Freightliner Introduces New Safety Solution DriverCOACH

Daimler’s subsidiary Freightliner presented DriverCOACH, a driving assistant that fosters best practices behind the wheel. The new tool will become available in the Mexican market in 2023 models, which will start production in 2H22.

In Mexico, around 90 percent of road accidents are caused by driver behavior, according to the Center for Experimentation and Road Safety. Taking into account that the human factor remains the main cause for accidents, there is a great area of opportunity to prevent these and increase road safety, said Marcela Barreiro, President and CEO, Daimler Trucks México.

DriverCOACH is an accompaniment solution for truck drivers that uses artificial intelligence and features connectivity with Enlace Freightliner 2.0 and Detroit Assurance to detect actions that could threaten the safety of operators. In case of lane departure or if the driver answers a phone call, does not use the seatbelt or shows signs of fatigue, the system plays a visual and audible alert to give the operator a margin of response before an accident can occur. DriverCOACH will be available on Freightliner’s flagship model Cascadia and customers can request the tool as an optional add-on.

While the main objective of the alert is to prevent an accident seconds before it happens, alerts are also sent to the transport company’s monitoring center. Thus, companies are able to keep a better record of their drivers’ behavior and foster internal feedback and training to improve it.

“(Safety) is a priority for us. This technological solution developed in collaboration with Detroit Assurance, Active Lane Assist and Enlace Freightliner, will help our customers’ businesses to be more profitable, while taking care of operators’ safety,” said Barreiro.

Protecting human capital and material assets are key priorities for the company, said to T21 Claudio de la Peña, Director of Sales and Marketing, Daimler Trucks México. “DriverCOACH features an internal camera with two functions: to record the environment and to detect atypical movement while driving to alert the operator. The information is sent to the fleet manager and to our monitoring centers for further analyses.”

Daimler aims to make DriverCOACH a real driving assistant rather than a vigilance tool and operators must see the technology as a tool to safeguard their lives, added De la Peña.

Freightliner Cascadia has been using a driving assistance system since 2019 in the US. The system can accelerate, decelerate and steer independently. In addition to Level 2 driving automation features, the Detroit Assurance systems are designed to keep truck drivers, pedestrians, cyclists and everybody safe on the road. DriverCOACH will be an optimal solution for Mexican fleets, which will have the opportunity to familiarize with the system through demo vehicles, said Barreiro.