"DRIVING BEHAVIOR” Intelligence Saves Lives

Bob Newkirk
Dec 7, 2016
3 min read

The world's most important driving technology may not be autonomous driving.

It may be helping people become better drivers.

As a first-time father, I remember learning that drowning is one of the leading causes of accidental death for young children. My wife and I immediately enrolled our three-and-a-half-year-old daughter in swimming lessons.

The goal wasn't simply to teach her how to swim.

It was to help her build awareness, confidence, and good habits through practice, coaching, and feedback.

That simple experience made me think differently about another skill we practice almost every day—driving.

Why do we accept preventable crashes?

When I later reviewed statistics from the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal

Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), one reality stood out:

Many serious crashes aren't caused by mechanical failure.

They're caused by human behavior.

Speeding.

Hard braking.

Aggressive acceleration.

Distracted driving.

Poor decision-making.

These are behaviors—not unavoidable accidents.

Every year, millions of vehicle crashes occur, resulting in tens of thousands of lives lost and many more forever changed. Behind every statistic is a family, a friend, or a future that never happened.

The difficult truth is that many of these tragedies are preventable.

We don't need to wait for autonomous vehicles

The future of transportation is exciting.

Autonomous vehicles, assisted driving systems, artificial intelligence, and connected infrastructure promise to make our roads dramatically safer.

But widespread autonomy will take years to reach every vehicle on every road.

People need help today.

Instead of waiting for cars to become perfect, why not help drivers become better?

Feedback changes behavior

Think about almost any skill worth mastering.

Athletes review game film.

Pilots train in simulators.

Musicians practice with instructors.

Students receive grades.

Yet most drivers receive little meaningful feedback after earning their licenses.

Imagine if drivers could understand—not guess—how they actually perform behind the wheel.

Imagine receiving simple, objective coaching after every trip.

Not to punish.

Not to surveil.

To improve.

Because awareness is the first step toward safer behavior.

Data can become a driving coach

Advances in the Internet of Things (IoT), mobile sensors, artificial intelligence, and machine learning now make that possible.

Modern smartphones and connected devices can recognize driving behaviors such as:

Hard braking
Aggressive acceleration
Excessive speeding
Sharp cornering
Distracted driving
Overall driving smoothness

When combined with contextual information such as traffic, weather, road conditions, and location, these insights can generate personalized driving scores and practical feedback that help drivers improve over time.

The goal isn't collecting more data.

The goal is to make better decisions.

Small improvements save lives

Transportation touches nearly every aspect of modern life, yet historically we've measured very little about how people actually drive.

That is beginning to change.

With scalable behavior analytics, we can reduce accidents, lower insurance costs, improve fleet safety, decrease fuel consumption, and make every commute less stressful.

Perhaps most importantly, we have an opportunity to save lives before autonomous vehicles become the norm.

Technology shouldn't replace human responsibility.

It should strengthen it.

From insight to impact

After several years of development, talented data scientists and engineers have built scalable behavior analytics platforms capable of transforming raw motion data into meaningful coaching.

The technology is here.

Software development kits (SDKs) now enable the integration of intelligent driver scoring directly into existing mobile applications and connected mobility platforms, accelerating adoption without requiring specialized hardware.

The remaining challenge isn't technical.

It's adoption.

A safer future starts with better behavior

Every major advance in transportation has made mobility faster.

The next great advance should make mobility smarter.

And safer.

Autonomous vehicles will undoubtedly reshape the future.

But until every vehicle drives itself, helping millions of people become better drivers may be one of the highest-impact applications of artificial intelligence and connected technology.

Because every safer decision behind the wheel represents something statistics never fully capture:

Someone who gets home.

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If you are interested in becoming a partner to help fast-track the adoption of driver-scoring “behavior analytics,” please contact iot@rampwise.com.