Guardian | Seeing Machines

Fatigue can be fatal. Distraction can be deadly. Crashes can be costly.

As fleets grapple with the rising costs of insurance premiums and labor shortages, can you afford to be complacent?

Driving is an inherently risky occupation, particularly for those operating large trucks and other heavy vehicles, and the risks associated with driver drowsiness and distraction cannot be understated.

But these risks can be mitigated with genuine driver drowsiness and distraction safety technology.

Did you know?

Choose a system that truly protects drivers

Introducing Guardian: a genuine safety solution

Guardian is a real-time, preventative driver safety solution from Seeing Machines trusted by over 1,100 commercial transport and logistics organizations globally. It boasts unparalleled drowsiness and distraction detection, coupled with superior fatigue intervention.

Powered by technology that is trusted by some of the world’s leading automotive brands including Ford, BMW and General Motors, Guardian uses world-class detection algorithms which have been in development for over 20 years.

Unlike other products, Guardian offers genuine, early and continuous drowsiness detection and is scientifically proven to reduce fatigue-related driving events by more than 90%.

When the in-vehicle system detects a drowsy or distracted driving event, it intervenes in real time through a set of audio, visual, and vibration alerts. Instant feedback encourages drivers to avoid risky behaviors and allows them to recognize (self-manage) and develop strategies to mitigate these risks.

What makes the Guardian solution truly unique is the addition of 24/7 monitoring and intervention by real humans, helping you save time, money and lives.

Guardian can also be integrated with a fleet’s existing telematics system to bolster their safety solution.

Accurate detection

Fleets need to be confident their safety solution can accurately track a driver’s head and eye movements in any circumstance, for example under different lighting conditions, when they are wearing glasses, sunglasses, hats or even face masks.

This level of accuracy not only ensures the system is not missing risky behaviors, but results in less false positives, increasing driver acceptance of the system’s reliability.

Effective intervention

The Guardian solution is truly unique, combining Seeing Machines industry-leading in-cabin safety technology, with 24/7 monitoring and intervention by real humans in the Guardian Center.

Committed to getting everyone home safely, our team of highly trained analysts review and classify every single risky driving incident and notify fleet managers within minutes of a confirmed fatigue event, so they can intervene and protect drivers their way, when it matters most. In fact, it is scientifically proven that in-cabin alerts can reduce events by around 66%, which is great, but this jumps to 94%+ with real-time management.

Proven results

Seeing Machines’ safety technology is the most advanced in the world because it’s underpinned by more than 20 years of scientific research into human behavior in real-time, real-world scenarios. We have also accumulated over 10 billion miles of naturalistic driving data from Guardian, and through a range of independent and joint studies.

This unrivalled understanding of human behavior is why Seeing Machines technology is trusted by the best, and that’s what your drivers deserve.

Not all driver safety systems are equal

There are many fleet safety technologies in the market today, promoting protection from drowsy and distracted driving. But are they delivering on these promises and offering the protection your drivers really need?

Implementing new technology across your fleet is a significant investment – not just financially, but also the investment of time for installations, driver education and their ultimate acceptance. You want to do it once and you want to do it right.

Many so-called drowsiness and distraction detection systems have inferior technology which can mean less accurate detection capabilities. This is so important when selecting a solution, because in the best case scenario an inferior system will ‘over-detect’ incidents resulting in driver frustration, often leading to system tampering. In the worst case they ‘under detect’ and miss critical risky driving events, defeating their purpose which is to protect your drivers and prevent accidents.

Is video telematics the same thing?

No, a windshield-mounted video telematics system combines vehicle and driving data with dashcam footage. Essentially, it analyses vehicle metrics, and records incidents rather than preventing them.

A sophisticated camera-based drowsiness and distraction detection system uses AI to detect and alert a driver to dangerous behaviors such as distracted or impaired driving, intervening in real time to prevent accidents.

Does the system track the eyes?

It’s now widely accepted that camera-based systems are the best way to support drivers, but did you know that different products offer different tracking capabilities? A major distinction is whether the system uses the driver’s eye or head movements to determine gaze direction.

Monitoring the head pose is often a reliable gauge of where someone is looking, but not always. It can be an unreliable indicator, particularly when it comes to one of the most common and dangerous distractions when driving – using a mobile phone. Many drivers move their eyes independently to their head when interacting with a mobile phone while driving, which presents an issue for a system that uses only head pose to infer distraction.

A common misconception is that all camera-based systems track eye movements to determine where they are looking. In reality, many of these actually rely on head pose alone. For example, a windscreen-mounted system cannot track a driver’s eye-gaze because of its positioning in the cabin.

The safest and most reliable drowsiness and distraction detection systems are those that can precisely detect driver eye movements as well as head movements.

Is it really detecting drowsiness?

Several safety solutions claim to offer drowsiness detection. Many products that promise this are actually referring to the later stages of fatigue – particularly microsleeps.

In fact, many of these “event detections” are generated after an incident such as harsh braking, where it triggers the forward-facing camera and by default in-cabin video footage that is reviewed after the event, with no real-time intervention.

Is it actually intervening?

To protect your drivers and prevent crashes, real-time intervention is key.

Some systems only record dangerous driving events for review after they have occurred, but do not intervene in real time. This may help with litigation and retrospective training, but they do not prevent accidents or assist the driver when it matters the most. Instant feedback encourages drivers to avoid risky behaviors and allows them to recognize their state of alertness and develop strategies to mitigate these risks.

Additionally, the type of alerts used for intervention are worth considering. Most systems offer audio and visual alerts, however haptic (seat vibration) alerting is still quite unique and incredibly important.

Seat vibration alerts are often more effective than audio and visual alerts alone because they provide a tactile response that can be felt directly by the driver, reducing the chances of missing an alert. This is particularly useful in noisy environments where audio alerts might be drowned out, or in situations where the driver's attention is focused elsewhere, making visual alerts less noticeable.

Protect your fleet with Guardian