It’s been nearly five years since Bridgestone acquired Webfleet in 2019. The following investment and focus enabled Webfleet to flourish in Australia due to Bridgestone’s objective of being at the forefront of mobility with a broad range of vehicle tracking and fleet management solutions.
While devices such as Webfleet’s LINK 245 and LINK 740 have advanced the monitoring of vehicles and driver patterns, Webfleet’s CAM 50 artificial intelligence (AI) dashcam has extended the capabilities of Webfleet’s solution. Since its launch in 2021, Webfleet Australia and New Zealand marketing manager Scott Elkington says the CAM 50 dashcam has continued to evolve for bus and coach operators.
“We’re constantly adding new features and developing the CAM 50,” Elkington told ABC.
“The CAM 50 is pretty advanced – it was built as a hardware platform to support future advancements in AI technology.”
The unit features multiple cameras; a primary camera, an infrared camera for clear footage capture at night, and an advanced AI camera. Elkington says the AI camera provides accurate readings of subtle events for drivers such as driver distractions or hazards ahead, while its IP69K-certified performance means the CAM 50’s auxiliary camera, the AUX 50, isn’t a fragile piece of technology. Instead, it can survive the most demanding conditions.
Connecting to Webfleet, the CAM 50 gives new data and insights through cloud-based tools such as Webfleet’s OptiDrive (when paired with a LINK telematics device), an advanced driver behaviour and performance analysis engine, helping operators create better targeted driver training programs to improve safety.
Elkington says the CAM 50 has been popular among Australian fleets, particularly those in areas with high-risk or busy road networks.
Elkington says the model’s ability to improve vehicle, driver and passenger safety has been the key to its success. He says the CAM 50 can “read” the road ahead through its outward-facing camera, detecting hazards and helping bus drivers navigate them safely.
Bus driver and passenger safety is a priority for Webfleet and its CAM 50. With its driver-facing camera, the CAM 50 can also detect dangerous driver behaviours such as mobile phone use, eating while driving and no seatbelt use.
It can also play a crucial role in driver safety by detecting driver distraction events, helping ensure everyone onboard or around the bus remains in safe hands.
Recently, Webfleet added lane drift detection to its CAM 50, remotely upgrading customers’ CAM 50s out in the field. If a bus crosses lane boundaries more than three times in 30 seconds (a configurable setting), an alert is generated for the driver and an event is logged for fleet management.
“The CAM 50 can also read those very subtle indicators of when it might be time for a break, particularly for bus drivers who may be at the end of a long shift or are zoning out a little,” Elkington says.
“It can pick up tail-gating and general distractions, providing an alert of what it detects to the driver so they can take self-corrective action.”
In the same update, Webfleet enabled new wake-up functionalities on input/output (IO) triggers, such as door opens, capturing footage even when the bus has been switched off.
“A lot of dash cams require the engine to be on in order to record, but the CAM 50’s I/O activation means you’ll always get footage from key activators you choose – door opens, monitor activations, cabin lighting – anything,” Elkington says.
“Sometimes an incident might occur when a bus is sitting at a stop if someone forces entry and assaults the driver, or the bus is parked and gets hit, so we think it’s important to have the camera on for those critical moments.”
Elkington says a CAM 50 can now also be remotely activated through Webfleet’s dashboard to provide a live view, even when the bus is turned off, to see the vehicle’s status or if a safety incident has occurred.
The CAM 50’s integrated alert button also enables drivers to record any event at the push of a button, ensuring the last moments of footage have been captured and stored in the cloud.
For a wider field of view, Webfleet offers the AUX 50 camera, where up to four additional cameras can be installed in addition to the CAM 50 on a vehicle. Elkington says this gives operators improved visibility around the whole vehicle, better documentation of events and the furthering of capabilities available via the Webfleet platform.
“The CAM 50 is designed as a forward-thinking platform – we can update its software remotely, ensuring any improvements or new advancements to underlying AI technology can be applied without needing a new device,” Elkington says.
“What we’ve seen in the past three years is the continued expansion of its AI capabilities. It’s the same camera, but it continues to do more and more.”