Until recently, the only company that really pushed for a video solution in its telematics offerings was Intelligent Telematics. That company has been providing 3G solutions to its customers for a while, storing the footage locally for day to day activities, whilst broadcasting specific ‘events’ like accidents and speeding via 3G to a remote server for back up and later viewing. Now though IT may have some competition, as CMS SupaTrak has just announced that it too is launching a video solution for its telematics partners.
The idea behind the new system is to give the authorities, individuals and companies the ability to watch crashes back in real time and therefore determine not only who was at fault, but more importantly, how to prevent such an accident happening again. If it becomes obvious through telematics data and footage that a particular part of the road is dangerous, signs could be erected or the surface corrected, though if it turns out to be the fault of a particular driver, they can be punished accordingly and if necessary, sent to extra training to improve their driving.
“Our new crash reconstruction system has been conceived through our work with insurance under writers and our existing customers,” said CMS SupaTrak’s managing direector, Jason Airey. “It provides a solution to the challenges faced when an incident does occur and the integration of the captured data enables fleet managers and FNOL centres to handle claims as efficiently as possible.”
The move is being hailed by insurers, who are keen to have such technology installed in vehicles as it gives them a much better idea of who’s at fault and also delivers a basic idea of how much an accident is likely to cost. It also lets them keep their customers safer, by allowing them the company to send appropriate medical care if needed.
Like other video based telematics solutions, CMS SupaTrak’s new system will not store or transmit video constantly, as that would be costly in terms of data storage and transmission costs. However, what it will do is send back the 20 seconds of video before an accident or incident and 10 seconds afterwards. If the automated system doesn’t detect that something worth recording has occurred however, the driver can manually choose to hit a button and transmit video if they need to. This could provide an element of security for a driver if they were worried about a potential incident taking place.
All eyes will now be on intelligent Telematics to see how it responds. It may be the case that it actually enjoys the competition as it will bring more people over to the idea of video telematics being beneficial. It will have to watch out though, as it’s no longer the only player in the incident reporting game when it comes to telematics.
