New device coming to market helps drivers stay awake and allows safe connectivity

The Maven Co-Pilot is a headset that connects truck drivers to their workplace while maximising safety and encouraging positive driver behaviour, going beyond retro-installed telematics systems.

The Pittsburgh company Maven Machines recently secured US$1.5M in investment to accelerate the business in manufacturing and marketing.

Courtesy mavenmachines.com

The Co-Pilot device is a comfortable headphone set that uses 13 state-of-the-art sensors and learning algorithms to detect the signs of head-checking of mirrors and distinguish it from ‘head bobbing’ as a symptom of fatigue, which emits an alert to the driver through Siri or Google Now.

This clever device also measures real-time driver behaviour and vehicle journey information, while connecting to the driver’s phone via Bluetooth and can be answered by the simple nodding of their head. The Maven system benefits in not requiring costly retro-fitting hardware and subsequent maintenance.

Avishai Geller, President and CEO of Maven, said the Co-Pilot headseat is designed with driver safety as its number one priority.

“The data insights are incredible,” he said. “We can start thinking about predictive safety where we have baselines for various roads and interchanges and can literally speak to a driver like an active coach if their driving behaviours don’t fit the pattern collected by thousands of other crossings for a particular road.”

Co-Pilot pairs to the driver’s phone collecting and transmitting data 50 times a second while algorithms on the phone decode raw data into meaningful event data. Events and additional information like speed, time, distance and GPS location contextualise driver status and add further analysis. Real-time driver coaching is also possible, likewise pairing with other drivers.

It can also be said Co-Pilot offers better driver privacy compared with video surveillance and the idea of being watched. Additionally, the ability to detect fatigue and alert the driver means fatigued operators are not at risk of under-assessing, mis-diagnosing or even ignoring their need to rest.

UPDATE:

Currently Maven secured its fifth fleet customer in June 2016. Craig Campbell, VP of sales and marketing said while there would be certain interest in Australia, the small business hasn’t made a move Down Under just yet.

“Maven is a start up. The company is almost two years old and began delivering product to the US market one year ago,” Campbell said. “We have not had the opportunity to do business in the Australian market as of yet.  However, we know the Australian market values fatigue technology as similar (yet different) approaches have seen traction there including SmartCap and Seeing Machines.”

Despite the geographical barriers, Maven is flexible with doing business abroad.

“Ideally, we would like to eventually find or place a representative in Australia. But as a first step, we are happy to ship units and work remotely,” Campbell said.

Graphic: mavenmachines.com/co-pilot/

This graph shows how Co-Pilot influences drivers to check mirrors and increase awareness on the job while battling fatigue simultaneously.