Features
8 Nov 18

CalAmp, Katasi prepare distracted driver avoidance technology

In partnership with US startup Katasi, California-based CalAmp is working on a new fleet management solution known as Distracted Driver Avoidance Technology (DDAT) which is aimed at reducing the incidents of texting while driving.

The company’s telematics devices are already installed in fleet cars so they already have data communicating what is going on with each and every vehicle. What DDAT does is register each driver in a fleet as well so that fleet managers have a set of cell phones as well as vehicles to monitor.

Once a particular vehicle moves offsite, the technology automatically engages. “We then match the vehicle with the cell phone and that is when blocking or buffering certain data content such as text occurs,” Senior VP of Corporate Development Garo Sarkissian told Global Fleet.

The technology works in cooperation with local cell phone carriers,” added Sarkissian.

Although some of society may resist the idea based on too much control, the executive pointed out that rules must be set into place to better serve some countries. For instance, in the US where companies are exposed to a lot of risk, there are a lot of rules put into place to minimize this risk.

Employees may not be bothered too much by the restrictions as long as it is done in a way that is not overbearing or inconvenient for them. Basically, employers need to create a seamless user experience.

Remember that the network will work. It is just some features such as texting that will not.

US state penalties for texting while driving (Source: handfreeinfo.com 2015)

Is Distracted Driver Avoidance Technology ready now?

The technology is available now, but CalAmp still needs to work on integrating it with cell phone carriers and is scaling up those efforts.

Despite CalAmp’s telematics devises being global, DDAT really depends on cell phone carrier agreements to expand. “Integrating with carriers will take a bit of time, but I’d say that we could see a better network of carriers by sometime next year,” said Sarkissian.

 

 
Authored by: Daniel Bland