers critical extra time in which to respond. Notably, these warnings take advantage of more than 1.2 billion AI-processed driving miles to make them more accurate, helping to eliminate issues around alert fatigue from false alerts. With these new additions, Nauto's in-vehicle alerts and AI-informed driver coaching now address over 90% of weighted collision risk factors as identified by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute.

"Nauto's AI-native approach measures and detects critical real-time driving risks that cause collisions and helps drivers avoid collisions rather than only informing them after-the-fact," said Yoav Banin, Chief Product Officer at Nauto. "We are putting advanced AI and over 1 billion miles of driver behavior data to work to improve driver safety and reduce risk. As a result, our customers have seen that 2 out of 3 drivers improve automatically in 2 weeks without any human intervention, and their fleets benefit from up to 80% reduction in collisions."

Nauto also will showcase its new VERA (Visually Enhanced Risk Assessment) Score 3.0 driver scoring system, an updated version of its risk assessment score based on 25 risk variables assessed by its smart cameras and sensors. VERA Score® 3.0 summarizes driving events and behaviors into one score and provides a way to keep track of driver and fleet performance over time. A VERA Score is calculated for each driver based on their individual trips, and is on a scale from 1 to 100, with 100 representing the best and safest driving performance score. The insights captured through VERA Score 3.0 are reported in Nauto's cloud application in both dashboard and report formats to help fleet management quickly and easily identify both top performers for recognition, as well as risky drivers with low VERA scores and the specific behaviors that require further coaching.

Nauto is further helping fleet managers gain rapid visibility into their operations by providing new, out-of-the-box reports for key performance indicators like coaching and real-time alert effectiveness, policy violations, collisions, and both top performing and at-risk drivers.

Banin added, "The ability to access and analyze well-organized data in order to have a clear understanding of the state of fleet operations and driver activity – without being overwhelmed by multiple interfaces and noisy data – is paramount for assessing risk and optimizing performance. We believe VERA Score 3.0 and the various reporting and analytic capabilities in Nauto's cloud application provide valuable insights for fleet executives around driver-specific training, risk profiling, and fleet management."

VERA 3.0 and the in-vehicle alert for speeding over posted limit are available today, while the other features are planned for release later this year.