A split-second distraction behind the wheel can mean the difference between a near miss and a catastrophic accident. As road risks rise, fleet managers are turning to AI to make their drivers — and their businesses — safer.

Five years ago, telematics solutions were primarily used for asset tracking, maintenance, and productivity. Today, the landscape has shifted, and safety has become the primary driver for adopting the technology.

This was among the key insights shared at the Geotab Connect 2025 conference in Orlando, Florida, where advancements in AI are significantly enhancing driver and fleet safety.

“Safety isn’t just about protecting drivers — it’s also a business imperative. The cost of accidents, from vehicle repairs to downtime and lawsuits, adds up quickly. That’s why companies are focusing on better visibility, coaching drivers, and making data-driven improvements,” said Neil Cawse, President and Chief Executive Officer of Geotab, during a media roundtable. “Visibility is power, and fleet managers are looking at how they can use data insights to refine driver coaching and implement other safety enhancements.”

Crash course

Globally, truck-related crashes are on the rise. In the United States, large truck crashes increased by 49% over the last decade, with 5,837 large trucks involved in fatal crashes in 2022—a 1.8% increase from 2021 figures.

Meanwhile, in Australia, truck-related crashes saw a 27% annual increase in 2023, with driver inattention and distraction identified as the primary causes of road incidents.

“We can easily calculate that people who use telematics improve their safety by an average of 15%, and we know that translates into an enormous number of lives saved,” Cawse remarked.

Geotab, which currently manages 4.7 million vehicles worldwide, launched its predictive collision risk model in 2024. This marked a shift from traditional scorecards to a data-driven approach, allowing customers to assess their likelihood of being involved in a collision within the next 100,000 miles, along with associated risk factors.

According to Sabina Martin, Vice President of Product Management at Geotab, the model has since been refined to be driver-centric, allowing fleet managers to assess individual driver performance and quickly identify areas for improvement.

“Our vision is to continuously improve the safety model, expanding the capabilities to provide more targeted coaching opportunities,” she said during a keynote address.

AI insights

According to Cawse, fleet managers are increasingly recognising that telematics has evolved from a “nice-to-have” tool into a critical business enabler. With this shift, the emergence of AI is unlocking new possibilities.

For some time, Geotab has been using AI to analyse vehicle location. The technology, Cawse explained, can, for example, study the behaviour of a police car, a school bus, and a long-haul delivery vehicle to differentiate between them and identify the type of vehicle.

“Our AI model can also automatically detect when a battery is weakening and assess the likelihood of an accident occurring soon,” he added.

Beyond vehicle monitoring, AI is enabling fleet managers to integrate shipment information from telematics systems with legacy transportation management systems, keeping the two in sync through AI-driven automation.

Meanwhile, large language models infused with domain-specific knowledge are transforming telematics by acting as copilots for fleet managers, potentially reshaping daily operations.

“You cannot manage what you don’t measure,” Cawse said.

During the keynote, he demonstrated how customers can use Gemini to generate code and integrate it into the Geotab platform.

“This is possible because Gemini has access to our public SDK documentation. In this example, a user automatically links their invoicing system, allowing administrators to centrally manage URLs for all drivers from one location. The process took just two minutes,” he revealed.

In a separate interview, David Brown, Associate Vice President for APAC at Geotab, shared additional AI use cases within the company’s ecosystem.

“If I’m an operator managing my fleet and I want to identify the top five most fuel-efficient vehicles over the past month, I can simply input that request into the system. Instead of manually sorting through data, AI generates the report instantly. That’s incredibly powerful,” he explained.

Industry collaboration

To improve driver and fleet safety while enhancing operational efficiency, Geotab has announced new partnerships with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). The company is working with Volvo Cars globally, Kubota and Hyundai in North America, and Volkswagen and Kia in Europe.

“The partnership with Kubota is particularly significant in the construction, equipment, and vocational sectors. Customers want more than just vehicle tracking — they need visibility into their entire construction yard operations. OEM connectivity will help facilitate that,” Martin said.

Telematics data is also playing a growing role in fleet management and influencing purchasing decisions — something that was previously uncommon, according to Cawse.

“What’s really interesting is that OEMs recognise they are experts at building vehicles, but they don’t necessarily understand how to run fleets. Geotab helps bridge that gap,” he said.

Data privacy

As Geotab collects vast amounts of data across different geographies, concerns about privacy and security are inevitable. To address this, the company has implemented privacy programs designed to give customers greater control over their data.

“Maintaining trust within the data ecosystem is critical. It’s our customers’ data — not Geotab’s to begin with. We have data privacy specialists embedded within our technical divisions, handling everything from simulated intruder attacks to conducting privacy risk assessments for every application we develop,” said Mike Branch, Vice President for Data and Analytics at Geotab.

From a data residency standpoint, Geotab is expanding its options in emerging markets to support enterprises that need to keep their data stored in-country, Martin added.

Ultimately, Cawse emphasised that customers — not the company — should determine how their data is used, particularly as AI relies on massive data sets.

“At Geotab, we make this crystal clear in our legal agreements: It’s not our data, and we don’t claim rights to it. Our role is to create services that benefit people,” he concluded.