Isaac Harnesses AI to Better Evaluate Driver Safety
Telematics Vendor Also Introduces Trailer ID Verification, More Precise Geofencing and Refreshed Tablet UI
Key Takeaways:
- Isaac Instruments unveiled new AI-driven safety and efficiency tools for trucking fleets at its Horizon 2025 conference in Charlotte, N.C., from Oct. 20-22.
- The company’s upcoming AI Safety Score will analyze video and contextual data to prioritize risky driving behaviors, with a general release expected early next year.
- Isaac also announced new product integrations, cybersecurity measures and partnerships, including a collaboration with Daimler Truck North America and ISO 27001 certification for data security.
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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Trucking telematics provider Isaac Instruments revealed its latest innovations in artificial intelligence and rolled out several other enhancements to its in-cab technology aimed at improving fleet safety and efficiency.
On the safety front, the technology vendor is utilizing AI to automatically evaluate the severity of risky driving behaviors detected by its InView onboard cameras to help fleet managers proactively address the most important safety concerns in a time-effective manner.
Isaac previewed those capabilities and outlined its broader vision for AI and fleet management technology at its Horizon 2025 user conference, held here Oct. 20-22.
“AI isn’t a company. It’s not even a product. It isn’t a feature. AI, in fact, is a tool,” said Jacques DeLarochellière, Isaac’s CEO, chairman and cofounder. “It’s a technology to help build features.”
Isaac, which established its own in-house AI development team five years ago, has been incorporating AI into its products and internal processes in various ways.
One of those development projects is the aforementioned AI Safety Score, which reviews video from forward-facing, driver-facing and side cameras to evaluate safety risks such as close following distance, rolling stops, speeding, distracted and fatigued driving, mobile phone usage and not wearing a seat belt. The AI model also considers context such as the load, location, road traffic and weather conditions to assess the seriousness of unsafe driving events.
For example, a rolling stop in a rural environment with no traffic is not the same as a rolling stop in the city surrounded by cars and pedestrians. Similarly, following too closely while hauling a heavy load with no free lanes on the left or right is more dangerous than doing so with an empty trailer and open lanes available.
That information helps fleets focus their time and effort on the safety risks that matter most.
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“Our goal is for you not to spend time reviewing videos, but to analyze behaviors and manage these behaviors,” said JS Bouchard, Isaac’s cofounder and chief product officer. “That’s where we’re going with this.”
Isaac has been working with select customers this year to pilot and refine these AI-enabled safety severity scores. Two of those fleets shared their experiences during a panel discussion at the conference.
“Honestly, I think AI has really opened our eyes to what’s going on out there every day,” said Heather LeBlanc, information systems manager at Grant Group of Companies, a tank and flatbed carrier.
Historically, drivers who haven’t been involved in an accident and don’t have any citations have been considered safe operators, but AI can reveal that even those drivers may have some unsafe driving habits that have simply gone unnoticed, she said.
LeBlanc said Isaac’s AI has helped her company zero in on the most important safety risks and coach its drivers accordingly.
“We’re reviewing less videos, but also more impactful videos,” she said. “It allows our safety managers to be more intentional with their time.”
Cox and LeBlanc discuss how they are piloting AI safety capabilities alongside Bouchard. (Seth Clevenger/Transport Topics)
Corey Cox, senior vice president of innovation at bulk and dedicated carrier Tandet, said fuel savings alone are enough to provide a return on investment for Isaac’s onboard technology, but AI represents the next opportunity for fleets to continue raising the bar for safety and cost reductions.
“This is the wave of the future,” Cox said. “This is your next way to be better at what you do.”
Isaac is targeting early next year for the general release of its AI Safety Score.
Another AI-related project is Isaac’s Fuel Equivalent feature, which the company also plans to release at the beginning of 2026. That feature, previewed last year, is designed to create fairer, more accurate fuel-efficiency assessments for both trucks and drivers by factoring in variables such as topography and the weight of the load.
In addition, Isaac is also researching ways to apply AI to the truck refueling process, Bouchard said. This will enable fleets to not only detect where trucks have refueled, but also how much fuel was put into the tank so they can identify potential fuel theft or credit card fraud by cross-referencing that information with fuel purchases.
Partnerships and Product Updates
DeLarochellière acknowledged the persistently challenging freight market conditions that motor carriers have been enduring for the past few years.
“The trucking industry is having a tough time — the worst one, we hear, in 40 years,” he said.
In this difficult time for the industry, DeLarochellière emphasized the value of partnerships. That includes Isaac’s collaboration with its fleet customers to support their cost reduction efforts, as well as its work with third-party suppliers and integration partners to improve efficiency.
“It’s about being resilient and going through this cycle, because those who have been in trucking for a while know trucking is made of cycles,” he said. “This one’s long and tough. But hey, let’s be supportive here.”
For example, Isaac is enabling more precise geofencing and arrival times by supporting Trimble Maps’ Verified Places, a crowdsourced database of commercial sites. This information integrates with Trimble’s CoPilot navigation software to direct drivers to the correct entry point at a facility. The location database also utilizes polygonal geofences to accurately detect when the truck arrives on-site, as opposed to a geofence radius that can sometimes prematurely trigger auto-arrival notifications.
Isaac's camera and telematics hardware on display at the conference. (Seth Clevenger/Transport Topics)
Another new Isaac feature is Positive Trailer ID, which automatically warns drivers if they inadvertently hook the wrong trailer in a logistics yard. These alerts, enabled by Bluetooth communications with third-party trailer tracking devices, can prevent fleets and drivers from incurring the significant costs and frustration caused by hauling a trailer to the incorrect destination.
Beyond that, Isaac announced an integration partnership with Daimler Truck North America, the manufacturer of Freightliner and Western Star trucks and Detroit engines.
The companies’ engineers will collaborate to streamline the process of installing and maintaining Isaac’s system in new trucks, Bouchard said.
In other product news, Isaac is rolling out a new user interface for its in-cab tablets. The updated software uses larger text and redesigned colors to improve clarity. It also provides more clocks on the dashboard so drivers can quickly understand their remaining drive time before the end of their shift and cycle and their next required rest break under hours-of-service limits.
In addition, Isaac is releasing Android Intents to facilitate communication with other apps available in its partner ecosystem. As a result, fleets will be able to integrate those various apps directly into drivers’ workflows so they don’t need to remember to access them separately. Examples include learning management software for driver training or filling out digital forms required by a shipper.
AI Implementation and Cybersecurity
DeLarochellière encouraged fleets to begin implementing the latest AI and business intelligence capabilities into their operations if they aren’t already doing so.
“Your competitors are using it,” he said. “It’s at your fingertips. Just make sure to start using it today.”
He specifically highlighted Isaac Analytics, a business intelligence tool that identifies key trends in fleets’ operations so they can make better, data-driven decisions.
Nonetheless, AI has its limitations. While AI is accelerating Isaac’s internal development work, DeLarochellière described it as “useful but not magical” for coding.
“You still need the best programmers to keep it honest,” he said.
At the same time, AI is not just a tool for businesses to become more efficient. It can also be a weapon in the hands of hackers.
“Do not underestimate the power of AI to re-engineer so-called anonymized data,” DeLarochellière warned. “So be careful about the flow of information.”
In addition to strengthening internal safeguards and training workers to detect phishing attempts, trucking companies also should be evaluating their technology vendors’ stance on cybersecurity and their data-sharing practices, DeLarochellière said.
To demonstrate its own commitment to cybersecurity, Isaac has achieved certification for the latest version of the International Organization for Standardization’s ISO 27001 standard for securely managing information.
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