Fleet Safety: It Is You Versus Silicon Valley
By Paul Atchley, PhD, eDriving’s Brain Scientist Advisor
Imagine one day that you, the fleet safety manager, receive a report about your drivers that reveals that about 1 in 10 of your drivers is addicted to a substance that, when used, significantly impairs their ability to drive safely.
And further imagine the report also tells you that almost all of the remaining drivers are probably not “addicted” in the clinical sense, but they are highly compelled to take the same substance while driving and admit they keep the substance in their vehicles and also admit to occasional use.
This is that report. For a little more than a decade since the release of the iPhone, Silicon Valley has been finding ways to increase the degree to which the “phones” and apps are able to grab and hold the attention of their owners. Some very bright people do careful work to enhance the psychological compulsion to use our smart devices constantly.
Self-Driving Car Isn’t Being Taught How to Drive, But How Not to Drive
An upstart British company called Wayve, claims to have created self-driving car technology replicating the sophisticated problem-solving and spontaneity of human drivers.
The company released a video of a vehicle navigating through the narrow streets of Cambridge, England with only 20 hours of training data.
“Every time a safety driver intervenes or takes over control of the vehicle, we learn from that experience and that feedback,” Alex Kendall, the company’s co-founder and chief technology officer, says in the video. “And with each piece of data we’re able to train our system to get better and better and better.”
Read the article at The Washington Post,
EU Road Fatality Figures Show Need for Swift Action on Safety
By Natalie Middleton
Although fewer people died on European roads last year, further concrete and swift actions on road figures are needed, as shown by new road fatality figures from the European Commission.
The preliminary data shows there were around 25,100 fatalities in road accidents in the EU28 in 2018; down 21% compared to 2010, and 1% compared to 2017.
Although the figures confirm that European roads are by far the safest in the world, they also show that the EU is off track to reach its target of halving the number of road deaths by 2020.
Read the article at International Fleet World
EU Claims VW, BMW and Daimler Colluded to Limit Emissions Tech
European Union investigators have determined that Volkswagen, BMW and Daimler AG colluded to limit the use of exhaust-improving technologies for gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles.
The result limited the access of Europeans to less polluting cars, but not the price.
The investigation’s focus was on selective catalytic reduction systems to reduce harmful nitrogen oxides emissions of diesel passenger cars through the injection of urea, which is also called AdBlue, in the exhaust gas stream.
Read the article at The Detroit Bureau.
A Call To Action: ‘Owned Media,’ More Than Being Social
By Ed Pierce, Fleet Industry Marketer
While brand marketers for consumer companies exploit the new web-created opportunities to capture buyers’ attention, B2B marketers have had good reason to wait.
The general consensus is that digital marketing comprises corporate website and repetitive corporate messaging placed in banner advertising and in social media posts, tweets, and photos.
As a marketing manager for a provider of B2B products or services, you know that the first question your executives will ask is “Where’s the value?” Are you really going to explain marketing value based on LinkedIn “Connections,” Facebook “likes,” or Twitter “followers,”? Not likely! It’s hard enough explaining the value of traditional advertising measures like cost-per-thousand, impressions, awareness and perceptions.
